A committee that advises elected officials on how much government spending Anne Arundel taxpayers can afford has endorsed County Executive John G. Gary’s proposal to appoint school board members.
The Spending Affordability Committee said in its annual report, released this week, that the move would help the executive control education spending, which accounts for 57 percent of the county’s operating budget, and give the executive more authority in the operation of the schools.
“Given the primacy of education in both importance and expenditures, it only makes sense to invest the county executive with the authority commensurate with his responsibility,” the report said.
During his campaign, Mr. Gary said he would seek state legislation that would enable him to appoint school board members.
In previous years, the Spending Affordability Committee urged the passage of legislation that would prevent the County Council from restoring cuts in the school board’s budget made by the county executive.
The committee recommended that the total county budget not exceed $707.2 million in the next fiscal year, which represents 6 percent of total personal income for county residents, the standard for affordability.
The figure does not include money the county might add to its rainy day surplus fund, an appropriation that the committee encouraged.
The fund is expected to contain nearly $14 million by the end of the current fiscal year.
County budget officials have predicted a $733.4 million operating budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, considerably above the spending affordability committee’s guidelines. The proposed budget figure represents a 3.2 percent increase over the current $711 million operating budget.
The committee has complained in the past that its recommendations have been ignored by county officials. In this report, it recommended that if the Gary administration exceeds its recommendations, it identify which parts of the budget can most easily be deleted in order to comply with affordability limits.
That would make it easier for the County Council to set priorities if it wants to trim the budget and show taxpayers what they are paying for in a budget that exceeds the committees limits.
