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Montgomery County budget hearing spotlights parks, college funding and nonprofit pay amid contested tax proposals
Summary
At an April 8 public hearing, residents, nonprofit leaders and business groups pressed the Montgomery County Council on competing FY27 priorities: full funding for parks and Montgomery College, restoration of nonprofit contract COLAs, and opposition to proposed property and income tax increases. Speakers gave detailed asks and described service impacts if cuts proceed.
Council President Natalie Fanny Gonzales convened a public hearing on April 8 on the proposed FY2027 operating budget and the FY27'132 public services program.
Residents, nonprofit executives and business leaders used their three minutes to press the council on a range of funding priorities and on whether to accept proposed tax and fee increases that the county executive has proposed to help pay for them.
Several speakers urged full funding for Montgomery Parks. Tom Cove, chair of the Montgomery Sports Advisory Committee, said stadium turf fields are an equity issue and that turf fields ‘‘basically double, triple, quadruple the access of people to sports fields.’’ Ellen Maidman Tanner of Friends of Sligo Creek said the parks department requested a 6.3% increase but the executive recommended 4.1%, leaving an estimated $3,000,000 shortfall that she warned would erode maintenance and invasive-species control.
Montgomery College drew multiple pleas for full funding. Dawn Burns Petoskey, president of the Montgomery College Alumni Board of Governors, asked the council to provide $6.3 million in new dollars to protect tuition affordability and fund employee compensation adjustments. Dana Baker, a longtime Montgomery College counselor speaking for full-time faculty, said college funding supports workforce development and ‘‘second chances’’ and urged full approval of the college request.
Nonprofit leaders asked for higher contract increases than those proposed by the county executive. Craig Rice, CEO of Manna Food Center, and a coalition of nonprofit representatives recommended an 8% cost-of-living adjustment for county nonprofit contract holders, arguing that a 2.5% COLA proposed by the executive is insufficient to recruit and retain frontline staff amid rising operating costs. Rice said Manna has seen a 30% increase in families served in one year and asked for targeted increases for food-system resilience and school-based assistance.
Several business groups and chambers urged the council to reject proposed tax and fee increases. Paula Ross of the Gaithersburg Germantown Chamber and leaders from the Greater Silver Spring and Montgomery County chambers warned that a property-tax rate adjustment (described by speakers as a cents-per-dollar figure), higher income-tax authority and multiple fee increases would harm small businesses and the county's competitiveness.
Speakers also made program-specific asks: Poolesville leaders requested a turf field, a new community center on town-donated land and road maintenance in the Agricultural Reserve; family- and parent-engagement advocates asked for $190,000 for the Excel Beyond the Bell parent-engagement component; workforce and housing advocates urged restoring affordable-housing preservation funds; and WAVA requested full Parks funding and better Capital Bikeshare deployment.
No formal votes were taken during the hearing. The council heard dozens of three-minute testimonies and moved to the next item only after hearing virtual testimony on public-safety alternatives and housing programs.
What comes next: council members will consider amendments and debate the FY27 operating budget in committee and on the council floor; speakers at the hearing frequently framed their testimony as a call to restore or increase specific line items before those decisions.
