Frederick County Commissioners voted today to approve a $471.2 million operating budget for FY 2013.  The budget plan will provide for property tax rebates and employee raises.  As reported by the Frederick News-Post:

The draft plan for fiscal 2013 reserves money to mail $100 tax rebate checks to many property owners and offers a 1 percent cost-of-living adjustment and 3.5 percent merit step increase to county employees who have not seen pay raises in about four years.

The fiscal outline under consideration would pick up where last year’s budget left off by continuing to reduce county cash contributions to more than 20 agencies that offer services ranging from elder care to emergency shelter. Though the money for grant-in-aid agencies accounts for a minuscule portion of overall expenditures, community response to the drafted budget has been loudest on the proposed funding decreases totaling $125,710.–