City Manager Nicole Ard’s first proposed budget is set in a somewhat improving fiscal environment but with more uncertainties than usual: will federal grants be cut given the Trump administration’s desire to severely trim domestic agencies’ budgets? Will the General Services Administration choose Greenbelt as the new site of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s headquarters? Will drivers in Greenbelt get smart enough to slow down and not run red lights? Will collective bargaining between the city and the Fraternal Order of Police increase costs more than is expected? And, how much will state-mandated repairs to the dam at Greenbelt Lake cost taxpayers?
Nonetheless, it’s budget time in Greenbelt for Fiscal Year 2018 (July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018) and the annual rite of budget worksessions has begun. Ard presented her proposed budget at the March 27 council meeting and the first worksession (overview, revenues, general fund and other funds) was held on April 3. The first public hearing on the budget will be held at the April 24 council meeting. Council will turn the manager’s proposed budget into their own at the May 17 final budget review, followed almost immediately by the second public hearing on Monday, May 22.
Final adoption is expected to occur at the June 5 council meeting. All of these meetings are open to the public. A full schedule is available on the city’s website (www.greenbeltmd.gov) and upcoming meetings are announced each week in What Goes On, printed on the front page of this paper.
In accord with a longtime tradition, council made the first entry on the list of possible additions to the budget. This honor went to Councilmember Silke Pope, who requested consideration of adding a half-time person to the staff of the animal shelter.