The budget tells the story of who we are, what we value, and who we want to become. As a community, we see our yesterday, today, and tomorrow in the budget choices we make. It has been said before, to show me your budget, and I can tell what is important and matters to you. The budget is our main blueprint for where we want to go in the future for our county and our residents. It is what matters to all of us.

The budget is extremely important to every one of us. Our schools, our first responders, our law enforcement, all of our infrastructure and needs are identified and prioritized on what we need to fund for the next year for our citizens.

The county starts the budget process in November of each year. Each county agency and division are required to start working on their budget preparations and meet with the Budget Office to review their current budget status, their departmental needs, and where they are in their current budget year. In December, each agency must then submit their preliminary budget for the next fiscal year, which runs from July 1 through June 30. The County Executive then holds her first required budget hearing in December to hear the needs, desires, and expectations from you, the citizens.

The Budget Office then meets with all county divisions in January of the new calendar year to review their budget plans. Sometime in that time period the County Executive then meets individually with all agencies and divisions to review their individual budget requests and review how that will fit in with her overall vision for the future of government.

Around February the County Executive then requests the proposed budget from the Board of Education, Frederick County Public Libraries, and Frederick Community College.

The County Executive then holds her second required public hearing regarding the budget in March. The County Executive just completed that hearing on March 20th.

It is only then, after all this work, preparation, public input, county agency input, that the County Executive finalizes and submits the annual budget to the council for their review and action. This must be done by April 15th of each year in accordance with our charter. At this point the budget document is now in the possession of the Frederick County council for our review and action.

The council will then have a public hearing on the proposed budget to hear from the public. The hearing is scheduled for April 23rd at 7 p.m. at Winchester Hall. The council will then follow up with several days of work sessions with county agencies and divisions to hear their explanation for what has been requested in the budget. The council then holds several sessions where they will review and discuss proposed budget amendments. The Frederick County Charter only allows the council to cut items from the budget, not to add or to move any budget funding. There is a provision in state law that does permit the council to increase education funding, but we cannot exceed what was requested from the Board of Education. This must all be completed by the Council no later than May 31 of each year.

As a reminder, all legislation can be viewed on our website. Our weekly agendas also contain links to bills and all relevant documentation. Please visit our website for the most updated agenda and schedule.

The County Council encourages public involvement at every stage of the legislative process. We welcome public comment at every Council meeting on Tuesday evenings. Members of the public are welcome to attend and give comment in person, leave a voicemail to be forwarded to each Council Member, or email us any time at councilmembers@frederickcountymd.gov. Please visit our website at www.frederickcountymd.gov/countycouncil to view our latest agendas, legislation, and upcoming calendar of events.

And as always, if there is ever anything I can do for you, please feel free to reach out to me and my office. You can contact me via email at: BYoung@FrederickCountyMD.gov, or you can call my office at 301-600-1108.