Perhaps realizing that the state government's financial distress makes new local spending unlikely, a relatively small group of about 80 Howard County residents and officials asked County Executive James N. Robey for budget favors at last night's annual public hearing.
Nearly half the group were employees or advocates of Howard Community College, who tried to preserve funding to operate a new instructional building due to open next month and to plan for another new performing arts structure for the growing campus.
"I think the budget reality is hitting home," said Bill Woodcock, one of 26 speakers and an Oakland Mills Village Board member who asked for continued county support for rejuvenating Columbia's second-oldest community.
More than 100 people attended last year's hearing.
Robey told the group last night, "Howard County is not broke. We're doing reasonably well. But there are a lot of unknowns" in the national and state economies.
Others were undaunted by the predicted $1.7 billion state revenue shortfall over two years.
Diane Butler, speaking for the St. John's Association in Ellicott City, suggested to Robey that an impact fee of $15,000 a home would provide the county with $22.5 million a year, based on the approximately 1,500 new homes allowed annually by the county's general plan.
Like others from the county's crowded northeast, Butler wants land bought now for new schools to relieve overcrowding at facilities such as Worthington and Northfield Elementary schools.
Northfield was built in 1968 and has never been renovated, but it holds more than 600 students, Carolyn Stansky, of Dunloggin, told Robey. "At what size will we finally stop and say, 'Too big?'" she asked.
Others had more modest requests.
Barbara Hudson made a plea to replace a 15-year-old carpet on the Thunder Hill Elementary gym floor that she said is making people ill. Robey promised to visit, though he noted that the school board decides on specific maintenance projects.
Walter Rodriquez spoke for the Foreign-Born Information and Referral Network, a private nonprofit group that helps immigrants, and Joyce Kelly of Ellicott City scolded Robey for not spending more to advance general environmental protection goals, along with those of her Middle Patuxent Environmental Foundation. The group oversees the 1,000-acre Middle Patuxent Environmental Area near River Hill.
"Paper documents sitting on shelves do not boost" environmental quality, she said.
Several speakers praised the county's libraries as vital to those who homeschool their children and to the promotion of education in general.
Also, the old dispute over whether to develop High Ridge Park along the Patuxent River in North Laurel came up again, with some, like Laura Bollinger and Fred Shuman, hoping to use the budget crisis to block the park they oppose, while others, like Karen Harvey and several other speakers, said they support the project as a way for older communities to keep up with new developments that come with paths, pools and parks.
Robey and Raymond S. Wacks, the county's budget director, face a difficult and uncertain spring because they do not know what cuts Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. will make to solve the state's deficit. By the time they know, and the General Assembly has voted, the county's budget will be all but completed.
Because the county tightened its belt last fiscal year to eliminate a projected $18 million shortfall and avoid using the $28.5 million Rainy Day Fund, no easy cuts are left for the year that begins July 1, Wacks said.
Also, built-in cost increases will not go away. Paying for step and negotiated 4 percent pay increases for teachers next year will cost about $18 million more than the current year's level of teacher salaries, budget officials have said.
When he announced in September that the projected county deficit was gone, Robey stressed that the cutbacks he ordered to help eliminate the deficit were short-term draconian measures that have strained county workers by leaving 100 open jobs vacant and canceling training and needed equipment replacement.
"Folks we're asking to do double duty can only do that so long," he said at the time.