The Cecil County Council reached its goal on Thursday to block a property tax increase proposed by the County Executive, with extra money still available for possible last-minute additional tax relief for citizens or lowering healthcare expenses paid by county employees. After several hours of often chaotic number-crunching and cross-talk at an afternoon meeting on 5/28/15, Councilors put off final decisions until Tuesday, when a morning worksession is slated to put finishing touches on the Fiscal 2016 spending plan before formal adoption of the budget that is scheduled for Tuesday evening. At this point, the County Council has reached tentative agreement on cutting $3,077,159 out of Moore’s proposed $184,785,276 operating budget. From the outset of the panel’s deliberations, most councilors’ top priority has been to kill Moore’s proposed more than two-cent increase on the property tax rate. To do that, the Council had to cut about $2.27 million, and by the end of the day had more than reached that goal. But with some extra money from their cuts lying on the table, the Council could still re-consider its biggest cut– $400,000 for higher healthcare costs for county employees—or potentially consider more tax relief for citizens, either on the property […]
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