Dear Editor,
The Cecil Business Leaders endorsed Alan McCarthy during his campaign for County Executive that commenced in 2015. We quickly recognized his understanding of the big picture while being able to articulate the problem and the solution in easily understood actions. His proposed Current Expense & Capital Budgets for FY 2018 only reinforces our decision to back and support him as Cecil’s leader.
Dr. McCarthy has proposed a Current Expense Budget of $189,701,473. His proposal includes no revenue from the fund balance (savings) that has been utilized to the detriment of the County’s ability to deal with emergencies. This is an unwise strategy that has been applied to balance recent county budgets. He does include a 5 cent increase in the property tax and a .2% increase in personal local income rate.
As business leaders we understand the difficult decisions associated with the balance between revenue and expenses. Periodically we must raise the cost of products or services due to increased costs of doing business. Sadly our elected leaders over the past decade have failed to properly address increased costs of providing the services that Cecil businesses and citizens require. Our infrastructure to support development in the growth corridor has been largely ignored and the maintenance of county roads postponed. His budget addresses both of these concerns plus addresses the safety and security of our communities and the need to provide high quality education services through our public schools, higher education and library systems.
We applaud Dr. McCarthy’s leadership demonstrated through his determination to take these matters head on that have been largely ignored in the past. His motto to “move Cecil forward” is supported by these proposed budgets.
The proposed tax increases are the result of failure to address the obvious fiscal issues by past leaders and just “kicking the can down the road” mentality. With this budget proposal, Dr. McCarthy has stopped kicking the can.
Cecil Business Leaders support Dr. McCarthy and the proposed Current Expense and Capital Budgets for FY 2018.
Board of Directors, Executive Committee:
David K. Williams, Chairman
Mario J. Gangemi, PE, Vice Chairman/Secretary
Steve Moon, Treasurer
Joseph DiNunzio, Member-at-Large
