Baltimore committee approves FY24 closeout supplementals after debate on overtime, contracting and staffing

The Baltimore City Council Budget and Appropriation Committee on Thursday voted to advance a package of 11 fiscal 2024 closeout bills to the full councilfor second reader, approving supplemental appropriations and interfund transfers to cover agency deficits.

Councilwoman Danielle McCray, chair of the Budget and Appropriation Committee, opened the hearing and read the package, which includes funding for the Board of Elections, the fire department, police and other city agencies. The committee adopted amendments required by the Law Department and approved each bill on voice votes and recorded roll calls.

Why it matters: The bills are final-closeout moves that address agencies that ended fiscal 2024 with deficits. The finance department said the package uses surplus revenue (income tax receipts and surplus investment earnings), transfers of appropriation and a fund-balance draw for unresolved COVID-19 costs now in FEMA reimbursement review. Committee discussion centered on what drove the deficits and what the city will do to prevent repeat shortfalls.

Laura Larson, the city budget director, told the committee the package represents "our final, closeout actions from the fiscal 24 budget," and said the bills either appropriate surplus revenue or transfer appropriations from agencies with surpluses to those with deficits. She described two categories of technical corrections in seven bills: correcting fund-source language and correcting charter citations. "That was just a mistake that was missed," Larson said, and added, "I very much apologize to the committee, and and just want to assure you that we're working internally, to ensure that these sort of mistakes are avoided in the future."

Law Department staff said some bills were already approved for form and legal sufficiency and that the remainder required the department's amendments before final legal approval. The Law Department identified council bills 25-0025, 25-0028, 25-0033 and 25-0034 as currently approved for form and legal sufficiency; the others require the adopted amendments to reach that status.

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