FY 25 Harford County Government Proposed Operating Budget

II. Methodology and Background

A. Methodology, Background and Data Studied

Since its inception in 1992, the Committee has been reporting under the County's Executive

Order creating the Committee. We werevery fortunate that the composition of the Committee consisted

of four returning members and two new members, who worked well together to meet this task with a

broad base of relevant experience. In addition, the County Treasury and Budget staffs are familiar with

the Committee’s process and are able to provide relevant guidance. Therefore, we were able to focus

all our efforts on our primary charges.

Over the years of operation, the Committee has formulated a methodology for adopting a

guideline of the percentage increase in spending affordability for the County. The Committee again

decided to follow the traditional "budget based" estimate of spending affordability. That is, estimating

a level of revenue that will become available, through the collection of taxes and fees, assuming no

increase in applicable rates not already enacted or announced. This approach contrasts methodologies

adopted by certain other jurisdictionswhich are typically defined as estimating spending levels tied to

citizens' ability to pay for additional services.

We also utilized information from the following sources:

· Income tax collections for Harford County, through February 2024, provided by the Treasurer.

· Property tax collections, and estimates, for Harford County, through FY 2024 and

FY 2025, provided by the Treasurer.

· Additional input from the Treasurer as to the impact of the Maryland General Assembly recent actions and anypertinent information or estimates from the State Comptroller’s office.

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