This Week’s Big Story: The Budget
This week’s big story in Montgomery County was the release of County Executive Ike Leggett’s recommended fiscal year 2015 operating budget.
Leggett released the nearly $5 billion budget on March 17, a day the county was socked by another winter storm.
As the snow flakes fell outside the windows of the Executive Office Building in Rockville, Leggett said now he only sees dollar signs falling from the sky when it snows. That’s because this active winter has cost the county far more than officials allocated in this year’s budget for snow removal services.
Before Leggett faced the cameras for his official budget news conference, he met with Council President Craig Rice, other Council members and some of their staff, and some of his executive staff to quickly go over the budget at a table in his second floor conference room. That’s where County Councilmember Phil Andrews, who is running against Leggett in the June 24th primary for county executive, first voiced his objections to some decisions in the executive’s recommended budget.
The budget news conference was broadcast live at noon on several PEG stations, including Montgomery Channel 21. Shortly after it concluded, the news conference was posted in its entirety on the county’s You Tube channel where it has received just over 200 views at this writing. You can find complete coverage of the budget, including video extras, recaps, reaction, and links for even more information on the MyMCMedia website.
Below are some more budget links to keep you informed:
Montgomery County has posted budget links on the front page of its website.
The Montgomery County Council will hold five public hearings on the budget next month.
County Report This Week had two reports on the budget: an overview and a Council reaction piece.
MyMCMedia’s coverage included a two-minute recap and web extras with some of our elected leaders, including Leggett, and Councilembers Rice, Andrews, Nancy Floreen and Hans Riemer. There are also some web extras about the budget with MCPS Superintendent Joshua Starr and Montgomery College President DeRionne Pollard.
On our social media channels, Twitter and Facebook, we posted an infographic with data gleaned from the schools budget.
We hope you find the links helpful as we strive to engage and inform more and more county residents about what’s going on in Montgomery County.
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