Title
AN ACT CONCERNING SUPPLEMENTARY APPROPRIATIONS for the purpose of declaring additional revenue and appropriating to the General Fund and Internal Service Fund to provide for costs that were not anticipated and included in the Approved Fiscal Year 2024 Budget.
Background
This legislation provides additional appropriation authority totaling $45,807,800 in the General Fund. The additional resources will increase the Fiscal Year 2024 General Fund Budget from $4,513,632,600 to $4,559,440,400 as expressed in CB-63-2023. The legislation includes an adjustment in revenue estimates for the general real property tax receipts (increase of $8,789,000), interest income under Use of Money and Property (increase of $12,544,000), other miscellaneous receipts from Radio One, payments for the Public Safety Tower (increase of $900,000), use of assigned fund balance (increase of $10,101,100) and Board of Education outside sources ($13,473,700).
This legislation provides $13.5 million in supplementary appropriations in the General Fund to incorporate the FY 2024 budget reconciliation and first financial review transfer requests from the Board of Education (previously passed by the County Council in October 2023). For the Board of Education adjustments, the increase in outside sources revenue comes from State sources ($11,165,100) in support of school-based initiatives across various expenditure categories and from Board Sources ($2,308,600) in support of the Health Services expenditure category due to the multistate settlement agreement with JUUL Labs, Inc.
This legislation appropriates additional resources to several County agencies/branches to cover unanticipated and vital costs needed to meet year end operational requirements. Non-Board of Education supplemental resources supports the following operating expenses: (1) Personnel Board - $7,200 due an increase in board member stipends per CB-25-2020; (2) Circuit Court - a net increase of $600,000 for additional jury fees; (3) Office of the State’s Attorney - $549,600 for projected overages in compensation and operating expenses; (4) Police Department - a net increase of $8,493,300 to support projected increases in overtime and holiday premium and associated fringe costs; (5) Fire/EMS Department - a net increase of $4,888,200 for anticipated overtime expenditures and other salary requirements; (6) Office of the Sheriff - $4,770,700 for anticipated overtime expenditures and other salary requirements; (7) Non-Departmental - Operating Expenditures - $11,662,300 to support $661,200 for a legal settlement on behalf of the Department of Corrections, $900,000 for anticipated expenditures for the public safety tower (funded from payments from Radio One) and the use of assigned fund balance for: (a) an additional $5.9 million payment towards the County’s Other Postemployment Benefit (OPEB) requirements; (b) $3.0 million transfer to the County’s Risk Management Fund; and (c) $1,201,100 in public safety surcharge balance for applicable municipalities; (8) Department of Health - $1,222,800 to pay a settlement to the Maryland Department of Health as a result of an audit finding; and (9) Department of Housing and Community Development - a net increase of $140,000 to cover a rent stabilization study, a Department of Housing and Urban Development repayment and additional transfer of $50,000 to the Redevelopment Authority to cover insurance premiums and legal services costs.
This legislation includes several intradepartmental reallocations between characters for the following agencies: (1) Board of Elections - to support salary requirements for temporary elections personnel; (2) Department of Corrections - to support an anticipated increase in their food services contract; and (3) Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement - to support additional temporary staffing for the department.
This legislation also reallocates video lottery terminal (VLT) and Rosecroft funds between various agencies (County Council, Community College, Memorial Library, Department of the Environment and Department of Public Works and Transportation) and Non-Departmental - Grants and Transfers based on the revised allocation set in CR-85-2023.
This legislation also transfers $1,193,300 from the Non-Departmental - Contingency to the Office of Law ($537,700) and Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement ($655,600) to support the applicable salary and fringe adjustments resulting from anticipated class of work studies for attorney and engineer positions respectively.
This legislation also reallocates $150,000 between characters to the Fleet Management Internal Service Fund to reflect increased costs for parts and outsourced services based on the number of vehicles needing repair. Overall, the Fiscal Year 2024 Internal Service Fund Budget (Information Technology and Fleet Management) as expressed by CB-63-2023 remains $73,579,900.