RINO ST. MARY’S BOARD WILL RAISE YOUR TAXES AGAIN; WEISKOPF HOPES SANTA WILL HELP

December 10, 2024, Commissioner Update by Commissioner Eric Colvin: Says he won’t boost the public debt

We began our meeting today with the Invocation and Pledge, followed by the approval of the Consent Agenda. The Consent Agenda included a letter to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources advocating for the full funding of the “Marylanders Grow Oysters” program (the full budget is $70,000 but it is currently requested at $40,000 in the DNR budget). The Consent Agenda also included appointments to Boards, Committees, and Commissions – thank you to everyone willing to serve!

We then presented a Proclamation to Brandy Turnbull and all of the volunteers associated with the SOMD Hurricane Relief and Recovery Coordination. St. Mary’s County residents, organizations, and businesses stepped up big-time this year to provide vital resources to areas impacted by Hurricane Helene. It was an incredible effort and greatly appreciated!

Entering into County Administrator time, our first item of business was review of upcoming meeting agendas. Second we approved an MOU with the Maryland State Police for view only access to the St. Mary’s County Computer-Aided Dispatch for Police Simulcast Communications. Third we approved the Senior Care Application and Grant Award from the Marland Department of Aging for $195,876 (with $7,091 of County Funds)—this is an increase in the amount budgeted for this grant. This long standing program works to help senior citizens remain in their home as they age. Fourth we approved an agreement with the Tri-County Council and SMADC to terminate the Regional Agricultural Center. Of the original $1 million grant from SMADC, there is $450,000 remaining and those funds will be returned to SMADC, along with the plans that were developed for the RAC. County staff time was spent on this project, but no additional county funds were used. This also frees up $2,599,007 of County bond funding that was allocated to the RAC. Fifth the commissioners approved a grant agreement amendment with the Office of Statewide Broadband to provide an additional $3,000 Administrative Stipend and 500 additional Chromebooks for distribution to low income residents. I voted no on this proposal. You may remember in this original grant we received 4,500 Chromebooks to distribute and it took a significant amount of time and resources to get all of those laptops distributed. That initial distribution was limited to St. Mary’s County residents but this distribution is open to all of Southern Maryland. My belief is that St. Mary’s County has devoted enough time to this project and I could not support additional effort being spent on it. Sixth the commissioners approved budget amendments to realign funds and a procurement award for over $3 million to renovate the Leonard Hall School Building into a County-Operated Childcare Facility – I voted no on this motion. To be clear, I think the idea of a childcare facility is a great idea and will provide some important benefits—I am opposed to this plan to proceed. The original plan had a cost of $1,879,155 that was fully covered out of Fund Balance and had a shorter implementation timeframe. This new plan is almost twice as expensive and uses Bond Funds, so county tax payers will be paying for this project for 20 years. I want the child care facility to succeed, I just could not support this plan to bring it forward. Seventh we discussed our request for Bond Authority – we will revisit this discussion in our Budget Work Session today. Our final item of business was our final balancing and allocation of the American Rescue Plan Grant Funds. We approved using $707,054 to purchase radios for our first responders.

During Commissioner Time I spoke about the COSMIC Symphony concerts over the weekend and the upcoming Maryland Association of Counties Conference this week.

• We then adjourned our meeting and reconvened for a Budget Work Session. We talked about our Operating Budget and our CIP Budget, and the Commissioners approved an $85 million bond authority request to cover the next two years. I voted No on this motion for several reasons. First, I felt we should only request 1 year. Second, I believe we should use a portion of our $15 million Unassigned Fund Balance to cover some of the CIP projects and reduce the amount of borrowing that the county takes on. During the Budget Work Session, we also approved a mid-year salary increase for our Career EMTs and Paramedics in order to make their salaries more competitive. We had good discussions about Property Tax Revenues, Income Tax Revenues, and the school system requirements.