Cottage City passes emergency budget after deadline

Modified spending plan excludes money for police dog, North Brentwood patrols

This [budget] was a rough one,” Commission Chairwoman Aileen McChesney (Ward 1) said after the commission unanimously approved the ordinance.

The modified budget will be used for the 2009 fiscal year, which started July 1.

Most years, a few municipalities out of the 157 in Maryland fail to pass their budgets by the June 30 deadline, said Maryland Municipal League spokesman Thomas Reynolds. The procedure for what happens in that case depends on each town’s charter.

The Cottage City Town Commission spent months holding meetings and hearings over the budget, including a June 30 meeting. But the 3-to-1 vote in favor of the original budget ordinance didn’t fulfill the super-majority requirement of a 4- out of 5-person vote. One commissioner was out of town and Commissioner Demetrius Givens voted against it.

The $1.8 million budget includes a raise for two part-time employees and code enforcement training. Cottage City police patrols in North Brentwood were also cut and the town will see a decrease in the real property tax rate from 64 cents per every $100 of assessed value to 60 cents per every $100 of assessed value. The town’s constant yield rate, which is a tax rate that keeps tax bills constant despite increased property assessments, is 57 cents per every $100 of assessed value.

The average property tax rate among the four Port Towns, which include Bladensburg, Colmar Manor, Cottage City and Edmonston, was 62 cents per every $100 of assessed value during the last fiscal year.

Commissioners had debated previously over the police budget, which included $9,000 for a police dog.

McChesney said removing money for a police dog was a necessary move in getting the budget passed.

‘‘That was the sticking point that was preventing the commissioners from voting for it,” McChesney said.

Givens said he was opposed to the police dog because he didn’t see the need for it in a community the size of Cottage City, which has 1,161 residents, according to 2006 Census statistics.

‘‘The direction I like to see the town going to is somewhat more of a community policing aspect, and having a drug dog doesn’t really promote that,” he said.

The commission was able to trim $100,000 from the originally proposed budget, which propelled Givens to vote in favor of the revised budget.

Other cuts included $70,000 for new police radios, which was removed since the county won’t be requiring new radios this year, and $30,000 for a new police cruiser. The town is still paying off about $20,000 in leases for existing fleet vehicles, McChensey said.

‘‘Even though [the budget] is still high, there are certain things we absolutely have to have,” Givens said.