Frederick County Executive Jan Gardner today invited citizens to provide comments on budget requests regarding the Draft Fiscal Year 2016 Operating Budget, the Draft 2016-2021 Capital Improvements Program and the Draft Fiscal Year 2016 Capital Budget.
The executive will hold a public hearing at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, March 23, in the first floor hearing room of Winchester Hall, located at 12 East Church Street, Frederick, Md., to hear input on budget requests.
Notice of the budget public hearing was published on March 14 in the Frederick News-Post, and related documents were published on the county website on the County Executive and Budget Office webpages.
Executive Gardner said, “At this point, I have not funded any budget appeals, because under Charter Government we must first invite our citizens to come to a public hearing to comment on the budget and the requests, also known as appeals, submitted by our division directors and agencies. Currently, the draft budget only funds mandated items such as maintenance of effort for our school system. I welcome input from our citizens and look forward to getting their thoughts about the prioritization of county budget requests that range from the fire service, 911 emergency communications, public works, water and sewer, education, community college, citizens services, libraries, law enforcement and many other important areas.
“Frederick County Government is still dealing with a challenging financial situation. Since we held the first public hearing on the budget in December, we’re looking at a budget with an overall increase of less than one percent, so we will not be funding all these budget requests. The transition to Charter Government can be a little confusing, so we want to try to clarify any concerns at this time and make sure everyone has access to the draft budget and draft appeal documents for review before the hearing.”