Carroll County commissioners passed a $545 million operating budget for next fiscal year following contentious discussions Thursday. Commissioners opted not to raise the property tax rate, as had been proposed, so residents will continue to pay the same rate that has been in effect since 1997.
Crafting the county’s fiscal year 2025 operating budget has been a frustrating process for commissioners during the past several months as they worked to eliminate a $12.4 million deficit. That frustration spilled over Thursday as it took two votes to pass the budget.
In the first vote, District 1 Commissioner Joe Vigliotti was the sole vote in favor of passage.
“We have to adopt a budget,” Ted Zaleski, director of the county’s Department of Budget and Management told commissioners after the first failed vote. “If not this one, then we have to adopt some budget. … This is the law that allows us to collect revenue, and it’s the law that allows people to spend money to provide services.”
Vigliotti told the other commissioners he believed the budget “meets in the middle” and reaches “common ground” that they could all agree on.
“We’re all not going to agree 100% with everything. Despite misgivings and concerns about the budget, it’s not perfect, but it establishes a common ground we can move forward on,” he said.
Commissioner Michael Guerin then made a motion for a recess, which did not go over well with Commissioners President Ken Kiler.
“I’m getting on a plane at 5 o’clock,” Kiler said. “I’ve spent hundreds and hundreds of hours in a room with the other four of [you]. We can kick the can down the road, but I’m leaving for the airport at 2 o’clock. I don’t [care] what we do. … We’ve had a lot of talk; we’ve spent a lot of hours together.”
Commissioners did break, then returned for more discussion. The budget was ultimately adopted in a 3-2 vote, with Vigliotti and fellow commissioners Kiler (District 2) and Guerin (District 4), in favor; Thomas Gordon III (District 3) and Ed Rothstein (District 5) voted against for a second time.
Areas of contention included funding for the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services, agricultural preservation and the Carroll County Public Library system, as well as the use of $5.8 million of surplus money to balance the budget.
Commissioners opted not to increase the county’s property tax rate, so it will stay at the current $1.018 per $100 of assessed value. Last month, officials had proposed increasing the rate by 2 cents.
During Thursday’s meeting, Kiler again addressed funding for the county library system. Throughout the budget process, Kiler repeatedly has said that library funding was in jeopardy because of the system’s public support for the Freedom to Read Act, passed by the Maryland General Assembly this legislative session.
“I can’t help but mention the library,” Kiler said. “We give them over $11 million. …They picked a fight with the school system. And I just like to let them know the school system’s 20 times larger than you are.”
The Freedom to Read Act prohibits public and school libraries from excluding material based on an author’s origin, background or views, as well as for partisan, ideological or religious reasons. It also requires each school library system to have a uniform process for someone to request a book’s removal, and it protects library staff who abide by the new state policies from being dismissed or otherwise disciplined.
The Maryland Library Association is a statewide organization of about 7,000 members that include public and school librarians. Andrea Berstler, executive director of the Carroll County Public Library, had served as the association’s legislative officer until her mid-April resignation.
The association released two written statements criticizing the Carroll Board of Education’s policy for removing library books and textbooks if they fit what the organization called a biased, broad and subjective definition of “sexually explicit,” and urged the board to rescind the “harmful and detrimental policy.”
The library system is getting $11,281,770 in the county’s fiscal 2025 budget, the same amount it received this year. The budget also allocates $169,230 in one-time funds to the library to help cover operating costs. On May 14, Kiler made a motion to restrict the additional money until the library system conducts studies on collecting fines from adults on overdue books and keeping certain branches open on Sundays. Commissioners are withholding $80,000 of the $169,230 until the two studies are completed.
Kiler said this action resulted in more than 300 emails being sent to him, claiming he removed $169,230 from the library’s funding.
“There’s been poor transparency, and it needs to be corrected,” Kiler said. “I know everybody got their panties in a wad over $169,000; we funded them $11 million.”
Kiler also addressed taxes. The budget includes an increase in the recordation tax imposed by the state as compensation for registering the purchase or sale of property. The money is collected by the county where the transaction takes place. The recordation tax will go from $5 per $500 of assessed value to $6.60.
“We did raise taxes this year, which I’m OK with,” Kiler said. “My worry is we’re going to raise taxes multiple years now because of lack of foresight. I hope we don’t have to.”
Rothstein reminded the other commissioners that county agency leaders understand that to generate revenue for the sheriff’s office, state’s attorney’s office and public school system, some taxes might need to be raised.
In March, as these agencies made requests for additional funding, Rothstein hit each with the same question: Would they support raising taxes to meet their goals? Most said they would.
A previous version of this story incorrectly spelled the last name of Andrea Berstler and stated that she still held the post of Maryland Library Association legislative officer. The Times regrets the errors.
