Misperceptions abound on funding

     As the county faces a $2 million shortfall in the next budget, those with more opinions than facts are writing in to the comments sections of various news sites to offer suggestions on how to fix it.
     One popular misconception -- among the many -- is that the county can take funds from the state designated for, say, roads, and use it to make up the shortfall. That would certainly make it easier for the commissioners, but they can't do it. Certain funds are designated for specific uses, and if not used for that, the cash reverts to the state, feds, or whatever source.
    Another misconception is that cutting per diems for the commissioners, or cutting salaried positions will make up the difference. Not enough.
    Still another is that any program can be cut, but there are state laws requiring what is called maintenance of effort, meaning that local costs for schools and courts and police protection must produce the standards of service set by previous funding; you can't just gut the program to make the books balance. Those expenses make up 85 percent of all money spent each year. Schools alone require about 52 percent of the revenues the county collects.
     There may be some programs to cut, but when I was agonizing over where to find money to avoid tax increases, we could never find enough in any one program. Indeed, it was unlikely to find even one million dollars among all the remaining 15 percent of the expenses to meet the kind of shortage the county faces now.
     The $2 million as projected now can and most likely will get worse. Revenues are affected by drops in money collected through permits and fees, income taxes, and falling assessments of residential properties. And the state funding guestimate that budget director Ted Zaleski announced this week is based on Gov. Martin O'Malley's requests. The state legislature was handed the job of finding ways to make up the drop in state income, and they will go where they always go when they need more money -- the taxpayers.
     Pensions for teachers is still an issue; just because O'Malley says he does not want to put that expense back on the counties and City of Baltimore does not mean that the legislature will not overrule that with changes in the laws.
     In other words, there is at least one more shoe to drop, and if the economy and political games conspire, we could be dealing not with a two-footed monster, but a centipede. Lots of shoes left to fall on us.
     A rule of thumb, not exact by any means, is that $1 million is equal to a little over one cent per $100 assessment on your tax bill. For a house assessed at $285,000, that's a tax hike of about $57, if my math is right.
     Bottom line, it is unlikely that the county will be able to balance the budget without some kind of tax increase, hike in some fee(s), or draconian cuts to things that residents have come to expect as part of the quality of life in this county.