A significant amount of the Prince George鈥檚 County budget is already accounted for by education and public safety; other initiatives and proposals have to battle it out for the rest.
What鈥檚 considered the rest just got smaller.
鈥淧rince George鈥檚 County has less revenue than many communities around the region,鈥� County Executive Angela Alsobrooks said when unveiling her budget in March. 鈥淭his has been very difficult for us.鈥�
On Thursday, Alsobrooks issued a statement saying there鈥檚 even less revenue than originally expected. A lot less.
Her office said income tax revenue projections are about $60 million short of what was expected when she unveiled her budget proposal almost two months ago. Now, Alsobrooks and the county council will have to figure out how to plug that gap.
Alsobrooks vowed to plug some of that hole with reserve funds, though she didn鈥檛 specify in her statement how much would be used. She鈥檚 still reviewing the rest of the budget to see where there might be further savings to be had.
In addition, the $60 million is still the projected revenue, and it鈥檚 possible more adjustments will be needed in the future. However, at that point, any further changes in income tax revenue are likely to be less significant than the original $60 million.
The new revenue projections caught the attention of the county council. During a budget hearing with school leaders, council member Jolene Ivey alluded to the county executive鈥檚 statement when she noted county finances were 鈥渨orse than ever.”
It was also referenced repeatedly by council chair Tom Dernoga while other budgetary matters were discussed later in the hearing, and is likely to have a dampening effect on several proposals the county council has been approving this year.
Funding for some of those new programs looked like it was going to be tricky enough under the original budget proposal. But now, the council has less money than all of the proposed funding for county agencies that deal with health and human services.
鈥淲e have to make choices with the revenues that we have,鈥� Alsobrooks said back in March.
Those choices just got harder.
