Worcester balances new budget

The Worcester County Commissioners balanced its 2009-10 budget a week before the funding document is scheduled to be approved on June 2.

At the final work session Tuesday, commissioners trimmed the remaining $327,000 needed to close the $13.9 million shortfall in revenues expected for next year. In the process, officials agreed to fund the Board of Education's maintenance-of-effort budget, restore money cut by the school system for textbooks and classroom materials and delayed capital projects to find money for a new senior center in Berlin.

Cuts to county departments and capital projects, along with changes in the way employee retirement and health benefits are paid, combined to shrink the $189.5 million budget for the current year down to $175.6 million expected for next year.

However, while no reductions to county personnel -- including furloughs and layoffs -- were made on Tuesday, the option is still on the table.

"If you think this money crisis is over, you've got your head in the clouds," Commissioner Bud Church said. "Next year is going to be worse."

The county will forgo a $2.43 million storage facility and $70,000 worth of improvements to the Public Works office at the Isle of Wight in order to use the money to build a new Berlin senior center. The old building will be converted into a dental clinic by the health department with the help of grant funding. By using money already set aside for other projects, the county will not need to obtain a bond for the $2.5 million senior center. The bond payment would have cost about $225,000, but now that amount, combined with $102,000 taken from the county's $500,000 undesignated construction fund, will be used to resolve the final $327,000 budget shortfall.

The Board of Education will receive the $72.3 million county allotment required by state law. In the 5-2 vote approving the school's budget, the commissioners restored $565,447 for text books and other classroom materials, an amount that was taken from the money requested for salaries. That amount can be trimmed, they said, without laying people off due to teacher retirements and those who choose to leave the system.



"The money is in the budget for the teachers they already have, except for those that have retired," Commission President Louise Gulyas said. "So they really aren't going to lose anything."



Commissioners Church and Judy Boggs did not support the final BOE budget. Boggs said she voted against the allotment because she disagreed with making the decision to fund maintenance-of-effort at a work session last week without more information from the board. Church, a former BOE member, accused the commissioners of "micromanaging" the school system.

The draft general fund budget allows for county employees to keep their take-home cars, for seven replacement vehicles for the sheriff's office and for board member mileage reimbursement. Local nonprofit service organizations will have a 10 percent reduction in county grant funding and there is no money allocated to any county cultural or historical organization.

Grants for Snow Hill, Pocomoke City and Berlin were reduced by 11 percent from last year, and Ocean City will be cut by slightly less than 9 percent.