Montgomery County Council Committee Meetings on April 23, 2025

MARYLAND, April 22 - For Immediate Release: Tuesday, April 22, 2025

Committees will review FY26 Operating Budgets

The Government Operations and Fiscal Policy (GO) Committee will meet on Wednesday, April 23 at 9:30 a.m. to review the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Operating Budget for the Office of Human Resources, the Office of Labor Relations, the Labor Management Relations Committee Non-Departmental Account (NDA), the Working Families Income Supplement NDA, the Public Election Fund, the Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice, the Department of General Services (DGS), the Office of the County Attorney, debt service, the Department of Finance, the Risk Management NDA and the State Property Tax Services NDA.

The members of the GO Committee include Chair and Council President Kate Stewart and Councilmembers Andrew Friedson and Sidney Katz.

The Education and Culture (EC) Committee will meet at 9:30 a.m. to review the FY26 Operating Budgets for Montgomery College, the Montgomery Coalition for Adult English Literacy (MCAEL) NDA and Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS).

The members of the EC Committee include Chair and Vice President Will Jawando and Councilmembers Gabe Albornoz and Kristin Mink.

The joint Planning, Housing and Parks (PHP) and Public Safety (PS) Committee will meet at 1:30 p.m. to review the FY26 Operating Budget for Park Police.

The members of the PHP Committee include Chair Andrew Friedson, Councilmember Natali Fani-González and Vice President Jawando.

The members of the PS Committee include Chair Sidney Katz and Councilmembers Dawn Luedtke and Mink.

The PHP Committee will meet at 2 p.m. to review the FY26 Operating Budget and Amendments to the FY25-30 CIP for the Maryland-National Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) - Administration Fund, M-NCPPC - Central Administrative Services and the M-NCPPC - Parks Fund.

The PS Committee will meet at 2 p.m. to review the FY26 Operating Budget and Amendments to the FY25-30 CIP for the Office of Consumer Protection, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Police Accountability Board NDA, the Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD), the Prisoner Medical Services NDA, the Office of Animal Services, and a resolution to approve an FY26 County 9-1-1 fee increase.

More detail on each agenda item is provided below.

The GO Committee will meet to review the FY26 Operating Budget and Amendments to the FY25-30 CIP for the following items:

• Office of Human Resources: The County Executive recommends an increase of more than $46.4 million, or 12 percent, from the approved FY25 Operating Budget. The increase is composed of more than $45.6 million for cost adjustments for employee and retiree health benefits and $367,296 for programmatic and staffing enhancements.
• Office of Labor Relations: The County Executive recommends an increase of $309,281, or nearly 14 percent, from the approved FY25 Operating Budget. The increase includes $101,889 for compensation adjustments and required operating expenses and $63,210 in programmatic and staffing enhancements.
• Labor Management Relations Committee NDA: The County Executive recommends no funding for this NDA in FY26 due to a sufficient fund balance from prior years available for the committee to continue operations.
• Working Families Income Supplement NDA: The County Executive recommends an increase of more than $3.1 million, or 11.3 percent, from the approved FY25 Operating Budget, which is due to an increase in actual state billing.
• Public Election Fund: The County Executive recommends maintaining level funding of $333,333 for the budget from the approved FY25 Operating Budget for the Public Elections Fund NDA. The budget includes $283,000 for a catch-up increase for the Public Election Fund to increase the fund balance in advance of the FY27 election cycle and $50,000 for contractor support for the State of Maryland Public Financing Program.
• Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice: The County Executive recommends an increase of $108,766, or 6.94 percent, from the approved FY25 Operating Budget. The increase consists entirely of compensation adjustments and nondiscretionary operating expenses.
• Department of General Services: The County Executive recommends an increase of $4.7 million, or 11.5 percent, from the approved FY25 Operating Budget. The increase includes more than $1.9 million in programmatic and staffing enhancements and $328,338 in reductions for one-time items funded in FY25. The County Executive also recommends an increase of $235,296, or 2.6 percent, for the Print and Mail Fund.
• Office of the County Attorney: The County Executive recommends an increase $175,983, or 1.7 percent, from the approved FY25 Operating Budget. The increase includes $172,072 in programmatic and staffing enhancements, a $507,951 increase for compensation adjustments and required operating expenses, and $504,000 in reductions for one-time items funded in FY25.
• Debt Service: The County Executive recommends a decrease of $7.25 million, or more than 1.5 percent, from the approved FY25 Operating Budget. The Debt Service budget reflects obligations on the part of the County to pay debt incurred for past and upcoming FY26 spending decisions.
• Department of Finance: The County Executive recommends an increase of more than $5.7 million, or 4.3 percent, from the approved FY25 Operating Budget. The increase includes a more than $5.6 million net increase for compensation adjustments and required operating expenses
• Risk Management NDA: The County Executive recommends a decrease of $155,740 from the approved FY25 Operating Budget. This NDA funds the General Fund contribution to the Liability and Property Coverage Self-Insurance Fund, which is managed by the Department of Finance.
• State Property Tax Services NDA: The County Executive recommends no change from the approved FY25 Operating Budget. This NDA funds the reimbursement to the state for three programs that support the property tax billing administration conducted by the Department of Finance.

The EC Committee will meet to review the FY26 Operating Budget and Amendments to the FY25-30 CIP for the following items:

• Montgomery College: The total recommend budget for Montgomery College is more than $345 million, which represents as increase of more than $10 million, or 3.2 percent, from the approved FY25 Operating Budget. The requested County contribution for FY26 is more than $148 million, which is the same level as FY25 and is at the maintenance of effort level. The College’s FY26 budget assumes no increase in tuition and fees for credit-bearing students. However, tuition and fee revenues are anticipated to increase by $7.5 million in FY26 due to projected enrollment increases.
• Montgomery Coalition for Adult English Literacy (MCAEL) NDA: The County Executive recommends an increase of 75,361, or three percent, from the approved FY25 Operating Budget. The increase is due to an inflationary adjustment for non-profit service providers, which will be voted on as a standalone item by Council.
• Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS): The EC Committee will continue of review the Board of Education’s more than $3.4 billion requested FY26 Operating Budget and Amendments to the FY25-30 CIP for MCPS. The committee held its first meeting to review the MCPS budget request on April 9 and has two additional meetings scheduled on April 25 and 30. In addition, a tentative joint EC and Health and Human Services (HHS) Committee meeting will be held to review items that fall under the jurisdiction of both committees. The Board of Education’s adopted FY26 tax-supported budget (excluding grants and enterprise funds) is more than $3.4 billion, an increase of more than $308 million, or 9.9 percent, compared to the current FY 2025 tax-supported budget. The FY26 budget assumes Montgomery County will continue to fund $27.2 million of MCPS retiree health benefits costs from the County's Consolidated Other Post Employment Benefits Trust Fund. The County Executive recommends $3.62 billion in funding for MCPS of which funds more than 99 percent of the Board of Education’s request. This recommendation includes $250 million of the $284 million in additional local funding requested by the Board and is $256 million more than the required Maintenance of Effort (MOE) level. Additional detail is available in the staff report.

The joint PHP and PS Committee will meet to review the FY26 Operating Budget for the following items:

• Park Police: The County Executive recommends a total FY26 Operating Budget of more than $21.4 million, which represents an increase of $325,494, or 1.5 percent, from the approved FY25 Operating Budget. The recommendation includes a $325,494 increase for compensation adjustments, including overtime, and required operating expenses.

The PHP Committee will meet to review the FY26 Operating Budget for the following:

• M-NCPPC - Administration Fund, Central Administrative Services and Park Fund: The County Executive recommends an increase of more than $6.1 million, or 3.5 percent, from the approved FY25 Operating Budget for M-NCPPC. The total recommended FY26 budget of more than $214 million includes $45 million for the Administration Fund and $136 million for the Parks Fund. The recommended increase covers some of M-NCPPC’s requested program enhancements and staffing, including the requested transfer of $1.5 million from the tax-supported Administration Fund to the non-tax supported Document Review Special Revenue Fund, the transfer of $50,000 from the Cable Fund to support the Department of Parks Connected Parks initiative, and M-NCPPC’s funding requests for the Advance Land Acquisition Debt Service Fund, the Enterprise Fund, the Property Management Fund, the Special Revenue Fund, and the Grant Fund.

The PS Committee will meet to review the FY26 Operating Budget for the following items:

• Office of Consumer Protection: The County Executive recommends an increase of $168,255, or 5.9 percent, from the approved FY25 Operating Budget. The increase includes $189,136 for compensation adjustments and required operating expenses to maintain a continuation of current staffing and service levels and a reduction of $20,881 in miscellaneous operating expenses and $11.8 million increase for compensation adjustments, including overtime, and required operating expenses.
• Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation: The County Executive recommends an increase of more than $11.2 million, or 13 percent, from the approved FY25 Operating Budget. The increases include $222,500 in programmatic and staffing enhancements and $11.8 million for compensation adjustments, including overtime, and required operating expenses.
• Police Accountability Board NDA: The County Executive recommends an increase of $103,134, or 13 percent from the approved FY25 Operating Budget for the Police Accountability Board NDA. The increase is due to compensation and funding for technology support.
• Police Department: The County Executive recommends an increase of more than $22.5 million, or 6.8 percent, from the approved FY25 Operating Budget for the Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD). The increase includes $2.4 million in programmatic and staffing enhancements and $42.9 million for compensation adjustments and required operating expenses.
• Resolution to approve FY26 County 9-1-1 Fee Increase: The County Executive recommends an increase to the County 911 fee from 75 cents to $1.47 on each telephone subscriber, which is expected to raise an additional $12.5 million in revenue to close the projected gap between expenditures and current collection levels. The 911 system is administered by MCPD through the Emergency Communications Center, and operational expenditures for the 911 system are projected to be $25.5 million annually. Montgomery County previously increased the County 911 fee in 2003, from 50 to 75 cents.
• Prisoner Medical Services NDA: The County Executive recommends $20,000 to fund this NDA, which provides reimbursements for medical costs incurred by persons under arrest, but not under the custody of the Department of Correction and Rehabilitation. The costs for this responsibility are unpredictable. Annual expenditures over the past ten years have ranged from zero to a high of $27,773 in FY16.
• Office of Animal Services: The County Executive recommends an increase of $502,521, or 4.79 percent from the approved FY25 Operating Budget for the Office of Animal Services. The increase reflects a continuation of current staffing and service levels.

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The Committee meeting schedule may change from time to time. View the current Council and Committee agendas, Council staff reports and additional information on items scheduled for Council review on the Council website.

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Release ID: 25-136
Media Contact: Sonya Healy 240-777-7926, Benjamin Sky Brandt 240-777-7884