St. Mary's County commissioner says he voted against budget, objects to borrowing and general obligation bonds

A St. Mary's County commissioner said at a recent meeting that he voted against the county's budget, arguing that borrowing and issuing general obligation bonds would cost taxpayers more than using existing fund balances. "When we have these large fund balances, we should pay cash, not put it onto debt," the commissioner said.

The commissioner, who identified himself as a 12-year member of the board, described a late change in the proposed budget that shifted planned funding from the fund balance to borrowing. He said the county would borrow $3,400,000 on a 15-year note and cited a Metcom rate of 4.86 percent, which he estimated would add just under $1,400,000 in interest over the life of the loan. By contrast, he said, taking roughly $3,000,000 from an $18,900,000 fund balance would have avoided that interest burden.

He framed his decision through his experience running a business for 38 years and said he scrutinizes "every dollar spent," recounting a personal anecdote about a dollar bill from 1966 to illustrate the point.

The commissioner said the finance department has adopted a new approach to factoring debt that he does not agree with, and he invoked prior budget presenters Jeanette Cudmore and Elaine Kramer as part of the historical context. He acknowledged colleagues who favored the current approach but said he voted his conscience.

The meeting transcript records his statement that he voted against "today's budget," but the transcript does not record the full vote tally, the motion text, who moved or seconded the budget, or the meeting date. The commissioner's remarks do not specify the fiscal year label of the budget or any planned offsets beyond the numbers he cited.

Next steps were not specified in the meeting remarks captured in the transcript.