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Volume 4, Number 1 |
March 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This Issue's Headlines
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A Moment at the MikeThe Reality Check is in the Mail
Late last month, the Congress approved, and President Obama signed into law, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 – better known on newscasts and in office chatter as the “stimulus package.” The stimulus package injects $789 billion into a sagging economy with the hopes of reviving our nation’s fiscal health and creating or protecting 3.5 million American jobs. The number staggers the imagination: $789 billion. Almost a trillion dollars. Surely, our problems are solved, right? Let’s do the math. Of the $789 billion provided by the stimulus package, $3.8 billion worth will make it to the state of Maryland. That’s only a little more than ten percent of Maryland’s total state budget for last year. To put it another way, that’s less money than we spend in Montgomery County alone each year. And that $3.8 billion doesn’t arrive here in one tidy sum. Instead, it’s spread out over the next three years, arriving in installments of about $1.8 billion in FY 2009, $1.85 billion in FY 2010, and $156 million in FY 2011. Of the $1.8 billion the State will receive this year, $560 million – about 30% -- will be allocated to paying the State’s share of Medicaid. Another $360 million -- goes toward education, and the Governor almost immediately announced that for FY2009-2011, the legislature will fully fund all “major” State K-12 education formulas, including Thornton funding and Geographic Cost of Education Index (GCEI), which is critical to jurisdictions like Montgomery County, with a generally higher cost of living. The State will also provide dedicated funding of $180 million to Title I and $208 million for special education. If you’re still doing the math, you’ll see that of that initial $1.8 billion Maryland will receive for the current year, we’re left with about $800 million – statewide -- for projects like highway repair and maintenance, homelessness prevention, workforce development initiatives, and energy assistance programs.
So, while the $1.8 billion the state will receive this year in stimulus funding will definitely help, it’s really only a paper cup trying to bail out a swamped ocean liner – and at the end of two years, once stimulus funds run out, Maryland will still be a billion dollars short. Even though it would have appeared from press accounts that stimulus funds would somehow provide the state with the hefty check it needed to fill its coffers and balance the budget, it really only addresses the issues that everyone is facing as a result of the recession. The underlying problems still remain. The reality check is in the mail. We’re starting to get an idea for what the stimulus money means here in Montgomery County – and while there’s some good news, we're also filling a pretty deep hole here in the county. True, the county will receive $21.4 million in education funding – from which MCPS Superintendent Weast has targeted $15.3 million to special education and $6.1 million to Title I schools (see below). However, despite critical needs and plenty of so-called “shovel ready” transportation projects, Montgomery County will receive no funding at all from the $365 million Maryland has earmarked for Transit and Highway projects. Instead, the county will have to settle for a share of the $146 million set aside for road resurfacing projects across the state. Still, it’s not all gloom and doom. Any funding provided by the stimulus package is appreciated and will be helpful. The real trick is to manage our expectations of what stimulus funds will and won’t do. It will give us the opportunity to keep some of our most critical services and programs at current levels or better. It’ll also give us an opportunity to compete for a sliver of discretionary funds that we can use for workforce development and other initiatives that invest in our residents and our workforce. But it won’t balance our budget. We’ve got some work to do. Make that a lot of work. Like every other jurisdiction across the country, our county is seeing revenues fall. And as we are seeing in our daily lives, we're just hoping to keep our jobs,our salaries, and what remains of our retirement accounts, but as a result, Montgomery County finds some of our sources of revenue—income tax, particularly capital gains, recordation,and transfer taxes—have all but dried up. Consequently, Montgomery County is looking at a projected budget shortfall of nearly $520 million. That’s more than half a billion dollars. Now, I know that when you hear that our county budget is somewhere in the vicinity of $4 billion a year, it seems like a $520 million gap should be easy to close—after all, that’s only about an eighth of our total budget. And after all, $4 billion is a lot of money -- so surely, reducing the budget by an eighth should be relatively painless, right?
One proposal that I was working on with our employee organizations, and has been adopted by Montgomery County Public Schools, is to freeze the pay for every county government employee—every teacher, firefighter, librarian, policeman, and so on. If we provide our employees with no cost of living adjustments—and even were to take it a step further (something that was not done during the recession in the 1990's) and also provide no mandatory service-related increases as well – we’ll save $155 million. That still leaves us a gap of $345 million to overcome. To put his in perspective, that’s about the amount of money the county spends each year for police and the Department of Corrections combined. Or it's also equivalent to what we spend annually for fire and rescue services and the 60,000 students and teachers at Montgomery College. These are four of our largest county expenditures – but they’re also programs you’ve indicated are among the most critical. This year, it's likely we'll be able to do everythingwe would like in these areas. This year, these really are the options before us. What else? We’ve already vowed not to increase taxes, and the Council’s commitment to staying within the confines of the charter limit is a matter of record. That means that if we want to continue to maintain the services that you’ve indicated are the most important to you – education, public safety, transportation, and caring for vulnerable populations – then we’ve got to look hard at both our revenues and our expenditures and determine where we can make your money work better for you. That’s going to involve some tough questions. Are there places where we can spend less and still maintain a high quality of services? Are there things we can do better to get more bang for the buck? Are there some things we’re doing that we frankly shouldn’t be doing? Are there things we’re not doing that we should be doing, regardless? I don’t know all the answers yet – but I know we can navigate through this successfully and I’m willing to have the discussion with my colleagues and all of you. I’m hoping the Council shares my commitment to having such a frank conversation. I want to hear from you, too. I’ll be holding an Open Mike meeting in Germantown on March 11, where you can let me know of your views. And keep right on writing. We’re all in this together. Regards,
Knapp Unveils Workforce InitiativesAdvances Bills for Scholarships, Teacher Training; Urges State HelpAs federal stimulus funding makes its way – hopefully – from the state level down to the counties and local jurisdictions, one of the key criteria for determining where money will be spent is a relatively new term: “shovel-ready.” These are the projects, so we’re told, that are ready to be built, or are already in progress, so that a quick injection of federal funding means work can begin, or continue, right away. Shovel-ready projects will put people to work and spark our economy. I tend to agree. However, when we talk about shovel ready projects, there’s usually one very important project that gets left off the list: people. Even when times are tough – especially when times are tough – I believe there is no more important resource we can invest in than our people. Montgomery County remains one of the best places to live, work, and play—and that’s due largely to the quality of people we have living, working, and playing here. In my view, then, the best chance we have for getting our economy moving lies with the people of our county – from our students and teachers, to the workers and other business people that make our workforce the envy of the nation. What’s more shovel-ready than the mind of a student, the curiosity of a teacher, or the determination of our workforce? To stimulate our economy, I’m committed to investing in our people. Here's what I'm doing about it. Knapp, Leggett Highlight County Workforce Needs
As part of this effort, the County Executive and I wrote letters to Montgomery County’s state delegation in Annapolis, urging our delegation to fight for even a small piece of stimulus funding that we might use for workforce development initiatives. As we said in our letter:
If you agree, let your state elected officials know of your support for our request for workforce development funding.You can find out who your local official is – and how to contact him or her – right here. Knapp Announces Scholarship, Teacher Training Bills
Times have changed since then. We’ve got an economy that at times seems to be in free fall, and even in our county, where things are still relatively stable, we’re seeing a sagging economy and stale job growth. And yet, I believe it’s more important than ever to invest in our students, our teachers, and the future of our county. In late February, I was pleased to stand with the chancellor of the University of Maryland System William E. Kirwan, Montgomery College President Brian Johnson, Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Jerry Weast, Universities at Shady Grove Executive Director Stewart Edelstein, and Gigi Godwin of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce as I announced my intent to create a Montgomery County Areas of Need Scholarship. This program – which I introduced during the County Council's session on February 24 -- would provide a four-year scholarship for Montgomery County students who agree to pursue a line of study that meets one of our county’s high-demand occupations, such as teaching, nursing, or technology. In return, graduates must agree to work in their field in the county for a certain number of years. In the coming weeks, I’ll be introducing another bill aimed at increasing our investment in teacher education and training. My bill will ensure our teachers keep current on the latest developments in science, math, and technology; provide incentives to universities to provide master’s degrees programs that focus on science and math content pedagogy; and provide incentives to train AP and IB instructors. Both of these bills reflect the findings and recommendations of a national report, Rising Above The Gathering Storm, which was developed by the National Academy of Sciences, with the help of some of the nation’s most thoughtful and far-thinking scientists, engineers, academics, and businessmen and women. This report was also a driving factor behind many of the recommendations of the federal stimulus package approved last week. I applaud the Congress and the President for their hard work in getting the stimulus passed – but signing the stimulus law into effect is only the beginning of the process, not the end. The real work starts here at the local level. The federal government doesn’t hire teachers or teach students to be nurses or child care providers or engineers. We do. To my delight, Norm Augustine, former Lockheed Martin, Inc. CEO and President, who chaired the committee that produced the Rising Above the Gathering Storm report, wrote me a letter in support of my initiatives. “[The Committee] arrived at the unanimous conclusion that the single highest priority action our nation could take to assure jobs in the future was to produce more K-12 teachers with primary degrees in math and science,” Mr. Augustine wrote. “Your bill will be a valuable example in this regard.” MCPS to Receive $21.4 million in Stimulus FundingFunds Will Support Title I Programs, Head Start, Special Ed
Initiatives that will be funded with the additional $15.3 million in special education funds for next year include:
The federal funding also will enable the Board to restore about $2.1 million in funding that had to be cut previously in the budget. The Board voted to restore funding for the Middle School Magnet Consortium, staff development and reading specialists at 11 schools, academic intervention teachers and training for support staff. Remembering Councilmember Don Praisner
When I served as Council President last year, it was my unique pleasure to formally introduce Don Praisner to the council and to seat him as our ninth member. Don came to the Council in a time when the Council was working intensely, following the passage of the budget. Because of that, he didn’t have a lot of time to learn the ropes. He didn’t have time to finesse personalities, or ease into the job. He had to hit the ground running. And that he did. We shouldn’t have been surprised. Don spent a lifetime in public service, whether it was his career with the CIA, his positions on various civic groups and HOAs, or his work on behalf of the disabled. Service was in Don’s blood – and he gave his all to his country, our county, his community, and this council. When Don first arrived at the County Council, he was here – so he told us -- to fulfill another legacy. For Don, it wasn’t just a legacy of service, it was a legacy of love. It was personal. And I think we’d all agree that Don made good on his promise to his family, and to the residents of the district he represented so ably. Consequently, the seat that will be filled in the coming special election is not the seat of an unrealized legacy. It’s the seat of Don Praisner. Period. My thoughts and sympathies go to Karen, Michael, Alison and their families – but they go out to all of us on the Council, too. Don was a part of our family as well, and we feel his absence too. He will be missed.
Chairman’s CornerMaster Plans on the Move
There’s an old saying that one doesn’t plan to fail, one fails to plan. In Montgomery County, no one could ever say we fail to plan – we take planning seriously, revisiting community master plans regularly. It can sometimes take longer than residents, or even Councilmembers, might hope, but it takes time to look at all the critical issues that face new and established communities, from parking and sidewalks, to open spaces, to commercial and residential zoning.
With that in mind, the PHED Committee is busy. To say the least.
In February, the Planning Board transmitted its draft amendment to the Germantown Master Plan – called Germantown Forward – to the County Executive and County Council. This plan is focused mainly on the future of the Germantown employment area. The Executive branch has 60 days to complete its fiscal analysis of the plan. After we receive the County Executive’s analysis, the Council will set its public hearing dates and get to work. The PHED Committee will likely take this plan up when the Council returns from the brief after-budget recess in late Spring. For more information, click here.
There’s more. The Gaithersburg West Master Plan is currently under review and the Planning Board is in the midst of many worksessions, carefully crafting a vision for this area.The PHED Committee expects to take up the Planning Board’s recommendations on this plan sometime later this fall.For more, take a look here.
While we’re at it, we’re also preparing for formal consideration of the White Flint Sector Plan, which you can see here.
In the coming weeks and months, we’ll be reviewing two important reports from the Council’s Office of Legislative Oversight: Organization of Recreation Programs across the Department of Parks and Department of Recreation and Department of Economic Development: A Review of Budget and Strategies. The long titles should give you some idea of the work we have in front of us, as we consider ways to make county government work more effectively and efficiently for you. PHED Committee ScheduleThe information is subject to change, so please check the Council's website as dates near for updated information. Unless otherwise indicated, all committee meetings will convene in the 7th Floor hearing room of the Council Office Building.
Knapp Proposes Changes to Historic Preservation CriteriaIn late February, I introduced Historic Preservation Amendment (HPA) 9-01, to clarify the process by which we determine whether certain properties in Montgomery County can be deemed "historic." My concern is that the current ordinance is not precise, concise, or decisive in its description of processes and its delegations of authority. HPA 09-1 would clearly establish responsibilities concerning the Locational Atlas and Index of Historic Sites (Locational Atlas). The current historic preservation provisions are silent concerning the Council's role. My amendment would allow the Council to place a site on the Locational Atlas and to remove a site under curtain circumstances. Sites and districts that the Planning Board does not recommend for inclusion in the Master Plan for Historic Preservation would be removed from the Locational Atlas. The current alternative procedures for demolition and building permits for an owner whose property is designated on the Locational Atlas would be more clearly identified. The Historic Preservation staff would be obligated to inform the owners of Locational Atlas property of their status and their obligations every 5 years. All of the criteria for the Planning Board to recommend designating a site would be retained except: 1) "High artistic value" would be removed as a criterion; and 2) If a property owner does not consent to the inclusion of his or her property on the Master Plan for Historic Preservation, then the proposed amendment would require a finding that the property satisfies at least 3 of the historic criteria, and the recommendation to designate must be approved by no less than 4 Planning Board members. Sites or districts that the Planning Board does not recommend for inclusion in the Master Plan for Historic Preservation would not be submitted to the Council. The Ordinance would restate the Council's authority to amend the Planning Board's work program to consider particular properties for inclusion in the Master Plan for Historic Preservation; any such site or district would be submitted for the Council's consideration, even if the Planning Board recommends no change to the Master Plan. This Ordinance would require leniency for granting a historic area work permit to alter a nonhistoric addition made before the property's inclusion in the Master Plan for Historic Preservation or the Locational Atlas. If the Historic Preservation Commission determines that a permit must be granted to allow the owner some reasonable use of their property, then the permit would be granted without further delay. The Council's public hearing on this matter will take place on March 31, 2009, at 7:30 p.m.
The Road ScholarMSHA Looks at Bridges, Sidewalks on MD 355
Got a road that needs repairing? A traffic light that's out? Is there a street or intersection that you think needs a stop sign or crosswalk? One of my responsibilities is to make sure someone knows about it -- and to do what I can to get you information on your question or request as quickly as possible. I stay in regular contact with the Montgomery County Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Maryland State Highways Administration (MSHA), and provide each agency with a list of projects that need addressing in the Upcounty. Both agencies receive countless requests each week, and getting a response back can take some time. So bear with me -- if you don't see a particular project listed here, that doesn't mean it has been forgotten or neglected, but rather that I haven't received an updated report on its progress lately. With this in mind, the Road Scholar section of The Open Mike provides an opportunity to give you the latest information I've received from DPWT, MSHA, and others on the progress of requests that have been submitted on your behalf. It's also an opportunity for you to let me know of other projects that may need to be undertaken in your community. Maryland State Highway Administration Projects
Bridges on MD 355 Near Brink, Newcut Roads: Responding to concerns of area residents, who worried that the road and bridges on MD 355 near Brink and Newcut Roads were neither safe nor sufficiently wide enough for safe pedestrian access, MSHA providing me with the following bit of information:
Sidewalks Near Hyattstown: Sidewalks have been promised in the area for years -- and thanks to residents who reminded me that we hadn't heard from MSHA in a while, here's the latest: MSHA is initiating a Facility Planning Study for the MD 355 Sidewalk project between Hyattstown Mill Road and the county line. MSHA has also completed the field survey of the site. No word on the timeline yet -- but Project Manager Uzair Asadullah stands ready to answer any questions you may have at uzair.asadullah@montgomerycountymd.gov. Contact Me! I always welcome your views and comments, whether in person, electronically, or by phone. Here's all the information you need to reach me:
Step Up To The Open Mike -- Subscribe!The Open Mike is an electronic newsletter published monthly by Councilmember Michael J. Knapp (District 2). If you would like to be added to the electronic distribution list, please subscribe by registering here and be sure to indicate you'd like to subscribe to information on District 2. And if you need to update your e-mail address or would like to be taken off this distribution list, please modify or remove your subscription by clicking here.
The Usual Disclaimers Material from The Open Mike may be reprinted and recirculated, with proper attribution. Electronic links to non-county websites are for informational purposes only, and should not be considered an endorsement of these websites, or their contents, by The Open Mike, Councilmember Mike Knapp, the Montgomery County Council, or the Montgomery County government. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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