Budget Process

Budget process starts for Jefferson County By DAVE McMILLION / Staff Writer, Charles Town CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - With an estimated $1.4 million in video lottery money expected to trickle into the county's coffers this year, the Jefferson County Commissioners are about to start developing their 2001-2002 budget. In about two weeks, the commissioners are expected to start formulating the budget, which was about $8 million last year. The amount of video lottery money the county received last year was also about $1.4 million, the commissioners said.

The Washington County Board of Education's budget process will begin sooner under a new schedule adopted Tuesday by the School Board. "The major change in the budget calendar is expediting the process, getting our board's budget to the County Commissioners sooner," said Executive Director of Support Services William McKinley. "We believe that is going to give the commissioners more time to assess our budget. " The new calendar calls for the schools superintendent to submit his budget to the board Dec. 21. The board would adopt its version Feb. 1 and submit the proposal to the county Feb. 28.

Abuses seen in W.Va. budget process By DAVE McMILLION / Staff Writer CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - A state lawmaker is criticizing Del. John Doyle, D-Jefferson, and Doyle's support of a new community college in Hardy County, saying the proposed school is too close to Shepherd College's Petersburg, W.Va., branch and could hurt Shepherd. continued The criticism is the latest controversy in this year's state budget process, which has come under scrutiny ever since Del. Arley Johnson, D-Cabell, and five other organizations filed a lawsuit challenging the process.

WAYNESBORO, Pa. -- Franklin County legislators on Wednesday found themselves committed to be in the state's capital indefinitely as Pennsylvania entered its new fiscal year in the midst of a budget impasse. Pennsylvania was one of more than a half-dozen states to enter its 2009-10 fiscal year without a budget. The legislature was supposed to pass its spending plan by Tuesday night. State Sen. Richard Alloway, state Rep. Rob Kauffman and state Rep. Todd Rock, all Republicans from Franklin County, placed much of the blame with the Democrats and Gov. Ed Rendell.

SHARPSBURG - The Town of Sharpsburg's budget won't be approved by the start of the new fiscal year on July 1, Mayor Hal Spielman said Tuesday. Spielman said the budget process is behind because town officials were busy preparing for the town's annual Memorial Day parade. The Town Council will review the proposed budget for the first time at the regular monthly meeting on July 12, Spielman said. At that meeting, town officials will set a date for a special meeting to approve the budget, he said.

High court ruling upgrades W. Virginia budget process To get an item included in this year's West Virginia's state budget, lawmakers will actually have to discuss it during the annual legislative session. The change comes as the result of Tuesday's state Supreme Court ruling which orders the state to revise the "budget digest" process. It's the first step in a reform that's long overdue. The court ruled as the result of a suit filed by former Supreme Court Justice Margaret Workman, former Del. Arley Johnson and the League of Woman Voters, the American Civil Liberties Union and Common Cause of West Virginia.

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley's first budget does several things guaranteed to keep the General Assembly's leadership happy. But it doesn't do anything to solve the state's so-called structural deficit. In our view, O'Malley will get away with this lack of action only if he appoints a new version of the Linowes Commission - and pledges to follow its recommendations. But for now, legislative leaders are pleased because the budget meets their spending affordability guidelines, designed to keep expenditures from outstripping revenues.

PTA Council meeting Tuesday FREDERICK, Md. - The PTA Council of Frederick County, Md., will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Monocacy Middle School Media Center. Hal Keller, executive director of fiscal services, will speak on the Frederick County Public Schools FY99 budget process. For details, call Cindy Small, PTACouncil president, at 1-301-694-5058.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - Jefferson County officials are talking about re-examining how the county's budget is formulated after a tough budget process in which the commission missed a deadline for getting its budget passed and wrestled with funding needs. The Jefferson County Commission missed a March 28 deadline before completing its recent 2007-08 budget and at one point, the spending plan was $8 million in the red. Commissioner Greg Corliss said previously that it was "painful" in what the commission wanted to fund but was not able to set aside money for. The commissioners have talked recently about fine-tuning the budgeting process.

By DAVE McMILLION / Staff Writer, Charles Town photo: KEVIN G. GILBERT / staff photographer RANSON, W.Va. - As it has in past years, Jefferson Memorial Hospital this holiday season is asking the public for a Christmas present: money for new equipment. Up to $40,000 is raised every year through the two-month Tradition of Caring campaign, and the money is used to pay for equipment that may not be identified in the regular budget process, said hospital spokeswoman Teresa McCabe.

The Washington County Commissioners will never face an easier decision: In exchange for a relatively small expense, the county could finally begin to reverse the biggest local obstacle to growth and employment, that being the long-standing truth that business is reluctant to come here because of a poorly educated workforce. The commissioners last week heard a plan to offer a college or advanced trade education free to graduating seniors for the bargain-basement price of $2.2 million.

Washington County's Winebrenner Wastewater Treatment Plant will receive $9.1 million for miscellaneous improvements while Hagerstown Community College is slated to get $4.5 million dollars for an expansion of its student center as part of the 2014 fiscal year budget released by Gov. Martin O'Malley on Wednesday. Andrew Serafini, R-Washington and the chairman of the county delegation, said that at first glance the budget “appears to be responsible in its spending.” Gov. Martin O'Malley said Wednesday that the state would invest $3.7 billion on roads, schools, bridges and other capital projects.

Time is running short for City of Hagerstown officials to request money from the state in support of a stadium project that would keep the Hagerstown Suns. But now, after a new stadium proposal made Tuesday by Suns majority owner Bruce Quinn for a facility that may not be built in the city's core, there's no guarantee - at this point - that the $400,000-a-year contribution from Washington County would be available anymore, either. Quinn's plan, albeit just a concept, assumed that the county's portion and another large chunk from the state would factor into a 20-year debt service model on a $21 million to $22 million facility to be built possibly somewhere in the city's East End. “The solution I presented to council was based on all the available financial information we have been privy to,” Quinn said in an email Wednesday night.

State lawmakers representing Washington County suspect they'll be called back to Annapolis for a special session on budget matters. But they say three months should have been enough for the legislature to finish its work. It should never have come to this. However, they don't all agree on whether a special session is necessary. Some Republicans are content to leave the approved budget as it is. But two local Democrats said cuts in that budget are severe and need to be countered with a tax package that was supposed to have passed during the regular session.

Washington County Public Schools Superintendent Clayton Wilcox said Tuesday he expects to present his proposed budget during the March 6 school board meeting. At that time, a revised budget calendar also will be provided, Wilcox said. That calendar will include a new date for a public hearing on the proposed budget. Last year, the superintendent's proposed budget was presented in late January, and the public hearing was held on March 8. The budget process is running behind this year as school system officials work to get as much information as they can on funding and expenses, Wilcox said this week.

This is the perfect time to legislate personhood To the editor: In rebuttal to a recent letter to the editor , this is, rather, the perfect time to politicize and legislate personhood. In fact, it will always be the perfect time until the simple theology of author Theodor Seuss Geisel prevails, “A person's a person, no matter how small.” To ascribe to an individual human being something less than full personhood has always been a precursor to a great series of evils.

With the state's budget deadline looming, the Chambersburg Area School District is as ready as it can be for the 2011-12 fiscal year. The Chambersburg Area School Board approved next year's general fund budget by an 8-1 vote last week, with board member Carl Barton voting against the motion. Barton declined comment for this story. The $109 million spending plan took a hit due to projected decreases in state funding and includes a 3.5-percent increase on property taxes for district residents, school district Business Manager Steve Dart said.

A budget subcommittee agreed Wednesday to cut the University System of Maryland central office budget by about $8 million, a recommendation that, if it stands, could indirectly affect the Hagerstown campus. The House Appropriations subcommittee's decision is an early step in the fiscal 2012 budget process. The proposal still has to go to the committee and the full House, plus the Senate. After the subcommittee vote, Patrick J. "P.J. " Hogan, USM's associate vice chancellor for government relations, said the $8 million cut would be significant — roughly equal to a 2 percent tuition increase.

The county school system's chief financial officer gave the school board some good news Tuesday: the shortfall for the next budget year is expected to be only $420,000. But it appears the Washington County Board of Education has already covered that shortfall by changing the funding source to replace several school buses. After a presentation Monday morning about Schools Superintendent Elizabeth Morgan's proposed budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1, school board member Justin Hartings noted that the way the $1.74 million for the replacement buses was listed  could be interpreted as the school system reassuming those costs in its general fund budget.