Down to the wire
Budgets are the guiding star for local governments. The playbook for what an administration has in mind for the coming 12 months.
But getting them done is often as challenging as it is for many of us to get our taxes done by the April 15 deadline. This is especially true this year for Baltimore County, but procrastination is not the issue.
The budget for county, and other jurisdictions in the state, is tied into what happens in Annapolis during the 90-day session that ends April 13.
The morning of April 14, County Executive Jim Smith is scheduled to deliver his seventh (and next to last) budget to the County Council. Wrangling over differing versions of the state budget from the House and Senate could push county preparations to the last minute. The ink on Smith’s proposed budget could still be drying as he’s handing it off to the council.
At issue is $37 million in proposed cuts in state aid to Baltimore County alone — the largest portion of nearly $300 million in similar cuts to local jurisdictions in the House version.
Don Mohler, a spokesman for Smith, said a contingency plan is in place to print the large three-volume set as late as Monday night - literally hours before it’s presented.
Sounds of like a midnight ride to the post office on April 15.