July 1 marks the start of the fiscal year for Maryland’s county governments, when new budgets go into effect. MACo’s Budgets-in-Brief updates on a few top reportables, including taxes, salaries, and education funding.

MACo’s Budgets-in Brief survey reveals the following about Maryland county budgets in the new fiscal year:

Budgets

County operating budgets for fiscal 2020 range in size from $37 million to $3 billion. 23 of 24 county operating budgets increased over the prior fiscal year.

Taxes

More than half of Maryland’s counties – 13 – increased taxes or surcharges this year. Also, two counties (Baltimore County and Howard County) specifically repealed existing taxes on residents in mobile homes.

Employees

All 23 counties and Baltimore City provided raises, steps, or COLAs for their fulltime eligible employees in fiscal year 2020.

Education

88% of Maryland’s counties (21 counties) provided additional funding to K-12 public schools. This means that counties collectively added $85 million on top of their annual budget that maintains funding for schools on a student-by-student basis. The additional $85 million does not include the additional dollars that counties spend on capital infrastructure, like school buildings.

The information in MACo’s Budgets-in-Brief chart was gathered from county budget and finance officers. For county-by-county budget details, see MACo’s Maryland Counties FY 2020 Budgets-in-brief. Contact MACo’s Research Director, Robin Clark Eilenberg, with any questions.