Shortly after I came into office in December 2022, I was advised by our emergency service volunteers and county emergency staff that while the volunteer fire services remained viable, it was no longer feasible for the Harford County Volunteer Fire EMS Foundation to provide emergency medical services. Although the county and our EMS volunteers understood that it was only a matter of time before the county would have to take over this responsibility, it had been expected that the transition would take several years. Instead, the immense strains on the volunteers in a COVID and post-COVID world dictated that the change move forward immediately.

This rapid transition from volunteer service to paid county service required establishing 17 medic units, including hiring 108 professional paramedics/EMTs, to respond 24/7 countywide. We had to quickly staff, equip and purchase ambulances, and find a way to pay for it all, in order to continue providing the high-quality care our residents expect and deserve.

Most residents are probably unaware of this massive shift in vital services, and that’s actually good news. Our goal all along has been to work closely with our public safety partners to ensure a seamless transition, and thanks to incredible teamwork by all involved that mission was accomplished. In fact, we have also been able to reduce average response times for ambulances in medical emergencies.

While all this was going on, the number of bills for service we had to process spiked as we went from having just three county ambulance crews to 17, and this led to a delay in sending bills out for payment. This was not a surprise because before bills can go out, they must be reviewed by a licensed paramedic.

Paramedics are in short supply nationwide, and we decided to place the first paramedics we were able to hire on ambulance crews instead of sitting them in offices reviewing bills. We have since been able to hire enough paramedics to work through the backlog and by the end of June all the bills will have gone out.

It is unfortunate that some elected officials have tried to politicize this temporary delay with sensationalized and highly misleading news releases and social media posts that leave out these facts. To set the record straight, the County Council’s auditor did not discover these challenges. During one of our periodic meetings with the auditor, I personally informed her of the backlog, the measures we were undertaking to resolve it, and invited her to offer any insights or suggestions.

I am proud of the dedicated professionals across my administration who worked together so successfully to meet this serious, unexpected challenge. It is most unfortunate that their hard work and dedication have attracted so little recognition. I, for one, am grateful for the incredible cooperation from our county volunteers and for the efforts of our county staff in putting 17 very high-quality medic units in service throughout Harford County and, on behalf of the citizens we serve, I thank them all.

Bob Cassilly, Harford County executive

First, my administration and the County Council want to do our best for the citizens of Harford County.

The entities we fund, including public schools, the sheriff’s office, libraries, etc., have requested a total of $66 million in addition to the amount in our budget.

We simply do not have these funds; they would have to be moved from other areas.

For perspective, please consider what it would mean if we were to fully fund the total $40 million increase requested by the school system alone.

The following would be eliminated:

• The Department of Parks & Recreation, including activity centers
• The Department of Housing & Community Services, including all senior centers
• All school resource officers and  crossing guards
• County funding to the volunteer fire companies
• The Department of Economic Development, including agricultural services and tourism as well as  county funding for soil conservation and agricultural extension services

To fund the total $66 million increase requested by all agencies would eliminate all of these and more; or  the County Council would have to raise property taxes by $500 per year for the average homeowner.

None of this is necessary, and I will not raise taxes to balance this budget.

Harford County public schools have accumulated unspent taxpayer funds they can use as a bridge during these difficult economic times. In fact, they have more than enough and would still have $5 million to $15 million left over.

We do not recommend the school system use fund balance alone. Rather, we urge it to find efficiencies that don’t significantly affect the classroom and reset spending so we can fund reasonable increases moving forward.

To those who say we should raid our own assigned fund balance – funds set aside to meet requirements and future needs – please consider the following two points:

First, we need assigned reserves because our budget commits funds to outside agencies based on future revenues. This revenue is volatile and always at risk of falling short, especially in uncertain times. This also is why we adhere to fiscally responsible estimates. In fact, if we had gone along with rosier estimates urged by some last year, we may have had to claw back funds from the school system and other entities. This is exactly what happened under a prior administration during the Great Recession.

Second, Harford County government alone is responsible for the debt of the entities we fund. When we sell bonds to pay for capital projects like schools and libraries, our AAA bond rating allows us to borrow money at lower interest rates. To maintain our AAA rating, the rating agencies recommend 20% of our revenues be held in reserve. This is not an arbitrary measure. It reflects the real-life experiences of 3,143 counties across the country. Tapping into that now would risk our top rating, which would increase project costs and limit the number of projects we can fund.

In closing, we should not shift our responsibility onto future generations by draining our fund balance or raising taxes. Instead, county government and the public entities we fund should continue working together, through these fiscal ups and downs, united for the Harford County citizens we serve.

Robert G. Cassilly, a Republican, is the Harford County executive

Nonetheless, my office has already received form letters without return addresses, some coming from students, in a pressure campaign organized by the teachers’ union. The intent is to force me to increase school funding by an unprecedented $40 million next year on top of the $315 million that Harford County Public Schools received for this year’s operations.

I will not be moved by such tactics, or by name calling, or by protest marches, to make decisions that undermine our fiscal stability or demand more from taxpayers.

I fully appreciate the importance of public education. My relatives and I have attended, currently attend, or work in our county’s public schools, , and I visit schools regularly.

Because education is a priority, I said in January that I hoped, based on revenue estimates at the time, to provide a 5% increase for Harford County Public Schools, or $15 million.

In further discussions with School Board President Aaron Poynton, we hoped to do more, including using more of our respective fund balances. For perspective, the school system’s most recently audited unassigned fund balance, representing prior government funding, was $25.5 million. Harford County’s was $6.6 million.

Since then, our actual income tax revenue for the current year came in $13 million below estimates. Even before the collapse of the Key Bridge, the state was forecasting a $255 million revenue reduction for this year and next, and this slowdown is being felt in counties throughout Maryland.

My administration is responding to the drop in revenues by cutting line items within county departments, leaving some open positions unfilled, eliminating positions through a retirement incentive and other efficiencies. We have encouraged Harford County Public Schools to do the same and will continue working on opportunities to share costs so that savings can be directed to the classroom.

What I will not do is raise taxes to balance next year’s budget. Many Harford County families are living paycheck to paycheck, seniors are on fixed incomes, and everyone is paying more for groceries and gas.

I will do my best to fund the public schools next year, along with other essential government functions, but like everyone else in Harford County, the schools must live within our taxpayers’ means.

Robert G. Cassilly, a Republican, is the Harford County executive

In January, my administration estimated that county revenue would grow by about 5% next year. Based on this estimate, our preliminary plan was to increase funding for public schools and the sheriff’s office by the same percentage.

Since then, we received income tax revenue distributions from the state for the current year that were $13 million below the year before.

This was unexpected, but it mirrors what is happening in all counties statewide. The state recently reduced its own revenue estimates by about $255 million for this year and next.

Harford County cannot ignore our state’s economic reality.

If your household income dropped unexpectedly, you wouldn’t keep spending as usual. Likewise, county government must not spend more than we take in.

I will not raise taxes to balance this budget. Many families are living paycheck to paycheck, seniors are on fixed incomes, and everyone is paying more for gas and groceries.

Within county government, we are reducing expenditures, looking for efficiencies, and leaving some open positions unfilled. We will be using our savings to help balance the budget for next year, and I have advised all departments to prepare for flat funding so that we can pay for needs before wants. I have encouraged the agencies we fund to do the same.

We all wish we had better news, but I will not base a budget on wishful thinking. I am responsible for facing the difficulties presented by the national and state economies and protecting our taxpayers and local economy from government overspending. That is exactly what I will do.

Robert G. Cassilly, a Republican, is the Harford County executive

The commission identified a number of perceived deficiencies and recommended substantial increases in state and county taxes to support 10 annual increases of education funding of nearly $3 billion per year. While most of the spending targets are worthy of some level of additional funding, the immense increases proposed call for careful consideration. The General Assembly must not fall into the trap of judging the merits of new programs based upon the amount of money spent (inputs) as opposed to the results actually achieved (outcomes).

Certain assumptions built into the process by which Kirwan funding proposals were developed are of concern. For example, the Commission’s approach is entirely spending focused, every problem a money problem. During my time serving in Iraq we referred to “money bombs,” dropping lots of cash on a problem, hoping it would go away. More money will not solve some of our biggest education challenges. For example, one of the major goals of the Kirwan Commission is reducing the number of young teachers leaving the profession. The Commission’s primary response to that concern is increased statewide spending on teachers’ salaries. While I do think that teacher salaries should be increased, an NBC poll of teachers in Maryland and the region found that only 13% of teachers cited low salary as their reason for leaving teaching. Nearly 70% cited stress, lack of support and lack of student discipline. Increased spending will not reverse the policies and laws that have eroded teacher discretion, removed discipline from schools and made some schools an environment in which no self-respecting adult wants to work.

Another misplaced Kirwan assumption is that education is failing everywhere and every Kirwan proposal must be fully funded now. This conclusion is not supported by the data. Some counties and some schools are doing very well while others are seriously challenged. We can target certain spending to address major problems in specific jurisdictions without overextending the budget with broad, statewide spending on every concern. Senate Republicans asked the Commission to recommend priorities of funding. The response was that every single spending recommendation is urgent and any delay of full funding presents an unacceptable risk to our future. While such headline grabbing predictions of doom have become common occurrence, they are not helpful to the legislative process.

There are also concerns with the proposed formula used to calculate levels of state funding for each of the 24 jurisdictions. The new Kirwan formula would allocate nearly $3 billion each year toward four primary targets: teacher salaries ($75 million), special education ($65.4 million), “concentration of poverty” ($52.7 million), full day prekindergarten ($64 million), and lesser amounts to lower priorities. Harford County would receive a reasonable share of the first two categories but not the second two. For FY 21, a full 56% of the prekindergarten funds and 76% of the concentration of poverty funds would go to just two jurisdictions, Baltimore City and Prince George’s County. The remaining 22 jurisdictions split the remainder.

The “concentration of poverty” factor is further flawed in that it allocates considerably more state tax dollars to those counties that have concentrated low income students into certain schools. By focusing on “concentrations of poverty,” rather than the total number of students living in poverty in a given county, the formula unfairly penalizes counties like Harford where, thanks to longstanding efforts to deconcentrate poverty in our schools, none of our high schools would qualify for these additional funds. The formula creates a bad incentive as a county could increase its share of state funding by millions of dollars by simply redrawing school district lines to concentrate low income families into certain schools.

I look forward to working with my colleagues in the General Assembly as we address these difficult challenges and I look forward to receiving suggestions from all interested parties.

Bob Cassilly is a Republican member of the Maryland State Sentate representing District 34.