Weekly Letter: What You Asked For in the Budget

The 2026 Budget Town Hall District Tour is complete. If you missed them and speak Spanish, you can still tune in for a final virtual session on Monday evening here.

I refrained from reviewing all of the requests at the end of each session, because we always seemed pretty exhausted after two hours of presentation and testimony. So I’m offering a recap here.

I believe that Anne Arundel County Public Schools (AACPS) teachers and their allies won the award for most testimony, and I don’t blame them. Our school system is facing fiscal pressures from the state, is under attack by the federal government, and is responsible for the well-being and the futures of 85,000 students. 

Data demonstrates that the transfer of our nation’s wealth from working families to the ultra-rich has left our student population with more poverty and more trauma. Teaching is incredibly difficult, and I’m glad that our teachers and support staff are organized and speaking out. They deserve our respect, livable wages, and more staff to carry the load. Our future depends on their success.

Members of IAFF Local 1563, our firefighters union, showed up in large numbers this year in red shirts that said, “Firefighters for Safe Staffing.” A recent study recommended that we make efforts to increase staffing significantly. IAFF members want the county to apply for a grant that pays some of the up-front costs of adding new positions, just as we did in my first term. The Budget Office is crunching the numbers to assess the long-term costs.

Fraternal Order of Police (FOP 70) showed up at every town hall as well. They advocated for more officers, while acknowledging that recruiting them will be a challenge.

Some have asked why government employees are testifying at budget town halls that were created to hear from residents. It’s a fair question, but those employees are mostly residents, and I think it’s healthy for residents to hear from them.

We also get residents testifying in support of government agencies, including schools, fire, and police. Our Anne Arundel County Public Libraries ranks high in testimony with a combination of staff, board members, and users. We heard from them about funding their first union contract, capital projects, and some positions that I suspect will be in their departmental budget request.

Our newly reorganized Department of Animal Services has a well-organized army of volunteers who have shown up at every Budget Town Hall since 2019 in their purple shirts. They’ve racked up some major budget victories over the years, from new cat cages to new staff positions, but this year they were all about building the brand-new shelter that was recommended in a report that was released just before the first Town Hall. I won’t be County Executive when that gets built, but they gave me one of their purple shirts so that I could come back and wear it for the ribbon cutting.

On the nonprofit front, we had board members and beneficiaries of some very important partners showing up. Anne Arundel Food Bank had a strong showing that included the pantries that depend on them for supply. Their ask was that we bump up support from $1.5 to 2 million to keep up with increased demand that has resulted from federal layoffs, the private sector hiring slowdown, and cuts to the federal safety net.

Another that consistently drew enthusiastic applause from the audience was Annapolis Immigration Justice Network and organizations involved in our Family Assistance Initiative, both of which assist victims of the federal government’s mass deportation program. We began that effort with $300,000 in this year’s budget, and our partners are asking that we grow it to $1 million to address the impacts of an eightfold increase in the ICE budget.

Hope For All showed up in every district to seek more funding to provide beds and basic household items for families being forced to pay most of their monthly income on rent, and have nothing left for furniture.

Maryland Hall for the Arts made the case for subsidized after-school program funding, Annapolis Symphony for its free concerts at Quiet Waters and Downs Parks, and Wiley H. Bates Legacy Center for part-time staff support.

Wildcats from Arundel High and Cougars from Chesapeake High teamed up to make the case for Field Houses, and Southern High Future Farmers of America (FFA) pitched expansion of their CASE Ag Education program to students across the county.

A brand new proposal appeared midway through the tour for a security grants program to help faith organizations and nonprofits that have been targeted by hate, similar to what some neighboring jurisdictions have created. The mobilization started with local synagogues and it seems to be growing. 

We were asked by a descendant of Johns Hopkins to purchase the historic house in Crofton where the great philanthropist grew up, to buy Discovery Village in Deale to create a community and arts center, and to build a new Southern High School. The Veterans Commission asked us for veterans services and housing at Crownsville.

We were encouraged to find ways of expediting capital projects, including pedestrian access on Jumpers Hole Road, Staples Corner to Bell Branch Park, and the crosswalk at Duvall and Fort Smallwood, and to complete Route 2 and Route 3 traffic mitigation projects.

We were asked to fully fund the public campaign finance program, add staff to Senior Centers, complete the trail system, continue funding the shuttle and beautification projects at BWI Business Partnership, build more pickleball courts, support the volunteer fire service, complete improvements at Londontowne, and get the state to build a sound barrier on 295.

At the District 6 Town Hall on Wednesday night, one person stood up to thank the DPW crews who do the essential, behind-the-scenes, and sometimes dirty work of keeping our infrastructure up to date. DPW Director Karen Henry was in the audience taking notes, despite many recent nights of little sleep as she coordinated an extraordinary response to an extraordinary ice storm. The audience gave her a standing ovation. I think that touched her in a way that she needed. I think it touched a lot of us.

I want to give my heartfelt thanks to the thousands of residents who have appeared at these town halls over the last eight years. They have put the humanity and passion into our budgets and made them better. 

I also want to thank the county staff who organize, attend, broadcast, and follow up on the issues raised at these town halls. Their commitment to community engagement is impressive.

Please go to aacounty.org/yourbudget for everything you might want to know about the process, including the slides that show some of our successes and the challenges we face. 

As for me, I now go into meetings with each county department to review their requests and items that came out of the town halls, followed by a lot of math and tough decisions, and then a presentation of a proposed budget to the County Council on May 1. When that document is released, our residents have another six weeks to engage with their Council representatives as they work to improve the final FY2027 budget by June 15.

Until next week…