The FY2020 Budget Reflects Vision Of County Leadership

Under the umbrella vision of “Experience, Innovation, Collaboration and Solutions,” the Alsobrooks Administration revealed its FY2020 budget proposal March 14.

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks highlighted several key areas the administration focused on for the budget.

“[This plan] is in line with our principles,” the county’s top executive reported at a press conference held at the new Wayne K. Curry Administration Building.

Highlights of the budget include education and education renovation, crime reduction, economic development/safe neighborhoods, youth development, transportation and infrastructure, quality of life and proficient and transparent government.

An overview of the FY2020 budget can be found here.

Alsobrooks walked through the budget priorities at the press conference.

“I want to thank Theresa Dudley from the Education Association who urged us to ‘remember the babies’ [as we went through the budget process], so education investment and reform is our first priority.” Alsobrooks began.

The county expects to structurally improve upon and build some 18 schools over a seven year period.

“Crime reduction and maintaining the successes we have had – I want to thank [Prince George’s County Police] Chief Hank Stawinsky and other members of our public safety team who have done a phenomenal job of driving down crime in ways that have been unmatched – not only in our state but across the country with a 50% reduction in crime over the last eight years. We certainly view that as a priority.”

Alsobrooks went on to discuss other priorities.

“Smart economic development revolves around revitalization,” she said. “It’s unnecessary to build new on every space of land. We want to make proper investment in existing communities and also to develop businesses that are beneficial to our residents.”

“In quality of life and the environment, we have some exciting things [that we are doing].”

The new budget includes a return to twice per week trash pick-up which will be phased into placement starting with 3,000 homes over the next three years. An additional $200,000 will be applied to food waste process and collection containers.

In fact, as Prince George’s has the largest compost facility on the east coast, the county will generate revenue from the effort.

“Youth development is an area that we have not seen listed among budget priorities in recent years [but] we believe that it is necessary,” she said.

The administration has also been very vocal about youth development. Aggressively seeking to grow summer youth job opportunities from some 3,000 youth to 6,000 in 2019, the administration has launched a campaign to increase awareness and activity of small businesses in hiring. The administration is also expanding the age range of participating youth to 14 through 22.

“We also want to be proficient in transparent government,” Alsobrooks said. The county executive urged modernizing government and increasing efficiency.

She also addressed transportation and infrastructure within the county.

Alsobrooks said that the administration expects a $48 million deficit in FY2020. This represents a consistent reduction from 2013 when the deficit was at $125 million. The gap is attributed to revenue growth “lagging behind required cost increases for county agencies, non-departmental expenditures, the county’s contribution to the board of education, library and college and contributions to meet the county’s requirements for pension plans.”

“We will need to make important decisions [now] to assure that our deficits continue to go down and not up,” Alsobrooks said.

The county will work with a $4.21 billion operating fund in 2020.