The Commissioners of St. Mary’s County have approved the $253,113,474 fiscal year 2020 General Fund budget. The figure represents a 10 percent increase over fiscal 2019, including other financing sources. Funding for education, county departments and elected officials, along with public safety, accounts for nearly 82 percent of the General Fund budget. The adopted budget supports a fiscal year 2020 Capital budget of $81,700,793.
FY2020 budget highlights include …
- Income tax rate increases from 3% to 3.17% of net taxable income
- Property tax rate remains at .8478; rescue rate increases for Mechanicsville
- State and federal grants are projected to be $8,242,568 in FY2020 which is a 4.3% higher than the approved FY2019 budget.
- St. Mary’s County Board of Education receives a funding increase of $2,390,396 over fiscal 2019 to $106,242,921, or 2.3% over fiscal 2019. The county’s investment supports compensation increases for teachers and other school employees. State mandated Maintenance of Effort is $103,156,261.
- $14,881,410 of the June 2018 unassigned fund balance will be used for non-recurring operating and CIP paygo
- The St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office will realize an increase of $3,400,283 or 8.4% for recurring expenditures
- Full and regular part-time county employees will receive a phased in compensation increase, a one-step merit increase, a 1% COLA and a top of grade stipend
An online version of the approved budget will be available for viewing on the county website once all of the ordinances have been signed.
