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Community Action Board urges four staff positions, presses county to restore worker-family supplement
Summary
Dr. Jeffrey Johnson told the HHS committee the Community Action Agency needs four full-time merit positions and asked the council for $429,112 to sustain core navigation and VITA services; the board also urged returning the county worker family's income supplement to a 100% match and cited program impacts if state funding is cut.
Dr. Jeffrey Johnson, chair of the Montgomery County Community Action Board (CAB), told the Health and Human Services Committee that staffing shortages and state funding cuts threaten core anti-poverty services and asked the council to add four full-time merit positions to the agency's budget.
"To keep the program strong and reach even more people this tax season and beyond, a full time merit staff position is needed," Johnson said, asking the council to consider $429,112 to fund four critical positions including community services aides and a program specialist to support VITA and the navigation team.
Johnson described concrete service impacts if positions or grants lapse: the test community action center had reduced availability and participants now wait up to two weeks for appointments; a navigator supported 1,234 families and completed more than 1,700 client services last year, and losing that position would end navigation services in the Up County region beginning in January. He also reported the agency's VITA program served 2,246 households last year.
Johnson urged the council to consider restoring the county's worker family's income supplement to a 100% match with the state EITC and said a coalition requested $17,000,000 for that purpose in fiscal 2026. "Research has repeatedly shown that the earned income tax credit, child tax credits, and tax supports like the worker family's income supplement are some of the best tools for reducing poverty," he told the committee.
Councilmembers thanked the CAB for the data and asked the agency to supply itemized budget documents and program metrics. The committee did not vote; members suggested collaboration with the executive branch on funding paths and requested supplemental materials ahead of budget deliberations.
