Kent County Commissioners have begun to prepare their fiscal 2015 budget by holding a series of workshops to review county department budget requests. Based on information presented thus far, budget requests exceed estimated revenues.  As reported by MyEasternShoreMD.com:

Kent County expects to see about $30 million in property tax revenues in the upcoming budget year. According to a review by Chief Finance Officer Pat Merritt on April 15, that makes up the lion’s share of the expected $44.8 million in revenues.

The largest sums are $30,051,655 in property tax (67 percent); income tax, $11,250,000 (25 percent); and recordation taxes, $1,040,000 (4 percent).

At the same time, budget requests put before the commissioners in the past four weeks come to $47,784,873. In the coming months they will balance what departments want with estimated revenues.

The budget review process continued on April 22 with Commissioners hearing from the Parks & Recreation and Human Resources departments, Family & Community Partnerships and the State’s Attorney’s Office.

Once all departments and entities have presented their budget requests, a proposed fiscal 2015 budget will be prepared for public hearing. It is anticipated that  Commissioners will adopt the fiscal 2015 budget in June.