With the economic downturn eating into revenues for the Prince George's County government, Laurel area residents criticized county planners for their fiscal planning and budget cuts at a town hall meeting held by County Council member Tom Dernoga on March 25.

A projected $113 million budget deficit left county budget personnel scrambling to cut expenses as County Executive Jack Johnson prepared his recommended budget earlier this month.

But the resulting budget cuts left some area residents at the meeting concerned about service cuts and others complaining about a lack of foresight from county officials.

The meeting was organized by Dernoga in an effort to gauge what budget issues residents in council district 1, which Dernoga represents, were most concerned with as the council prepares to vote on a new budget.

The town hall-style meeting has become an annual fixture for Dernoga.

But while previous years found residents concerned with zoning ordinances, telecommunications taxes or quality of life issues such as graffiti, this year's meeting mostly centered on the budget.

Several residents asked Jonathan Seeman, the county's budget director, about his department's recommended cuts while worrying how those cuts would affect their neighborhoods.

David Thomas, a Beltsville resident, worried about the impact the cuts would have on the police department.

"Our neighborhood is very safe, but I'd like to keep it that way and we're already under-patrolled," he said. "And an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Seeman said county residents would likely see a decrease in patrol officers as the county will likely lose 100 officers in the coming year.

"We have one police academy class in the budget, but we will likely lose about eight officers a month," he said. "At this point, we just don't know how many officers we'll lose."

Barbara Sollner-Webb, president of the West Laurel Civic Association, took Seeman to task for the county executive's support of the InterCounty Connector.

"That's $68 million this year that could be saved simply by canceling the ICC," she said. "And yet, our county executive is still completely in favor of it."

Laurel resident Paul Schneeman was most concerned with how the county had gotten to the point where such dramatic cuts were needed.

"This model has clearly been broken since 2007," he said. "What in the world are you doing for your projections to have been so off for this many years?"

Seeman responded by saying that budget models are based on each year's budget and what increases will be necessitated by contractual obligations and salary increases.

One lighthearted moment did occur when one woman worried about a specific service cut.

"This doesn't seem like as big of a concern with all these other questions, but is it true that leaf collection will be eliminated?" asked Wilda Chism.

Dernoga said leaf collection has been eliminated because of budget constraints and public complaints about the collection schedules.

While much of the meeting's focus centered on critiquing the county's fiscal planning, there was also much concern about building a new stadium for the D.C. United in Prince George's County.

Most of the criticism stemmed from a feeling that the stadium would be an unnecessary debt for the county, especially at a time when the county is short on money anyway.

"How can we even think about a soccer stadium when we've got a deficit this big?" asked Bill Tucker, a Laurel resident.

Kay McGraw, of Calverton, noted that the cost of building stadiums has risen dramatically since 1990, even for moderately sized stadiums.

"If this stadium is so great, then let the team build it," she said.

Thomas agreed.

"This will be a private profit of a public loss," he said. "We don't need another company that we have to bail out. Especially when it's the county taxpayers that have to bail the team out."

---

user comments (0)