Commissioners authorize public hearing, ask for local data after health department says state match shortfall is $2.359 million

Calvert County commissioners on Jan. 28 directed staff to prepare localized program‑level data and authorized advertising a public hearing to consider a budget amendment tied to a reported core funding shortfall for the Calvert County Health Department.

Jennifer Moreland, director of the Department of Community Resources, explained state law requires counties to provide a local match for core public health funding. Staff told the board that, under current calculations for fiscal year 2025, Calvert County’s required local match is about $5,824,001.52. The county’s board‑approved budget and the state’s eligible match calculations left the health department with an estimated shortfall of approximately $2,359,204 for FY25.

"For FY 2025, the state is requiring a $5,824,001.52 dollars County match for core funding," Moreland said, reciting figures in the staff memo. Commissioners repeatedly asked staff to break out how those dollars are attributed, which programs fall inside the state’s ten statutory core categories, which expenditures are local-only (not eligible for the state match), and how staffing is funded.

Multiple commissioners voiced frustration with the state wealth formula used to calculate local matches. One commissioner said the effect is to penalize counties with higher property and income values, and another warned that if the county did not approve the additional local match the state could withhold funds or reduce county revenue. "If we don't do this 2.3, what happens?" a commissioner asked; counsel and staff said the state could adjust county revenue accounting and that some draws from the state are being held pending the signed agreement.

After discussion, a commissioner moved to authorize a public hearing and to require that staff present localized data—including program lists, staffing breakdowns, and which services are ineligible for state match—at a public session on Feb. 11 ahead of a public hearing anticipated for Feb. 25. The motion passed by voice vote.

Staff said the county has already provided more than $1 million in contributions that do not qualify as state‑eligible match but that should be shown in the reconciliation; staff also warned that the state's core funding categories date to the mid‑1990s and exclude many contemporary behavioral health services. Health officials and commissioners discussed options for using core match dollars for prevention campaigns such as vaping outreach and for linking data systems to improve service coordination.

County staff will return with a localized accounting of core dollars, a staffing breakdown, and program outcomes before the scheduled public hearing.