By Debra Messick

CAMBRIDGE - For Dorchester County Council’s longest serving members, William Nichols and Ricky Travers, the grueling eight month effort to balance the Fiscal Year 2025 budget ranked among their toughest such exercises.

Nichols, Travers, and others offered high praise for often unsung department heads and staff who worked relentlessly to achieve the county’s top goals of balancing the budget while enacting no new taxes, while also finding funds providing a five percent employee pay raise.

“That was our number one priority, taking care of our employees who take care of us, plus a 100 percent Council consensus to not raise taxes,” Travers said.

“I can’t thank the staff enough. This is my 18th budget, and I have to say it ranks up in the top two in being challenging,” Travers said. “But I need the public to understand that it's not this group’s spending habits. You need to go across the bridge to Annapolis. It's their spending habits that are coming back on us.”

“We only have income tax and property tax, plus some fees. And we’re in a county that's 78 percent undeveloped. When they pass bills, such as the Kerwin Blueprint, without knowing how they’re going to pay for it, it has an absolutely devastating effect on rural Maryland, period. We’re not the only ones,” he said.

Nichols noted that some departments did more than their share to help reach the overall goal.

“We, and staff, and department heads, too, all went through H E double L preparing this budget. A lot of people gave up a lot of things to make this work, and I thank every last one of them. In the next budget, we’ve got to pick them back up,” Nichols said. “Next year I'd like to see some of the ‘haves’ give to the ‘have-nots.’”

He also commended Council members for putting politics aside and making tough decisions required.

Council President George L. Pfeffer, Jr. also expressed his appreciation.

“Staff, thank you! You all worked very hard, you cut things back, you made it work. Ms. Tolley (Finance Director Karen Tolley), more than once II asked you to explain to me how this was ever going to work,” Pfeffer said.

“I’d be remiss to not mention all the work Mr. Powell did (former Interim County Manager Jeff Powell), and Mr. Jones (New County Manager Jerry Jones), who, from his first day on May 20, jumped right in, helping to find money and meet our priorities,” he said.

When Pfeffer asked Council about last minute modifications to the budget, Vice President Mike Detmer, representing District 5, wondered if anything could be done to give additional help to the volunteer fire companies. Finance Director Karen Tolley confirmed that an additional five percent in funding for them could come from the Contingency Fund. Pfeffer stressed that the increase was limited to FY ‘25.

Looking ahead, Pfeffer echoed others’ cautionary concerns. “Next year is going to be bad. This year, we made it by the skin of our teeth to balance this budget,” he said, referencing Wicomico County’s seventy million dollar reserve fund. “We don't have that luxury, by any means. We keep a very small strategic reserve solely for catastrophic disaster,” Pfeffer said.

“This is quite disturbing. You’ve heard about the unfunded mandates, and we’re concerned about our Kerwin numbers for next year (referring to required implementation of the State’s Education Blueprint),” he said.

“We love our teachers. We love the children. We want to provide them the best education possible, it's just that we’re out of funds. I don't know where we’re going to come up with money next year. The State’s already predicting in the next few years a $1.8 billion deficit; when they get short, it trickles down to us. So, we have to be really diligent. Nobody on this board wants to raise taxes. We want to see the tax base increase, and we have to figure out ways to do that,” Pfeffer said.

Travers also shared his sense of foreboding for the years ahead.

“I hope that it gets better. But, when you’re sitting on the side of the bank in a boat, and the sky clouds up, you know what's coming; you better head to shore,” he said.

Acknowledging seeing the storm clouds, Detmer expressed concern with hope.

“I don't know if we need to be optimistic or pessimistic, maybe realistic, with a small dash of optimism,” he said. Detmer cited possible proactive measures such as boat ramp stickers, and requiring dog license purchases to use a dog park if created.

“Even though we feel beaten down by the Kerwin plan and all these expenses, we can continue to improve the quality of life for everyone in this county,” Detmer said.