(Bel Air, MD – January 22, 2009) – – Harford County Executive David R. Craig will host a hearing on the FY 10 budget on Monday, January 26, 2009. The budget hearing is open to public and will be held at the Aberdeen High School. The session will commence at 6:30 p.m. in the school auditorium.
“The purpose of this public budget hearing is to hear from the people of Harford County as to what is important for them and what they would like to see funded,” County Executive Craig stated.
Joining the County Executive for the hearing will be members of his cabinet and county budget officials.
The FY 10 fiscal budget will be prepared between January and late March of this year. It will be presented to the Harford County Council by April 1. The County Council reviews the proposed budget forwarded to them by the County Executive, and has the oversight to decrease or eliminate some budget items. The Council can only increase the budget of the Board of Education. The County Council is required by the Harford County Charter to pass the budget by June 30.
“We want to hear from the public, the taxpayers of Harford County prior to developing the budget,” County Executive Craig stated. “However, FY 10 will be a very lean fiscal year for the county and the state. Before we prepare the budget we are asking for public input,” Craig said.
Those wishing to speak during the budget hearing should arrive at least 30 minutes prior to the start of the session in order to sign in. Those addressing the County Executive and cabinet will be given three minutes to each their opinion unless representing an organization. Those speaking on behalf of a group or organization will be allotted five minutes to speak.
Let me see if I understand this. The ELECTED County Council can only increase school funding. The UNELECTED School Board always is increasing the budget, even when enrollment is falling. The BOE wouldn’t dream of decreasing the size of thier fiefdom, and the guys holding the purse strings can’t. And the current school board wonders why we want elected officials controlling that much money. I think we need a new Harford County license plate that reads, “Taxation without Representation.” With home values falling, where does the BOE think the money is going to come from?
One has to ask…..Why would the County Executive hold this important meeting at Aberdeen High School on the same evening -AND- essentially the same time as an Aberdeen City Council meeting? Interested citizens (unfortunately, the minority of citizens!) would like to attend both meetings, but alas….they can’t. Yes, Harford County will be holding other meetings at other locations, but for practicality and economics, it would have been more appropriate for the County to hold the Aberdeen meeting on a night when there isn’t a City Council meeting. (I mean, it wouldn’t be that hard, considering they only meet twice per month!)
Communication AND Coordination are the keys. But in this case, it appears those keys didn’t get used and the citizens get screwed.
Thought the same thing Justin but if you have comcast you can watch the Aberdeen mtg on Thursday nights at 8:00 on channel 21 –
Jean, You seem to be a relatively smart lady. And while you are correct, I guess my point was that some people like to attend meetings IN PERSON. That way, they witness it live, AND can make comments if they desire. Remember, this IS Aberdeen, and folks around here tend to be a bit “vociferous” at times! 🙂
There were about 30 people at Aberdeen High School meeting. The major concerns were no cuts in funding for the sheriff’s department and the growing question concerning Harford being ready for BRAC. The majority in attendence were from Edgewwod.
On an interesting side note, budget talk and all, I understand that Aberdeen is trying to save pennies, something that should have been going on for years. Anyway, this little weather system clearly showed that pennies will be saved on the taxpayers. At 10 last night the town streets were crappy to say the least, except for the nicely salted patch on Rogers. I don’t know if public works didn’t get a jump on things or the town didn’t want to pay overtime, but every street is just as important as Rogers that got all the attention first and foremost………must be nice to be king. 7 this morning the streets were just as crappy. Under the last administration I seem to remember public works being out right away and during the Wilson years the town was pretty quick to act on winter storms.
RWinger, I noticed this morning that it was just North Rogers, as South Rogers was still pretty terrible…
RWinger, and then the plows made a pass down the middle, leaving 3 to 4 feet of crap out from the curb. One of these winters we’ll have several snows with little or no thawing and that method will bite the DPW square in the ass. They ought to be plowing curb to curb, so they have somewhere to put the follow on plowing beside into my @#$#$ driveway.
Dave the clout live’s on roger’s street. north & south.
Bel Air feels your pain!
State roads are clean and green this morning. Side streets and Town Parking lots look like winter in Sarajevo.
I was just in Havre de Grace. They have a lot of on street parking, but where they could the DPW there cleaned up the mess. I don’t know how those guys are motivated to do it right but Aberdeen and Bel Air sure as hell could stand to take a few lessons.
Apparently Aberdeen is trying to save $100 here and and there to help with budget shortages due to poor planning when it came to water main repairs……and wasted money for council people to travel to “training”…….not to mention the wasted money on what I thought was just a poorly washed sweatshirt being worn by his honor the mayor, but turned out to be the Aberdeen employees Christmas gift. I think that it’s great that the town pulls a littlke cash together and shows some appreciation for the employees……this past holiday it turns out that each employee was given a sweatshirt with Aberdeen on it……the color you might ask………..pink, that’s right a dark pink that could be called a light red but it’s dark pink. Bennett looked so sporting in his, I thought that perhaps he had screwed up the color in the laundry. Talked to a couple of Aberdeen employees and found out that they are all the pink color and either made it to the trash, animal bed, or for the lucky sweatshirts, a female friend.
Maybe Uncle Art can bless the town with some bucks 🙂
The city of Aberdeen is in Financial trouble again. No overtime unless approved by the Bosses. DPW does not do anything after 4pm if you have a tree down on a busy street the policy is they will come out in the morning and remove it, let the Police sit there allnight and direct traffic. By the way the Pink sweaters replaced the $50.00 Christmas Bonus. Bet you can”t buy food with it!!!
Welcome to Aberdeen. mis management at it’s best. I’am sure there will be a steady reduction in service’s while the tax payers Dollar is squandered.