All Funds Operating
$2.354B
FY2026 approved all-funds appropriation.
General Fund
$1.644B
Primary fund for schools, public safety, public infrastructure, health and services.
Capital Budget
$368M
FY2026 approved capital budget.
Dommu Target
$130M/yr
Incremental annual capital capacity estimate.
Operating Budget by Function
Education includes county debt service, OPEB, and pension contributions made on behalf of educational entities. All values are FY2026 approved all-funds dollars.
What $130M Means
$130M/year equals 5.5% of all-funds operating, 7.9% of the General Fund, and 35.3% of the FY2026 capital budget.
Read-through
That is not impossible, but it is too large to fund through “minor efficiencies” alone. A credible plan needs a blend of base growth, capital reprioritization, strict one-time-money rules, and politically explicit tradeoffs.
Interactive Reduction Scenario: How much of the $130M could cuts/reprioritization cover?
2.0%
$15.1M
5.0%
$5.9M
10%
$1.4M
5%
$2.3M
Public schools protected: this Dommunist scenario assumes $0 reductions to HCPSS / public schools. School funding is treated as the asset being protected by growth, not the piggy bank.
10%
$36.8M
$40M
$40.0M
Total identified capacity
$113.0M
Gap to target: $17.0M
CFO warning: With schools protected, “cuts alone” cannot fund $130M/year. The Dommunist stack must rely on non-school efficiencies, capital reprioritization, recurring revenue growth, disciplined debt capacity, and strict rules that new revenue does not automatically become operating bloat.
FY2026 Capital Budget by Program
Reduction / Reinvestment Menu
FY2027 Spending Affordability Committee: The Referee Report
| Finding | Implication for Dommu vs. Phil |
|---|---|
| FY2027 General Fund revenue projected at $1.629B, +6.3%, but driven partly by capital gains and prior-year income-tax reconciliation. | Supports Phil: do not treat one hot year as a permanent baseline. |
| Recurring expenditure growth should be held to 4%; remaining 2.3% / $35.4M should rebuild reserves. | Supports CFO discipline: growth dividend should not become automatic operating bloat. |
| Requested spending still exceeds resources by $67M+; HCPSS request alone implies $83.9M in new funding. | Supports both sides: school costs dominate the problem, but this model protects schools and forces the rest of the capital stack to carry the load. |
| FY2028–2032 revenue growth projected at only 3.6%, while expenditure needs average 6.9%. | Structural gap means “status quo plus promises” breaks. Growth must be paired with spending restraint. |
| Committee recommends $75M in FY2027 GO bonds and continued debt discipline; debt service had previously exceeded the 10% policy ceiling. | Supports Dom’s AAA/debt-capacity argument, but caps the pace of borrowing. |
| Committee explicitly says to “grow the pie” via HoCo by Design, ECON Task Force, business friendliness, workforce, housing, and regulatory certainty. | This is basically Dommunism in government-report font. |
Policy Recommendation: “Grow like Reagan, budget like a CFO, build like Hamilton”
| Rule | What it means | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| No rate hikes as first resort | Hold property/income tax rates steady; grow the base through housing, redevelopment, jobs, and assessed value. | Keeps the plan Reagan-esque rather than Maryland-as-usual. |
| One-time money funds one-time needs | School surcharges, excise taxes, fund balance, grants, and transfer taxes should go to capital/PAYGO/reserves, not recurring payroll. | Avoids building future operating deficits. |
| Debt only for long-lived assets | Borrow for schools, roads, water/sewer, stormwater, and public safety facilities within debt-affordability guardrails. | Matches cost to useful life and protects credit quality. |
| Make tradeoffs explicit | If schools are protected, the available cut base shrinks dramatically. If $130M is mandatory, name what gets delayed, consolidated, or reprioritized. | Prevents fake “efficiency” math. |
| Sequence infrastructure | Prioritize projects tied to actual permits, occupancy, and assessed-value lift. | Growth should fund capacity, not speculative wish lists. |