Baltimore County’s $1.75 billion operating budget and $175.7 million capital budget for the 2015 fiscal year took effect July 1. Residents will be pleased to know that once again, there will be no increase in the county income tax or the property tax, which will remain at $1.10 per $100 assessed value.
More than half of the $2.9 billion budget funds Baltimore County Public Schools. Among the highlights:
- 90 additional teaching positions to support enrollment growth
- $4 million to complete the county’s investment in wireless classrooms;
- $3.8 million for instructional materials to support the digital curriculum;
- $2.5 million for the one-card safety identification system;
- $1.2 million in start-up costs for the new elementary school in Owings Mills;
- $171,000 to expand pre-K access.
In his budget presentation this spring, County Executive Kevin Kamenetz stated that since 2010, the county has opened or funded 10 new schools and renovated six schools with additions, creating 7,500 new or replacement seats, and reduced the number of schools without air conditioning from 52 percent to 22 percent. He announced a $1.1 billion investment in the Schools for Our Future program, and that he’ll work with schools superintendent Dallas Dance to upgrade aging schools, eliminate overcrowding and install air conditioning for all middle and elementary schools.
The Schools for Our Future program will fund:
- Renovations to Catonsville Elementary School at Bloomsbury
- New replacement elementary school at Westowne
- 350 additional seats to resolve overcrowding in the elementary schools located between Route 40 and Security Boulevard.
- 2,150 new elementary school seats in the northwest area of the county by constructing a new, 700-seat elementary school on the Ballard site in Owings Mills New Town;
- Up to 750 new elementary school seats to relieve overcrowding in the Summit Park community and the Sudbrook Park/Williamsburg communities;
- Up to 475 additional seats to relieve overcrowding in the Reisterstown and Cedarmere communities.
Capital budget highlights include:
- $500,000 in design funding for new community centers in Loch Raven and Catonsville;
- $3 million to purchase 257 acres to create Granite Park in the Woodstock area as a regional passive park, using county and Program Open Space funds;
- $2 million to install turf fields at the new Catonsville Regional Park to be located on the grounds of Spring Grove State Hospital, as well as at Towson High and Dundalk High
- $2.9 million to complete the conversion of the former library at the Community College of Baltimore County’s Catonsville campus to a new science and mathematics hall; and
- $1.5 million to restore the historic mansion in Catonsville.