Thursday, May 24, 2012
The budget includes education funds for classroom upgrades and one-time bonuses for county employees.
The Prince George’s County Council adopted a $2.7 billion balanced budget for fiscal year 2013, including a $1.6 billion education budget that accounts for 62 percent of available county revenue for the year. The education budget will provide support for technology improvement and classroom upgrades, as well as $19.6 million to account for the teacher pension cost that shifted from the state to the county. The council also reduced the recordation tax increase for new home purchases by half of what was originally proposed; added 20 county firefighters and increased funding for training, allotted $5 million for pedestrian safety projects, and increased Summer Youth Program funding. Earlier this year, County Executive Rushern L. Baker warned…
Council members voted to eliminate funds for a one-day council and senior staff retreat.
Council adopted the $14.5 million fiscal year 2013 operating and capital budgets Tuesday evening, after eliminating $4,100 for a one-day council and senior staff retreat from the expenditures. The reserve held $5.6 million as of mid-April, but the 2013 budget will draw out $146,211 from that reserve, City Manager Joe Nagro said. Council also approved plans earlier this month to use $1.4 million from the unassigned reserve to fund a new public works modular building and an expansion of City Hall. The city charter suggests that this unassigned reserve equal 25 percent of the fiscal year operating budget, Nagro said. Even after funds for the public works building, city hall expansion and 2013 budget are drawn out, the reserve will still be …
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
College Park fourth-graders will also be recognized for performance in "If I Were Mayor" essay contest.
Council could adopt the fiscal year 2013 operating and capital budgets at Tuesday night's College Park Mayor and Council meeting, but the highlight of the night might be the recognition of College Park fourth-graders who placed in the Maryland Municipal League's "If I Were Mayor Contest." Ella Lannon, who goes to Holy Redeemer School, was one of 10 regional winners. Other school and semi-finalist winners will also be present, representing Paint Branch Elementary, Hollywood Elementary, Dar-us-Salaam AI-Huda and Berwyn Christian School. Last year, the winners read their essays at the council meeting. The meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. Pick up a free parking pass on the first floor. If you can't be there, watch it live on …
Monday, April 23, 2012
Baker officials will brief the County Council on potential problems caused by the state budget stalemate.
Monday, April 16, 2012
The surplus fund can be used to encourage businesses to recycle, councilman says.
College Park businesses might soon be able to draw from a $25,000 city fund to help cover recycling costs. The College Park Mayor and Council proposed an amendment to allocate the funds for the program, and other items, at a Saturday worksession to discuss the city's $14.5 million budget for fiscal year 2013. Councilman Marcus Afzali (Dist. 4), who motioned for the addendum, said he imagined the fund being used largely to cover the one-time capital costs businesses would encounter to begin recycling. The city’s Committee for a Better Environment is preparing to survey businesses about the obstacles that discourage them from recycling already—information that could be useful in determining specifics for the fund, Afzali said. Parameters for…
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4500 Knox Rd, College Park, MD
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Friday, April 13, 2012
The College Park City Council will begin mulling the proposed budget for fiscal year 2013 this Saturday.
Can't be at the budget work session? Watch it on the city's website here. The College Park Mayor and Council will soon begin mulling a $14.5 million budget for next year, but with a $97,000 surplus, a deep reserve and no proposed increase for property tax rates, the negotiations could be less contentious than those just completed by the Maryland General Assembly. Even if the steep cuts currently in the state budget aren't reversed during a special session, the impact shouldn't trickle to College Park, City Manager Joe Nagro said. “Our budget isn’t that dependent upon the state,” Nagro said. Property taxes from city residents and fines and fees make up 66 percent of the budget alone, he noted. The city's predicted expenditure for fiscal …
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Prince George's County organization groups are hosting a town hall meeting about bringing money to nearby communities.
Are you interested in a “peoples’ budget?” If so, take heed: county organization groups are hosting a town hall meeting about bringing money to nearby communities. “Shift the Budget Debate: Fund Our Communities, Bring the War Dollars Home” is a discussion about finding “progressive” ways to solve the Washington, D.C. and Annapolis areas’ financial woes. The meeting will be held from 7 to 9:30 p.m., Nov. 7 at Prince George’s Community College’s Marlboro Hall. Participants including U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD), state Sen. Paul Pinsky, Karen Dolan, fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, Human Services Coalition activist David Harrington and Jean Athey of Fund Our Communities plan to tackle issues such as: This event is sponsored by …
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Pipkin: Governor "spells out a world where the pie’s not big enough and the revenue is not big enough."
Gov. Martin O’Malley warned county leaders to be ready for more state budget cuts and possibly tax increases when the General Assembly meets in January. “We will all have to be open to more cuts, and at the same time—to protect our children’s future—we must be open to new revenues,” O’Malley said Saturday in a nearly 25 minute speech to county leaders at the Maryland Association of Counties conference in Ocean City. "One year I hope to be able to come before you and proclaim a return to full employment, a restoration of all highway user dollars and other state grants," O'Malley said. "One year I hope to come here and proclaim the existence of a giant, deficit-slaying surplus. But that year isn't this year." The governor met with county …
Thursday, May 26, 2011
County school funding remains top expenditure.
The Prince George’s County Council Thursday approved a $2.65 billion budget that includes increased spending for county schools but leaves out pay raises for county workers. County schools received 61 percent of the total budget; the council restored $7.5 million to the schools budget to maintain core students' activities. In all, spending increased 1.2 percent over last year. According to The Gazette, no tax increase will be issued to residents. The County Council will maintain a slight pay raise in this year’s budget, despite voting down a resolution to give unionized county workers a 2 percent pay raise last week. The outgoing county council members voted last October, before the five current members were elected, to increase their …
Council may limit permits and is likely to pass a $2.7 billion budget.
A resolution that would limit the number of taxicab permits to drivers in Prince George’s County is headed for a vote by the county council. A public hearing on the resolution is scheduled June 21. The proposed resolution would effectively repeal a 2010 law that allowed the county to add 400 permits for cabs and sell 75 more permits each year until 2016 for $200 each. Councilman Will Campos (D-Dist. 2) of Hyattsville introduced legislation that would limit cab permits to 1,039 and scrap the plans for the 75 additional permits. Drivers from the Prince George’s County Taxi Workers Alliance are protesting the legislation, contending the new limits would allow only a handful of taxi companies to operate in the county, shutting out small and…
Robert Catlin
1:42 pm on Monday, April 16, 2012
The County contracts out trash and recycling and charges residents about $330 per year per household for the service. The City spends about $1.3 million a year on trash and recycling, plus the amoritized cost of vehicles of about $200,000 a year, equals a cost of about 1.5 million. We receive about $300,000 in revenue for our trash collection, so we have a net cost of about $1.2 million,or about… more ›