MoCo council briefed on ‘bleak' fiscal picture

Montgomery County Council Member Duchy Trachtenberg (D) says tax hikes will not be an option in closing the county's $250 million budget deficit.

"Last year we broke the charter limit," Trachtenberg told PolitickerMD.com. "We raised taxes to a fairly high degree."

Trachtenberg, who serves as chair of the council's Management and Fiscal Policy Committee, says it's premature to discuss how the council will deal with the deficit or by how much they will close the gap, but given that there will be no new sources of revenue, programming cuts are seeming a more and more likely scenario.

Trachtenberg says her greatest fear is a cut in social services, since these programs are more in demand during times of economic downturn.

Her comments came after a council meeting on Tuesday with Warren Deschenaux -  the chief fiscal analyst at the state's Department of Legislative Services. Deschenaux's visit, the result of Council President Mike Knapp's (D) request, presented the state's fiscal outlook.

Trachtenberg stressed that she had already seen the department's report on the matter prior to Deschenaux's visit, but said the council still doesn't have "a complete picture" and won't for some time.

Knapp said the request for Deschenaux to visit was "unusual," but added that a "comprehensive conversation with state officials is important."

The council president said the fiscal picture looked "pretty bleak even if slots passes," but said he wanted to obtain "as much information as possible as soon as possible" to articulate back to the delegation. Knapp felt it was important for state-level officials to know what impact their decisions will have on local governments and vice versa.

"I think the council members got a lot out of it," Knapp told PolitickerMD.com.