Council approves small business support services NDA with shifted contractor allocation and competitive grants

The Montgomery County Council voted to adopt the Economic Development Committee’s recommendation for the Small Business Support Services non‑departmental account (NDA) for FY26, approving a revised allocation strategy for contractor funding and a new competitive grant set‑aside.

Staff explained that the initial FY26 submission carried a 3% inflationary adjustment over FY25 totals but that the underlying distribution to individual contractors was not specified at transmittal. Committee review revealed at least one existing contract — the CRM implementation contractor — would not receive a straight inflation increase. Council staff and the county executive’s office worked to update the NDA characterization to reflect a transition in how funding will be distributed among current providers and a new competitive grant process.

Under the recommendation adopted by council, roughly $1,200,000 will be allocated to current providers in a combination of FY25 levels plus inflation or adjusted amounts based on prior-year activity and drawdowns; approximately $500,000 is proposed for a new competitive grant pool to support new or expanded small‑business services providers. County executive staff and account executives told the council the shift reflects an outcomes‑based approach to prioritize workshop, training and mentoring services and to redeploy underspent contract dollars to more active or newly competitive providers.

The council approved the recommendation by a unanimous hand vote.