Mayor says residents will have opportunities to offer input and to comment.
Frederick, Md (KM) The City of Frederick has begun the process of putting together a fiscal year 2018 budget.
Mayor Randy McClement says he’s not receive any revenues estimates yet for the next fiscal year, but he says in the past, revenues have been mostly flat. “Our revenues have not dropped, which is very good. We’ve never gone in a downward motion for our revenues. But since I’ve been in office, they have not increased. We’re still trying to work our way up from recession.”
The Mayor also says providing services to citizens has been a challenge as costs have increased. ” While revenues have not dropped, expenses just kept going up. We’re trying to balance the funds that we’ve received with the expenses that we have.”
But, he says, there might be some good news for fiscal year 2018. “This year is every three years is a full reassessment by the state of the city property values,” says the Mayor. “We’re hoping that’s there’s a little uptick for property values which provides a little extra revenue.”
The Mayor and Board of Aldermen held a budget workshop on Tuesday. McClement says most of those who spoke favored improvements to public infrastructure, such as roads, water and sewer service and trash collection. They also expressed support for public safety, including police protection. In addition, the Maryland Ensemble Theater asked for continued funding for a theater program which began last year at elementary schools in Frederick.
Mayor McClement says he will introduce his budget for fiscal year 2018 early next year. After that, a series of workshops will take place, as agency heads make presentations on their budget requests. He says during that time, citizens can offer comments and make requests regarding the budget. “Everyone of those seven or eight meetings that we’re going to have are open to the public. There’s always public comment at each of those meeting so you can either come specifically for the department we’re talking about that night, or just talk about anything in the budget at those meeting,” he says.
The Mayor says citizens can also go on line and leave their comments about the budget.
By Kevin McManus