COMMENTARY The budget adopted by the Cecil County Council this week was the toughest top-to-bottom scrutiny of county government spending in the three years of Charter government, with one glaring exception: the public schools. And the only significant item eventually cut from the schools –tennis court repairs—became a symbolic issue as the Council fought until the last minute to save them. In this year’s complex budget process, there were some winners and losers, some winners who also lost, and two stars who rose above the process with common sense and conviction. The clear loser in the process was County Executive Tari Moore, whose property tax increase was repudiated by the Council. And the fact that the Council found over $2.6 million in spending cuts suggested the panel was willing to make tough decisions that she was not. Even though her more than two-cents boost on the property tax rate was killed, Moore still bears the political burden of having proposed it—along with a new transfer tax on property sales/purchases that alienated the business and real estate community. After two years of “feel good” budgets that froze the property tax rate– but relied heavily on reserve funds accumulated by the old […]
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