May 27

May 27 Passing the People’s Budget

County Council Pushes $4.6 Billion FY2022 Budget Adoption Forward

By Raoul Dennis

The Prince George’s County Council adopted the FY22 County budget on May 27. The $4.6 billion budget represents a 2.2% increase over FY21 and is being called “the people’s budget” because of the diverse and wide-ranging areas it addresses with regard to improving quality of life for the residents of Prince George’s County. The budget passed by an 11-0 margin.

“This is a people’s budget,” said Prince George’s County Council Chair Calvin S. Hawkins II when asked what he thought was important for residents to know about the new budget. Hawkins praised the work of Prince George’s County Council Vice Chair Deni Taveras who represented the Council in the negotiation process and his colleagues on the Council itself for virtually navigating the budget effort for the second consecutive year.

“This budget reflects what we heard from the people of Prince George’s County,” Hawkins said. “It reflects the desires, needs and wishes of the people of the county. I want to give special recognition to vice chair Taveras as she is the first Latina to lead the Council discussion and the county discussion on the budget. That’s important for our citizens to know.”

Taveras was modest in her response to the role.

“It was really humbling for me to lead in negotiation on a $4.6 billion budget,” she said. “That doesn’t happen every day. I’m very proud to have supported a budget where we can all win.”

The veteran councilmember said she was especially pleased with doubling down on infrastructure and operations spending which she says “will make a tangible difference in the lives of all Prince Georgians.”

Those monies will address issues such as road repairs, beautification projects, environmental projects and more.

Taveras

The budget also includes spending for returning citizens, Covid relief, health and human services, a $5 million assures program and the launch of a 10-year homelessness study.

Both senior councilmembers say that the county is on track to be restored to its former stability before Covid 19.

“I am very optimistic,” says Taveras noting that the new budget offers a blueprint for overcoming disparities in vaccinations across the county which most agree is key to completely regaining social and economic stability in Prince George’s. She acknowledged that whole families are now becoming vaccinated through the door to door, neighborhood by neighborhood vaccination campaign efforts.

“If we do it right we will be fine. We have only committed 10% of the American Rescue Plan funding so far. We want to spread the remaining 90% of funding over the next three years and we have increased the overall budget by 2.2%. We have been very conservative and cautious with our spending. Our AAA bond rating on Wall Street is intact,” she says.

When asked if either of them expected the county’s economic stability to look this favorable six months ago, both Hawkins and Taveras acknowledged being pleasantly surprised.

“It’s much better than I thought it would be,” Hawkins said.

He credited the rapport between the Council and the county executive’s budget team as a big factor in getting more dollars down to the root of where people and communities need the funding.

“We were a high-performing team,” Hawkins says. “We addressed the greatest need for the most people.”

Budget information is available on the County Council FY 2022 Budget Portal.

To see the county FY22 budget, click here.

The Council also passed other budgets including:

Adoption of WSSC, WSTC, Revenue Authority and Redevelopment Authority Budgets

Adoption of the Prince George’s County Portion of the M-NCPPC Budget

Adoption of the County Current Expense Budget, Capital Improvement Program, Capital Budget and Appropriation Ordinance for FY 2022