County Executive Marc Elrich’s $6.8 billion operating budget announced Wednesday fully funds Montgomery College’s request and includes record funding for environmental initiatives.
The proposed budget fully covers Montgomery College’s $345.1 million ask, per the college.
“The proposed budget will provide funding to support reasonable and fair wage increases for our dedicated faculty and staff once negotiations are completed,” reads a statement from the college after Elrich’s announcement. The Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 operating budget requires county council approval.
It includes funding for a new Montgomery College campus in east county. Last November, college leaders announced plans to open the new facility. The 55,000 square-foot space will offer credit and non-credit courses. Classes are expected to begin later in the fall 2023 semester, per the college.
The budget would also include the largest-ever allocation for Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) at $3.2 billion. Elrich proposed a 10-cent property tax increase to go exclusively toward MCPS.
The budget includes record funding for climate change initiatives, according to the county, to total $271.6 million in both the operating and capital budgets. There is also record funding for the county’s Green Bank at $19.3 million, up nearly $700,000.
Elrich said he recently spoke to someone who is using money from the Green Bank to electrify an affordable housing complex and make it more affordable, “and that’s pretty remarkable, because it was a really big complex.”
The budget puts about $124 million toward expanding affordable housing, including $57.7 million for the Montgomery Housing Initiative’s operating budget.
Nearly $35 million would go toward rental assistance.
$61.7 million would go to “Vision Zero traffic, bicyclist, and pedestrian efforts,” per the county.
The proposal allocates $5.8 million for potential COVID-19 outbreaks and response, to include efforts like testing and vaccination.
“Other jurisdictions aren’t doing this at all, but there is still a large portion of the population that cannot get access to either COVID treatments or COVID vaccines, and we want people to continue to test, and we never know which version of COVID is going to show up,” Elrich said.
The budget would also include a $20,000 hiring bonus to newly-sworn Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) recruits. Police Chief Marcus Jones said the department is already seeing the fruits of the offer.
Elrich allocated $5 million in funding for a new research institute planned in North Bethesda. The University of Maryland 3 – Institute for Health Computing, announced in November, will conduct research in artificial intelligence, machine learning and virtual and augmented reality.
It is a partnership between the county, University of Maryland (UMD) Baltimore, UMD College Park and University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS).
“They already have companies that want to locate there with them,” Elrich said.
