This past Wednesday, I introduced legislation (CR184) to update our City’s annual budget review process – It reads to provide Council a 45-day window between budget introduction to budget scheduled vote.
Some of my legislative rationale provided in the Sponsor Explanatory Memorandum were:
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Our current budget review pattern allows for 18 business days to review a $80 million budget (inclusive of Capital Improvement Projects), which seems unnecessarily tight for all after-hours Councilmembers.
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The Charter section for budget approval was last revised in 2000, and since that time our budget has grown 60% in inflation-adjusted dollars (greater than 166% in unadjusted dollars) – We’re a bigger City now, and our budget is bigger and has more moving pieces as a result.
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No other Maryland municipality attempts to pass a budget in as short a timespan as Laurel does. For example, among comparably-sized municipalities, the average time from budget introduction to passage is around 48 to 60 days (compared to our 27).
The legislation’s main goal is to defuse the pressure cooker environment of the annual budget cycle and architect a better experience for everyone involved: Council (who need to read all 300+ pages, understand its contents, and ask questions to inform their vote), City staff (who need to respond to the queries of all five Councilmembers across multiple budget areas simultaneously), Mayor (who may desire to propose new budget priorities for consideration), and residents (who also need time to learn about what’s in the budget and to provide feedback to their elected representatives).
At Wednesday night’s meeting, I appreciated the great conversation Council had with everyone sharing thoughts and ideas around this topic, and in the end we were able to reach consensus that:
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Council would be provided draft budget figures by April 15, and
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The full proposed budget would be released on May 1
I believe this update will better serve our City in the years to come and also welcome your feedback. The legislation is expected to be voted on at the November 23 Regular Meeting and please feel free to contact Councilmembers to express your support if you believe so as well! 🙂
