Volunteer Firefighters Take Hit in Budget Cuts

Twenty administrative positions for volunteer firefighter stations are gone after Montgomery County Council members cut $32 million in mid-year spending Tuesday.

Their actions also eliminated some neighborhood senior programs and youth recreation activities, but they fell $4 million short of County Executive Ike Leggett's proposal.

Leggett wanted to trim $36 million as a step toward plugging an estimated $350 million budget shortfall, but council members balked at some of the harshest proposals.

The council rejected taking 11 ambulances out of service, and ending a program that provides energy rebates to poor families. Members also did not want to cut three neighborhood senior centers that serve food to low-income elderly residents.

Council Members Craig Rice, Hans Reimer and Nancy Navarro—the council's newest members—seemed most hesitant to endorse cuts that would harm vulnerable residents.

Rice and Reimer were elected last month, and Navarro joined the council in a special election two years ago.

Navarro and Rice serve on the Health and Human Services Committee and lobbied their colleagues to continue the energy rebate program. They tried, unsuccessfully, to prevent a 2 percent across-the-board cut to payments to nonprofits with contracts with the county.

Other council members have faced budget shortfalls in previous years.

"This isn't about picking favorites," council member Nancy Floreen said. "There is no way out."

Council member Marc Elrich also urged his colleagues to remember they still have plenty of cuts to make.

"I don't want to do any of the things we're doing today, but we have to set the stage for the coming months," Elrich said.

Some of the most heated debate revolved around the volunteer fire department administrative positions. Volunteer firefighters led the campaign against an ambulance fee that was rejected by voters last month, costing the county $14 million.

Volunteer firefighters claimed the cuts were retaliation. Council Vice President Roger Berliner agreed with them during the council meeting Tuesday.

"It's difficult to look at this proposal without remembering the fight over ambulance fees and the deep-seated animosity that fight brought about," Berliner said. "It is very difficult to escape the notion that we are trying to make the volunteers pay for their opposition to the ambulance fee."

Analysts also told council members to brace for more fiscal difficulties, noting the county is on track to receive roughly $85 million less in revenue this year than expected largely because sagging home values have led to lower-than-expected property tax returns and the economic downturn has caused decreased income tax revenue.