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St. Mary's County officials review updated revenue forecast and prioritize budget levers
Summary
Commissioners received updated revenue and budget figures that leave a gap between projected revenue and department requests; staff flagged a $472,000 benefits adjustment, proposed uses of fund balance for one‑time projects, and sought direction on staffing and compensation assumptions.
St. Mary's County commissioners met in continuation of their March 10 budget work session to review updated revenue projections and department operating requests. Presenters said income tax projections were updated to 7.426%, producing a projected income tax take cited as $166 million, and staff provided a countywide revenue projection and operating baseline that staff later referenced as $355.88 million in total projected revenues with a baseline operating request of $338.9 million and essential cost change requests of $16.7 million and open items near $8.6 million.
Finance and budget staff told commissioners they will reduce the benefits impact by $472,000 for next week’s presentation after the health premium refund handling was clarified with human resources. Staff also reviewed pay adjustments: a 2.5% cost‑of‑living increase across most pay scales, a merit (market) adjustment targeted to certain scales, and market adjustments for sworn and corrections ranks; staff noted the sworn market adjustments include benefits while other benefit figures shown are exclusive.
The presentation emphasized that many department requests are one‑time or non‑recurring (candidates for fund balance) while recurring personnel costs would add to future budgets. Commissioners were repeatedly asked to indicate where they prefer staff to return with further analysis rather than make immediate funding decisions. Staff identified several levers to close shortfalls, including using fund balance for non‑recurring capital and equipment requests, reclassifying select ECCs to fund balance, and prioritizing or deferring personnel hires.
Staff also raised two budget items for future action: (1) a potential reimbursement arrangement with the LOAP/LOSAP trust that staff estimated could free approximately $1.583 million (staff recommended bringing a formal request and actuary details to the April/May schedule), and (2) a proposed increase in the fire and rescue loan policy cap from $5 million to $8 million; commissioners asked for updated modeling and timing to consider how quickly to fund the $3 million delta.
The meeting closed with staff committing to provide more granular breakdowns of large fund‑balance proposals, to run additional what‑if scenarios for personnel versus equipment tradeoffs, and to return with refined numbers at the next workshop session.
