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Frostburg presses state for $610,000 in water projects as revenue forecast cools
Summary
City staff said Frostburg has packaged a $610,000 request for four water-sustainability projects and is meeting with state budget and environment officials to press the case. Staff warned that slower statewide revenue growth could make state funding harder to secure and urged council to keep pressure on delegation and agency contacts.
Frostburg City staff told the mayor and council at a work session that the city has submitted a $610,000 funding request to state offices to support four water-sustainability projects and is pursuing follow-up meetings with key budget and agency officials.
"We broke down the $610,000 request into basically 4 projects," said Brian Martin, in a presentation summarizing meetings with the Governor's Office, the Department of Budget and Management and the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE). He said those offices have acknowledged the submission and invited follow-up discussions.
The request is part of a broader round of outreach Martin described as timely: staff and elected officials met with the Secretary of MDE and her team, the Governor's legislative office, the deputy budget secretary and other officials. Martin said a meeting is scheduled with the Senate Capital Budget Subcommittee chair and that the city expects a delegation briefing in December.
Why it matters: Martin warned that while the state closed FY25 with higher-than-expected reserves, the Board of Revenue's estimates show slower revenue growth ahead. "The board's general fund revenue estimate is about $26,670,000,000 for FY'26," he said, and the outlook for FY'27 is weaker (Martin cited a roughly $27,130,000,000 projection and said that represents about a 1.7% growth). Those statewide trends could constrain available funding for local requests.
Martin walked council through recent variances and drivers: personal income tax revenues finished FY25 about $264,000,000 above estimate, while corporate income tax revenues fell roughly $47,000,000 short of expectations in FY25, and sales-and-use tax figures are projected to be more volatile in the near term. He said the state's heavy exposure to federal funding and to "feds, meds and eds" makes Maryland sensitive to federal budget shifts.
For Frostburg, Martin said the immediate priorities to press in Annapolis are the city's water projects, and more broadly he anticipates energy and housing will be focal points for the legislature and governor in the coming 2'3 years. He described the outreach as productive but cautioned that "money's tight" and asked council whether there are additional priorities he should carry to the delegation before end-of-year meetings.
Other items discussed in the presentation included opportunities through MML and MACO for local revenue modernization and incentive policies, and coordination with county partners on shared priorities. Martin said staff will continue to report back to council on agency responses and any indications of whether the city's requests are included in agency or governor's budgets.
No formal council action on the requests was recorded in the transcript; staff said it will return with updates and next steps as the budget process moves into the winter and early January.
