County Council Hears From Few on Slimmed Capital Budget

Howard County budget director Ray Wacks told the county council Tuesday night that the focus of spending in the $179.3 million capital budget is on schools and stormwater projects.

The proposed budget is about $31 million trimmer than the FY 2011 budget, which was approved at $210.4 million last year.

Although a hearing on the budget was not specifically about educational budgets, Wacks noted that $70 million is going to public schools and another $30 million to Howard Community College.

“The focus of this capital budget is clear this year, and it’s a focus on the environment and on schools,” Wacks said.

For the past three years, the capital budget for public schools has hovered around $70 million.

Wacks said expenditures would allow for renovations to Atholton High and Phelps Luck Elementary schools, as well as improvements to Cradlerock, Bollman Bridge, Clarksville, Elkridge and Thunder Hill elementary schools.

Howard Community College would see up to $31 million, much of which would go to completing a nursing facility as well as a science and technology center.

Councilwoman Courtney Watson, Democrat from District 1, asked about a request of $5 million for school site acquisition funding, which was not included in the proposed budget. Watson said northeast Howard County is looking for sites to build at least two new schools, but she said she does not believe the $9 million already held for the projects is enough.

Wacks acknowledged that the request was cut but agreed to discuss it further during a work session on Thursday.

“Schools, as they always are, are our highest priority,” Wacks told the council and about 30 people in attendance, citing that more than half of the budget is going to education.

Wacks said up to $10 million would go to stormwater and remediation projects under the new budget. This is 155 percent of the spending allowed for stormwater projects in FY 2010 and FY 2011, during which budgets never broke $4 million.

“We must commit ourselves to solving the stormwater crisis,” County Executive Ken Ulman said in his capital budget proposal.

Ulman said regulations are enforced on new construction projects to curb the effects of stormwater – the water that does not percolate through soil but instead picks up chemicals from roadways and rooftops on its way to local waterways. But he said the added budget is needed to retrofit existing developments to put them within regulation standards.

Wacks said the Parks and Recreation budget will move ahead two major park projects, at Blandair Regional Park in Columbia, and Troy Regional Park in Elkridge.

A few citizens spoke about future budget considerations.

Jeff Smith, a Jessup resident, said he is concerned about traffic running along Guilford Road just west of Route 1. He said the budgets and completion dates for projects to improve the traffic flow in the area have been pushed back every year for the past five years.

“This stretch of Guilford Road is overloaded and has been in need of attention for a long time,” Smith told the council.

One of the Construction in Progress (CIP) projects Smith mentioned, J4201, was merged with another project, which has no budget in the FY 2012 proposal.

The council will have a work session on the capital budget Thursday at 1 p.m. in the C. Gray Vernon Room of the George Howard Government Building in Ellicott City.