St. Mary's County hears strong public support for LOSAP Plus at budget hearing; request to move public forum fails

An unnamed commissioner said county volunteer fire and EMS personnel, along with public educators and library supporters, turned out in force at last week’s budget public hearing to back a proposed LOSAP Plus program.

"We had a very strong showing from our volunteer fire and EMS personnel, in support of the LOSAP Plus program, so that's good to see and exciting that we're gonna be able to move forward with that," the commissioner said.

The commissioner said there were also "quite a few very appropriate comments, people who did have their facts together and made, accurate, requests of us" and added that commissioners should call out "inappropriate comments" when they occur.

The commissioner said an effort to shift a planned public forum from May 6 to May 13 so residents would have more time to respond to the budget did not receive support from other commissioners. "I had hoped that we'd be able to shift our public forum that we have on May 6 to May 13, so that we could give people another chance to really respond to the budget, but there wasn't a will among the commissioners to make that move," the commissioner said.

Despite that, the commissioner reminded residents that the board "still have[s] a budget work session on May 6," and encouraged people with comments to attend. "If you have some comments, you can come out that evening and talk to us," the commissioner said. "May 13 will be still working on the budget, finishing it up, and hopefully, we'll be able to get to a good place for all of us on that budget."