FY 27 Proposed Budget in Brief

GENERAL FUND REVENUES

FY 26 APPROVED BUDGET $816,565,000 FY 27 PROPOSED BUDGET $896,618,000 CHANGE $80,053,000 The General Fund accounts for the largest portion of the total financial operations of Harford County Government. General Fund appropriations are used primarily to finance the administrative activities of County Government and to provide programs and services to our citizens. The major portion of the Board of Education's funding comes from County General Fund dollars. County support for Harford Community College, the Health Department, and the Libraries also come from the General Fund. Other funding sources are comprised of revenues earmarked for specific expenses. It is solely General Fund revenues that are used for basic operations and government services.

REVENUES The majority (81%) of our projected General Fund Revenues come from Property Taxes and Income Taxes. INCOME TAXES FY 27 Proposed $377,000,000 42% of the General Fund FY 26 Approved $342,000,000 42% of the General Fund $ growth $35,000,000 % growth 10.23%

Income tax is calculated in Maryland as a percentage of net taxable income. While the State sets a tax rate cap of 3.3% for local governments, the Harford County Council set our income tax rate at 3.06%. The State Comptroller's Office administers and collects the tax and distributes the receipts to the counties and municipalities. We receive approximately 90% of income tax in quarterly distributions of the withholdings and estimated payments. The County is expecting negative growth in income tax for FY 27 over our revised FY 26 estimate as the Comptroller has informed the County that it is overdistributed in FY 26 and to expect a reduction in FY 27 reconciling payments. FY 26 income tax is estimated at $386,700,000, which is $44,700,000 over our adopted budget. FY 27 is projected to decrease by 2.5%, over the revised FY 26 estimated amount.

PROPERTY TAXES

FY 27 Proposed $345,127,600 FY 26 Approved $327,447,000

38% of the General Fund 40% of the General Fund

$ growth % growth

$17,680,600

5.40%

In FY 27, the County is adopting a tax rate of $0.8413. The State reassesses all properties on a triennial basis. Statewide "Group 2" reassessments in FY 26 increased by 12.7% over the past three years according to State Department of Assessment and Taxation. In Harford County, assessments in Group 2, which mainly covers the central portion of the County, grew by 10.7% with residential and commercial assessments increasing by 10.6% and 11.4% respectively.

OTHER REVENUES

FY 27 Proposed $174,490,400 FY 26 Approved $147,118,000

19% of the General Fund 18% of the General Fund

$ decrease % decrease

$27,372,400

18.61% The elements mainly responsible for the change in "Other" revenues are:

FY 26

FY 27

Funding

Funding

Change

Recordation Tax

$10,670,000 $13,332,000

$2,662,000

In FY 27, we are anticipating bringing in $13.3 million in recordation tax to the General Fund for school debt.

Transfer Tax

$8,000,000 $10,500,000

$2,500,000

In FY 27, we are anticipating bringing in $10.5 million in transfer tax to the General Fund to pay school debt. Fund Balance Appropriated

$50,565,000 $67,325,000

$16,760,000

Governmental funds report the difference between their assets and liabilities as fund balance. In FY 26, we appropriated $50.5 million of unassigned fund balance. In FY 27 we have appropriated $67.3 million of unassigned fund balance. All "Other" Revenues combined $77,883,000 $83,333,400 $5,450,400

These include other taxes, charges for current services, revenues from other agencies, fines and forfeitures, licenses and permits and investment income.

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