(5/2024) Another budget season has arrived, and the County Council will be working to pass the budget for fiscal year 2025 before the end of the month. The Council received the County Executive’s FY 2025 Budget on April 15th. After that, the Council held workshops and heard presentations from each division. Frederick County is the fastest growing county in the state and keeping up with demands for infrastructure and our school system continues to be challenging. I support many items and initiatives in County Executive Fitzwater’s FY25 budget. The entire budget will be discussed by the Council in the coming weeks. This budget includes a 5-cent increase in the property tax rate with a proposed rate of $1.11 per $100 of assessed value. This would generate almost $21.5 million annually, and this revenue would be dedicated to school construction projects. I understand that assessments have already increased, and that this would be another small increase of about $15 per
month for the average household. However, I believe strongly that students in all areas of the county should have high-quality school buildings with updated technology and modern learning environments. It’s unfair to delay these upgrades while we build new schools to accommodate new communities.
Prior to the 15th, County Executive Fitzwater informed the County Council of the proposed increase in the property tax rate to provide this dedicated funding solely to address our aging school buildings and facilities. As the county has grown so quickly, and new school capacity was understandably prioritized, many of our older schools have not been updated in many years. I have spoken with parents, teachers, and school support staff about this situation. As an at large representative, I think it’s important that students in all areas in Frederick County, including rural areas in the northern and western parts of the county, have access to updated school buildings with current technology. This dedicated funding will allow the county to assert more local control to address this issue, while the current new school construction projects that we partner with the state to fund to address growth stay on track. We currently don’t have a dedicated source of funding to address our aging
school infrastructure. The impact fees and mitigation fees collected from developers for new school projects that add capacity can’t be used for renovation projects. Currently, there are 33 school facilities over 30 years old. I, along with a majority of the County Council, expressed support for this initiative.
I hear from many residents who are frustrated that their property tax bills are increasing. Our commercial tax base makes up about 21% of county revenue, with residents paying the rest. Attracting and supporting business growth in Frederick County increases our commercial tax base, so we don’t have to rely so much on residential property tax revenue to fund all county needs. As an example, the property tax rate in Loudoun County, VA used to be $1.06 per $100 of assessed value, like we have now. Because of growth in their commercial tax base, driven mostly by the data center and tech industries, Loudoun County was able to cut their residential property tax rate to 87 cents, while funding new schools and road infrastructure. Moving forward, it’s important to look for ways to grow our commercial tax base.
This is one part of a $982 million budget. To give some context, the proposed FY 2025 budget for Harford County is $1.2 billion. They have a slightly smaller population, and some of the same revenue challenges that Frederick County.
The public hearing on the proposed property tax rate will be held on Tuesday May 7th at 7:00pm at Winchester Hall. You can also provide public comment by email to councilmembers@frederickcountymd.gov. If you have questions about the budget anything else, please contact me at rknapp@frederickcountymd.gov.
