The Columbia Council begins deliberations on the Columbia Association's proposed budget tonight, with some members eager to make cuts and others wary of tinkering.
The council also will have a public hearing at 7 p.m., before a budget work session, to hear comments on a plan to improve Symphony Woods park.
That multiyear project, estimated to cost $600,000, has been criticized by some as too extravagant. Residents and Columbia village board representatives have urged the council to move slowly on the project, especially since the 38-acre park is closed for Merriweather Post Pavilion concerts in the summer.
The first phase of the project intended to attract more visitors to the Town Center park -- $114,000 to dredge a pond -- is included in the association's $6 million capital budget proposal for 1995-1996, capital spending that is at about the same level as this year.
The council has planned a second work session Feb. 23 to discuss both its capital expenditures and its $33.4 million operating proposal, a 5.4 percent increase over this year's $31.7 million budget.
Budget adoption is set for Feb. 27, with an extra session Feb. 28 if necessary. The council sets policy and the budget for the association, the nonprofit organization that imposes an annual levy on Columbia property owners to oversee recreational facilities, community programs and parkland.
At last week's council meeting, Councilwoman Norma Rose of Wilde Lake village urged colleagues to come to tonight's session with ideas for reducing spending, saying several village boards and residents delivered that message at the Jan. 31 budget hearing. Several speakers asked the council to find savings to allow reductions in CA's $90 million debt, annual levy and recreational membership rates.
"The first thing we have to do is exercise some discipline to make the cuts," Ms. Rose said in an interview, noting that the board has made minimal changes to budgets prepared by association staff the last two years.
"I think it's something [council members] want to do. We just don't know how to go about it. Maybe collectively we can come up with specific and general cuts," she said.
But other council members urge a cautious approach, saying the proposed budget represents a conservative plan likely to keep most residents happy.
"I think we did our homework pretty well in preparing for the budget," said Councilman Roy Lyons of Long Reach village. "I don't think there will be a great deal of infighting. For the most part, I don't see any great deviation from the established budget."
Even council members who say they want to find savings admit it will be politically difficult to cut individual programs supported by advocates in the community and on the council. In that regard, Columbia is not much different than the federal government, they say.
"People want total expenditures cut, but not any particular program," said the council's vice chairman, David Berson of River Hill village, adding that Columbia would be "better off" if the council slowed the rate of CA's spending increases. "We're not going to pare things down easily," he said. "Anything we suggest will be bitterly fought by other residents and people on the council."