Alderman Harry Huntley: Annapolis must rebalance its budget towards commonsense maintenance
Happy Sunday, Ward One
The first sentence on the first page of the first economics textbook I ever picked up read “Economics is the science of allocating limited resources to satisfy unlimited desires.” From that moment, I was hooked on this imperfect but essential science, ultimately earning one of my degrees in economics.
Last year’s Finance Committee report on the FY25 budget begins with a similar mantra about governance as the process of allocation. As the Chair of Annapolis’ Finance Committee, it’s a sentiment that rings in my head each day, particularly now that we are entering the budget season in earnest.
I do not believe the way that the mayor and city council have allocated resources in our most recent budget will be optimal for this coming budget. My top priority in the upcoming budget will be to rebalance us towards commonsense maintenance and away from new projects.
Our city Budget Manager has already revealed that this year’s theme is “Preserve”. The federal COVID money is gone. It’s palpable in the air that 2025 is not 2024. The city has made laudable investments over the past few years in increasing water access and otherwise improving residents’ quality of life, but now we need to focus more on maintaining those and on fulfilling the core functions people expect from city government.
Take road maintenance as an example. Right now, 16% of the city’s road segments have a condition rating of 2 or below (on a scale of 20). But at the pace we’re scheduled to repave 2s and below in 2025, it would take 13 years to fix them all–even if none got any worse. This is actually better than under previous administrations, but it’s not sustainable. Go look at Jefferson Place or the last block of College Avenue and try telling me those roads don’t need to be fixed a lot sooner than 13 years from now!
Anecdotally, this is even more true for sidewalks; we just don’t have the same granularity of data to back it up. In fact, when I convened the city council in January for members to share their priorities for the budget, the most commonly cited issue was sidewalk repair. Our brick sidewalks in particular should be a feature of the city that we’re proud of, not a tripping hazard we have to excuse to guests. But it will take a rebalancing.
This is not to say I won’t support any new investments. For instance, it’s crucial that we make our streets safer for kids and seniors, like crossing West Street at Amos Garrett Boulevard. Security upgrades could help our police officers spend their time even more efficiently.
And it’s worth noting that quite a few of the new projects that have been implemented recently, such as pickleball lights at Truxtun Park, are almost entirely funded by sources other than city tax dollars; the mayor and department leaders deserve huge kudos for the tens of millions of dollars they’ve brought to the city.
But in evaluating each line of this upcoming budget, I’ll look at it through the lens of “Would folks be happier with this or with their parks, roads, sidewalks, and sewers being better maintained?” It doesn’t sound very exciting, but it’s the kind of good governance that can be too often forgotten, especially in an election year.
I welcome differing opinions on what the appropriate balance is between building new projects and maintaining what we have–particularly from my colleagues who I know worked hard to craft past budgets to be right for their communities at the time. That’s the kind of conversation that a healthy, informed, democratic populace should be having.
This is my inaugural addition to that conversation.
I hope Ward One residents will join me for my budget town hall at St. Anne’s Parish Hall from 6 to 8 pm on April 23rd to lend their voices to the dialogue. I hope every city resident will pay attention to the budget development process that will unfold over the next three months, including by signing up for my biweekly newsletter at HarryMHuntley.com. And I hope anyone at all who’s interested in local government might even crack open last year’s 236 pages of adopted budgets to try their own hand at allocating these limited resources.
Harry M Huntley is the alderman for Annapolis’ Ward One and Chair of the city’s Finance Committee. In his career, he helps governments develop more cost-effective ways to pay farmers to improve the environment. Harry can be reached at Harry@HarryMHuntley.com, and you can sign up for his biweekly newsletter at HarryMHuntley.com
Source: https://us17.campaign-archive.com/?u=92cd145597ae97327ab17fc38&id=d020706ac2
