@$:After an initial read of County Executive Isiah Leggett’s proposed capital budget, members of the County Council said the document will change, noting concerns with projects not included or delayed.

Leggett unveiled his $4.21 billion, six-year capital spending plan Jan. 17. The plan favors education projects — more than 32 percent, or $1.355 billion, is allocated for school construction — and delays numerous other projects. The budget now goes to the County Council.

“I think that the budget will be changed somewhat by the county council members,” said Councilman Philip M. Andrews (D-Dist. 3) of Gaithersburg.

Andrews said he is reviewing the document, but is concerned about a lack of funding to construct a North Potomac Community Center, for which the county has spent more than $10 million to date. The center has been in the works since the early 1990s and has an estimated construction cost of about $22 million.

Andrews also is examining the executive’s two-year delay for opening a new elementary school in the Richard Montgomery cluster. He said he wants to look at ways the council can adjust the capital budget to avoid delaying the opening. The cluster is at more than 120 percent capacity, with more than 2,000 students, and residential development is in moratorium.

Councilman Hans Riemer (D-At large) of Silver Spring said there were not as many delays and cuts in the plan as he was expecting. Problematic for Riemer was the absence of anything in Leggett’s six-year plan for the Purple Line — a proposed $1.925 billion, 16-mile rail line that will connect Bethesda and New Carrollton.

“The county cannot seem to retreat on the Purple Line,” he said. “It is a very, very important priority.”

Leggett said the Purple Line is a priority, but without a definitive schedule from the state for construction, he was not willing to propose tying up the county’s early estimated share — at least $50 million — when other projects need funding.

Also pushed beyond the six-year spending window was a new south entrance to the Bethesda Metro Station. Riemer said the $80 million Metro station project is as important of a project as the Purple Line. As proposed, the Purple Line would connect to the Bethesda Metro Station.

County Council President Roger Berliner (D-Dist. 1) of Potomac said an overarching issue for the council could be the level of new borrowing, which the executive kept within the council’s guideline of $295 million. The cap narrowly passed the council in a 5-4 vote this past fall, with Berliner as one of the dissenting votes.

“The time when we need to invest may well be now,” he said.

Montgomery County Director of Finance Joseph Beach said the council has the ability to raise its CIP spending affordability guideline by as much as 10 percent for the first two years of the spending plan with simple majority vote. It must vote by the first Tuesday in February. But an increase must reflect a “significant change in conditions.” While not defined in the law, Beach said the intent is to limit an increase to a change in conditions, such as tax revenue or employment, that would affect affordability, not a change in need or desire.

kalexander@gazette.net