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St. Mary’s County commissioners review revised budget, preserve emergency reserve and defer some pay increases
Summary
At a March 10, 2020 budget work session, county finance staff presented updated revenue and expenditure estimates. Commissioners approved several department-level adjustments, kept a $500,000 emergency reserve in place and deferred a countywide merit/COLA increase amid uncertainty from COVID‑19 and other costs.
St. Mary’s County Commissioners on March 10 reviewed an updated budget package showing revised revenue and expense estimates and debated how to use the county’s general fund balance.
Chief Financial Officer Miss Cudmore presented a refreshed summary showing total projected revenues of roughly $259 million and an updated general fund fund-balance picture after the audit and subsequent allocations. She told commissioners the county showed an excess of revenue over expenses in prior presentations but that board decisions since the last work session—most notably added compensation for the Sheriff’s Office and an upward adjustment to the board of education maintenance‑of‑effort (MOE)—reduced the available fund balance for one‑time items.
Commissioners asked staff for more detail on fund balance uses and on a $500,000 amount that had been added to the commissioner emergency reserve. Several commissioners said they preferred to leave the extra $500,000 in the reserve because of uncertainty tied to the unfolding COVID‑19 situation. After discussion, the board directed staff to leave the additional $500,000 in the emergency reserve (commonly shown as $1,000,000 total) rather than reallocate it into spending today. The county administrator agreed to reflect that change in the next pass of the budget.
The board also discussed county compensation adjustments. CFO Cudmore explained revisions to the county merit and COLA costs after rerunning salary and baseline calculations. One commissioner said no to moving the merit/COLA package forward at this time; other commissioners asked staff to spread any future approved increases across departments and include sheriff’s staff as appropriate.
Staff flagged a set of decisions taken at prior sessions that affected the fund balance figures: a $3.8 million Sheriff’s Office compensation package plus a $600,000 sheriff supplemental; a $30,000 request for the state’s attorney’s office handled as follow‑up; and a change to the BOE MOE based on an increase in student count that raised the MOE by about $612,000. Those prior decisions were shown as blue items in the budget packet.
The CFO and the county administrator said they will bring an updated package to the next work session showing the board’s instructions — including the emergency reserve treatment, the payroll recalculation and any other direction — and will present additional detail on items flagged for further review.
