An additional $20 million had to be cut from the county’s budget for next year because of a budgeting error by staff members.
On Thursday, the County Council unanimously supported the $4 billion capital improvements program for fiscal years 2021 to 2026. A final vote is expected on Thursday.
Two days later, county budget employees noticed an error by council staff members on the Montgomery County Public Schools reconciliation project description form. The project included the recordation tax (schools) write-down, but employees did not increase the general obligation bonds to offset the reduction.
“This led to an undercount of General Obligation Bonds in the Council’s reconciliation resulting in an additional gap that needs to be addressed,” according to a staff report.
The $20 million was cut from 21 projects, including some for county government, public schools, transportation, and parks.
The largest reductions were:
• $4 million for HVAC for the school system
• $2.4 million from residential and rural road rehabilitation
• $2 million for roof replacements for the school system
• $2 million for the school system’s prior learning assessment and recognition process, which is for obtaining credit for one or more courses in a certificate, diploma or degree.
County staff members also provided one alternative that would have included cutting funds from Montgomery College’s budget, but the council did not choose that option.
Briana Adhikusuma can be reached at briana.adhikusuma@moco360.media.
