County Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Chair calls to order fiscal year  27 budget public hearing for resolution 001026   adoption of property tax rate. Resolution  0126 fiscal year 27 capital improvement   program. Bill 26006 annual budget appropriation  ordinance. The sole purpose of this public   hearing is to hear comments concerning bill  number 26006, which is the proposed annual   budget and appropriation ordinance for Harford  County for the fiscal year ending June 30th,   2027. and also resolution 01026 which proposes  to maintain the current tax rate and resolution   01126 which is the capital program for the  fiscal years ending June 30th 2027 through   June 30th 2032. The council also accepts and  will consider written testimony submitted in   addition to or in lie of verbal testimony. We're  now ready to hear from our first speaker, Miss   Dixon. Do we have anyone signed up? We do, Mr.  President. We have seven this evening, I believe. Devin Davenport, followed by  Sandy Eastston and Iris Bower. Call your first speaker again. Devin Davenport. Second speaker, Sandy Eastston. Good evening, ma'am. Name and zip code, please.  Hey, I'm Sandy Eastston, 21001. And um I was going   to prepare something. However, I was a little busy  educating today, so uh didn't get a chance to do   that, but um I wanted to speak on the educ board  of education part of the budget. Um I'm really  

concerned that the board of ed what they even  put forth isn't actually what we need per se,   but just what we'll make do. and then the county  exec came in about $15 million or so less than   that. Um that will 100% mean that we do not have  educators in certain spots and if test scores   is really what is a driving factor which we keep  hearing that is not a way to improve them. Higher   class sizes will not get the test scores any  higher. Um, I am a PAR educator, so I work for   $30,000 a year full-time. I cannot live off my  salary. It would be easier if I hated my job,   but I love my job and I love my kids. With every  fiber of my being, it is not hard to go to work   every day. What is hard to go What is hard is to  hear how we are never enough. We're never doing   enough. But yet, we should be sufficed with $15  million less than we need. It should be okay. We   can make do. I can tell you my kids that I teach  work hard every day and they deserve every single   dollar that we can put into to education because  it's their future. I have my own personal kids in   the system and they have benefited immensely. My  son went into college with five and a half credits   because he went to tech. My daughter is going to  have her buy literacy stamp. All of these things   happen because we invest in our education. If  we fail to do that and we fail to invest well,   we will fail all of our children in the future.  And I know personally if I were people in charge,   I would not want that to fall on me and  I would not want to have to bear that   I am shortanded short changing the future of  Harford County and that is exactly what will   happen if we continue to not fund well. Thank  you. Have a great evening. Thank you ma'am.

Good evening, ma'am. Name and zip code, please.  Good evening. My name is Iris Bower, 21009,   and I'm a student at Everine High School. I'm  here tonight to advocate for full funding for   the schools and libraries. Our schools need  funding. They need more funding than the   county executive has proposed. And the school  system is responsibly using the money it gets.   It's stretching the funding as far as it can  and cutting what can be cut because the money   isn't enough. Over the past several years,  the school system has had to cut many things,   including over a 100 positions last year alone on  summer classes, magnet programs are potentially at   risk in future. And that is a beyond terrifying  thing for me and the and I imagine the other   1,700ish students in magnet programs. They're  trying, but they can't sustain this. And it shows.   I'm in the science and math academy program.  We don't take PE9 our freshman year. Summer PE,   which was cut, was so valuable, it was  recommended to us during orientation.   Now it's cut. To show how disruptive that  is, I surveyed over a 100 SMA students.   88% of the students either took summer PE for  their PE9 credit or would if they had the chance.   I reached out to the IB program and was told that  a quarter of incoming students usually sign up for   summer PE. School system is already having to  cut things students need and it will only get   worse if they remain underfunded and yes, they  are underfunded. Next, I want to talk about the   public libraries, which very helpfully provided  an estimated value of the services provided in   fiscal year 2025. Their budget was about $20.8  million in 2025. The estimate for the services  

provided was over five times that. Because  when I say the HCPL is a community pillar,   I mean that activities range or vary in target  age range from baby up to senior. And I couldn't   find a day in May that didn't have several things  going on that wasn't a Sunday because the library   system doesn't have enough funding to be open  on Sundays. Please fully fund education before   things get even scarier than they already have.  Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Tracy Papenchock,   followed by Tina Graph. Good evening, ma'am. Name  and zip code, please. Tracy Papenchock, 21001. Good evening. I am speaking here tonight as  an educator and concerned citizen about the   budget proposal for Harford County, specifically  for our schools. I want to start by saying that   I don't envy your position at all. You've been  presented with a budget that underfunds all our   public institutions, all of which need to be fully  funded. I'm not a budget expert, but I can speak   from my position as a 20-year veteran educator in  Harford County and share with you the impact of   repeated underfunding from our county executive,  which last year resulted in 168 position cuts.   I see this impact in our increased class sizes.  We have so many students in our classrooms that   often I cannot get to students to assist them  because of the sheer volume of desks crammed   into spaces that were not designed to accommodate  the larger class sizes. I see this impact during   instruction. In a class of 36 students, even  under ideal conditions, there is barely one or two  

minutes of individual attention per child. That  is not enough, especially for students who are   struggling or trying to stay engaged. I see this  impact in disappointed students who cannot sign up   for elective classes because they aren't offered  anymore due to all of the teacher cuts which has   reduced our class offerings to the most essential  of classes. Electives are the enrichment that for   many students is the reason they look forward to  coming to school every day. I see this impact in   the resources we no longer have. A database that I  relied on to help students ask access highquality   vetted information was eliminated, leaving them to  rely instead on Google. I see it in my colleagues.   I have watched dedicated teachers break down in  my office after learning their positions were cut,   knowing they would wait weeks before finding out  where or if they would even be placed. And I feel   this impact for myself when I pull into the school  parking lot the day after this budget was released   and experience that awful feeling in my stomach  wondering if this is the year they're going to   cut my job and what that's going to mean for me.  These are not abstract consequences. They are the   predictable result of funding decisions. To the  members of the council, I am asking you to use the   authority you do have to prevent further harm,  to restore funding where possible. I recognize   the hard task in front of you and thank you for  all that you are able to do. Thank you, ma'am. Good evening, ma'am. Name and zip code. Uh Tina  Graph. Um 21105. My name is Tina Graph and I'm  

the proud school safety leazison at Fallston High  School. I wasn't going to come tonight. I worked   every night this week and our school suffered a  tragic loss of a student yesterday. But today,   our school nurse, who is new this year, asked  me how to buy saltines for the health suite as   she's exhausted her budget. I told her we would  figure it out. I'm sure our PTSA or community   would provide. And I know our nurses, like all  of our HCPS staff, will dig into their pockets,   their own pockets. So, when I contemplated the  reality of our budget deficit, I took my one   night off this week to speak to you in the hopes  that someone here may listen. It's exhausting that   we go through this every year. I don't understand  how our county executive will not advocate for us.   He posts meaningless graphs and sound bites  to claim our budget is being fully funded,   and citing rude comments made toward HCPS as we  are somehow to blame. The fallacy that we are   fully funded is insulting to our educators and  misleading to our community. Do you understand   that enrollment may be slightly down, but costs  have risen significantly for special education,   health insurance, fuel, aging schools, and  programs that we are required to offer? And   my school, we can't even drink our water. Many  claim that throwing money at a failing school   system is not the answer. Our kids are not  failing. It's some failing to see that the   state grades us on things that are meaningless  to our student success. Student performance is   tied to standardized tests which have no bearing  on anything other than public perception. The   students do not receive grades on them, nor do  they have to pass. Many kids tell me they simply   fill in the circles without reading the questions.  Attendance is also a big state issue on which   schools are graded upon, but if you're smart and  work the system, you can pass first quarter and   really not care about anything else for the rest  of the year. There are also many people that claim   we need to get back to the basics and get student  discipline under control. I ask you how you plan   on doing that with less staff. My job isn't even  part of the blueprint. Walk around my school,   you'll see many empty classrooms. Walk into the  classrooms and you'll see large classes. We've   lost teachers year after year and they've not  been replaced. You cannot expect one teacher to  

be able to control over 30 students for 85 minutes  every day without issues arising. And it will get   worse. Do you want top-notch public education?  You're not not your job to allocate our budget,   but the options to satisfy a $15 million deficit  are staggering with the only real option is losing   staff. If getting back to the basics is so  important, eliminate everything other than   academics, sports, the arts, safety and security,  buses other than special ed. Let's try it and see   how far our property values plummet. I'm not  asking you for our property or for our taxes   to be increased. I'm looking at each one of you to  figure out why we cannot fully fund our request.   I'm asking you to help me and our community  understand the county executive, how he's   increased the county's fund balance significantly,  proudly claiming to have a strong structural   surplus, and even adding a whole other line item  called revenue volatility, yet we can't fund our   schools. Make it make sense. Thank you. Thank you,  ma'am. David Bower, followed by Colleen Biano. Good evening, Sam or sir.  Name the zip code, please. Good evening. I'm David Bowerer, 21009. Most of  the times I've spoken before this council, I've   been asking for funding for our school system.  Some years we've gotten it and sometimes we did   not. Last year, I didn't ask for money. I only  asked for honesty in the language and the budget.   We didn't get it. In all the times I've come here  asking for more funding for our school system,   the county's finances have never looked so good  as they look now with this new budget proposal.   I sent you more details and emails, but I want  to simplify the numbers to this. The projections  

in the budget proposal show that you can fund  everything in the county administration proposal   and fully fund the school systems operating budget  request and still grow the unassigned fund balance   by millions. It's that simple. the county  can easily afford to fully fund request even   accounting for the concerns of the affordability  committee. Meanwhile, I hear the county executive   trying to scare you all. For example, when did the  county have a $90 million structural deficit? The   answer is never. Mr. Cassilly's own cover letter  for the FY24 budget says it was only $60 million,   but that was budget planning. The actual spending  that year uh was smaller. The recurring when   you account for recurring expenses, the  actual structural deficit was very small.   This budget proposal puts well over $100  million of general funding into one-time   expenses and still has enough cash flow  remaining to fully fund the school systems   operating request and also grow the unassigned  fund balance compared to last year's projection.   Meanwhile, the budget cover letter cites,  quote, "The superintendent's three-year   funding plan is presented to the board  of education in January 2020 25." Sorry.   End quote. No honest budget would cite  this. a presentation, not a document,  

from 16 months ago and from the superintendent  when it's the board of education that is the   actual budget authority for the school system. In  conclusion, I'm asking for both full funding of   the school systems budget requests and honesty  in language. Thank you all. Thank you, sir. Good evening, ma'am. Name and zip it. Colleen  Biano 210009. Good evening, Council President   Vicanti and members of the council. I am Colleen  Biano and I'm a lifelong resident of Harford   County. I have dedicated my life to being an  educator for Harford County Public Schools.   I'm here once again begging the council, you know,  it's spring, to find the funds to cover the $15   million shortage Bob has created in his budget.  HCPS already submitted a very trimmed down budget,   eliminating needed positions and programs,  especially in the area of early childhood. Now, in   true Bob fashion, he gave us even less, 15 million  less. What does this mean for HCPS? Well, here are   some possible things on the chopping block. Every  million dollars equals about 12 teachers. 12 time   15 equals 180 teachers. That's a lot. Class sizes  will continue to soar. Less teachers means more   programs and classes cut. Pay to play will return  and it will most likely be way more than $100 per   sport as it was before. Transportation could  be cut. It needs to be provided for special   education, but not for everyone else. So, how do  you want this to impact your constituents? Lucky  

for you, I don't just offer doom and gloom, but  I'm here to tell you that it doesn't have to be   this way. The money is there. It's been there for  years. 2023, the fund balance was 89.89 million.   43.12 million was spent. That leaves 46.77 million  never used when he underfunded us. In 2024, the   fund balance was 74 million. Only 16.24 million  was spent. That leaves 57.83 million unused   when we were underfunded. 2025 fund balance was  58.48 million and none of it was used. Currently,   there is a 51.61 61 million in the fund balance.  Now, before the critics come to attack me and say   that he shouldn't spend down the fund balance,  I'm not asking him to do that. There's plenty of   money to fund what we are asking. I'd also like  to point out that he really does want HCPS to   wipe out our fund balance, but it only works one  way. He refuses to do it. He loves to say that he   is fully funding HPS. No, he is not. He clearly  loves to squirrel the money away and not properly   fund our public schools. Please check the fund  balance and our revenue income to provide us with   the 15 million that he cut us so the children  do not continue to suffer under his ego. Thank   you. Thank you, ma'am. There are no more speakers,  Mr. President. Um, this will conclude the speakers   for the evening. Public hearing will continue  Wednesday, May 13, 2025 at 700 p.m. in these   chambers. Uh you can please visit our website  or call the office for more information on   viewing and uh public participation. This will  go ahead and adjourn this meeting. Thank you.