Dear Friends,
Today I sent the County Council my recommended operating budget for the next fiscal year (2026). I sent this budget over now – as required by the County Charter, but there are some major unknowns regarding decisions that will be made by the Maryland General Assembly, which will not finish its deliberations until April 7.
I have explained to the County Council, and our education partners, that, if necessary, we will submit budget revisions soon after we get the final State numbers.
The Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 recommended budget is balanced through a combination of strategic reductions, vacancy savings and a modest property tax rate increase to sustain critical investments, particularly in education. We made $16.8 million in targeted program reductions and $28.5 million in vacancy savings from unfilled positions.
The FY26 recommended budget provides a total of $3.62 billion for Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). If approved, the County's contribution increases by $250 million—the largest-ever year-over-year increase—which funds negotiated compensation agreements for all school staff, increases the number of special education teachers and paraeducators and enhances school security.
We are making the largest local investment ever in our schools because we know the stakes. Strong schools mean a strong workforce and economy.
If adopted by the County Council, MCPS per pupil funding will grow by $1,659, and the budget will exceed the State’s Maintenance of Effort requirement by over $256 million.
The budget also fully funds Montgomery College and expands early childhood education initiatives, providing $4 million in additional funding for childcare subsidies and support programs.
To ensure full funding for MCPS and other essential services, the budget includes a 3.5 cent increase in the education supplemental property tax, generating $56.3 million for Montgomery County Public Schools. This would bring the total property tax rate to $1.0605 per $100 of assessed value while maintaining a lower weighted real property tax rate than neighboring counties.
Recognizing the need to minimize the impact on homeowners, the proposed budget also expands some tax relief measures:
- Property Tax Credit increased by 25 percent to $860.
- Fully offsets any tax increases for homes assessed at $495,000 or less.
Even with the education supplemental property tax increase, Montgomery County has a lower tax rate than all our neighboring counties and communities, except Washington DC, which has a lower residential rate and a much higher commercial rate. The chart below shows the rates in neighboring Maryland counties, Fairfax, Virginia and Washington, DC.
Beyond record-level funding for MCPS, our recommended budget includes many other important investments. The following is a list of some important highlights from this proposal, which we will continue to discuss.
- Record funding to build and provide more affordable housing units.
- New public safety measures such as increasing police salaries and benefits to assist in recruitment efforts and expanding our popular Drone as First Responder program to Germantown.
- Free Fares on Ride On – Zero fares on our buses support both the County’s equity, and climate and sustainability goals, and they allow us to reallocate funds that we had to set aside to purchase new fare meters (the current ones will soon no longer be operational).
- Expanding our business incubator program that will provide increased resources for entrepreneurs, mentoring and ecosystem support.
- Fiscally responsible and prepared for future funding challenges - leaves $791 million or 11.2 percent in reserve ($87.2 million above the policy requirement).
Between the impacts of the state budget deficit and the unprecedented but necessary funding request from MCPS, this has been a budget preparation process with many tough decisions. This may be one of the most difficult budgets I have ever worked on.
We conducted 11 budget forums last fall and received robust communications and engagement from our residents and community organizations. Our forums were held around the County geographically, and we had targeted forums with Black/African American, Asian and Latino communities, one dedicated to schools, another to non-profits and another for older adults.
Needs throughout the County are increasing while the cost of providing services continues to increase; the County government, like all residents and private sector businesses, feels the impacts of inflation and high interest rates.
We realize that potential mass federal layoffs and other changes at the federal level could impact our tax receipts for the next budget. Therefore, this budget was prepared without any major new initiatives in County government, to reduce potential pressures next year.
We will be in regular conversation with the County Council and the public regarding how we may have to adjust. No one should assume that this is the final shape of the budget.
You can watch the presentation I gave where I talk through my recommendations. As always, feel free to contact me through the County Executive office and contact the County Council with your thoughts and feedback on this proposed budget. You can do a deep dive into this proposal and look at our current and previous budgets on the County’s Operating Expenditures page.
Working Together to Help Those Who Need Work
Later this month, Montgomery College’s Germantown campus will host a networking and job fair for recently displaced federal research and associate scientists at the Bioscience Education Center on Monday, March 31. The event will run from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Leading employers like ATCC (American Type Culture Collection), Charles River Laboratories and MilliporeSigma will attend. In addition to meeting potential employers, attendees will be able to access services like resume reviews, professional headshots and employer presentations to assist job seekers in their career transitions.
You can register online now.
County leaders across Maryland have started working together to raise awareness of employment opportunities and job fairs like this. The Maryland Department of Labor’s website now has a special section that includes information about job fairs with several counties and municipalities updating the public about opportunities like this. Visit labor.maryland.gov/federalworkers to learn more.
Work in the life sciences industry is critical to our economy. For decades, health companies have been bolstered by the amazing work done at federal agencies that call Montgomery County home, like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). To see so many jobs in these critical organizations threatened for no good reason should anger all Americans.
I have seen some of the firing letters these workers received. They are boilerplate and indicate that no thought was put into who and why people are being fired. They are throwing people with sterling resumes out, including recently promoted managers, not for cause but because they can. No decisions are being made based on operational efficiency and opportunities to achieve the same outcomes through better organization. No one has studied the needs of organizations or the roles that people play.
Like many others, I am astounded by the attack on NIH, FDA and the research programs they fund with universities across the country. Who in their right mind would oppose research on health care advances that can deliver cures and be the factor between life and death? It is not logical.
But as I read through information about NIH’s work, it became pretty clear why these jobs are being targeted. Curing people involves doing research on a disease, which should have universal approval, but it often involves finding the cause of a disease – and this is what President Trump and large industries do not want.
Research into causes of health problems often creates a trail that leads to pollutants in our air, our water and our food – think about tobacco, asbestos, DDT, PFAs, micro-plastics and red-meat heavy diets to name just a few.
The work done to find cures often leads to proposals to limit or eliminate the things that cause disease, and those proposals lead to regulations. If there is something wanted by the Trump administration (and the corporate interests he serves), it is to eliminate regulations, and the knowledge gained through scientific research. Without the data, there is no basis for regulations. And while corporations will escape liability for the damage they do, it will be the people, you and me, who will be left to deal with the damage. Simply put, shutting down research will ultimately mean that more people will die, young and old, because the drugs they need will never be developed.
We should not allow federal leaders to “shoot the messengers.” We also should not forget that major corporations have a long history of fighting and sometimes hiding evidence that the public needs to know. Regulations protect consumers, employees and others from undue harm that some companies choose to blatantly ignore over profit.
Some companies have shown they are willing to risk human life for a better balance sheet. Some examples are smoking and lung cancer or the fact that climate change has been exacerbated by the production and use of fossil fuels. Some corporate decisions impact all of us whether they want to admit it or not. For many who stand to profit it is better to be unchecked and free of responsibility.
If not for the clinical trials and research work done by these civil servants year after year, we would still be in the stone age of medicine. I was reminded of that this past weekend when I saw that former NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins attended the rally for science in Washington, DC. I am pleased to announce that Dr. Collins will join me for my media briefing in two weeks on March 26 to discuss how these layoffs and funding cuts impact work done at NIH.
The rallies we have seen over the last few weeks in Silver Spring, Bethesda and elsewhere to support federal workers and programs indicate the Trump administration will face more resistance. Activism is needed to help fight for the rights of those being marginalized by the people in power.
This administration's actions are an affront on many levels and deeply concerning to many of our residents and neighbors.
Next Wednesday, March 19, the County Council is hosting its third webinar in their United in Service and Support series, County Council Vice President Will Jawando will be joined by Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown. Attorney General Brown has been on the legal frontlines on behalf of the residents and workers in Maryland being impacted by the federal decisions. Residents are encouraged to log in for the March 19 webinar starting at 6:50 p.m. For more information, click here.
I also want to thank our congressional delegation—Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, Representatives Jamie Raskin, Glenn Ivey and April McClain Delaney—and Governor Wes Moore and his administration for all their work and engagement in supporting our federal workers.
If you need help finding these resources, visit MontgomeryCountyMD.gov.
Drone as First Responder Program Now in Bethesda
Since its inception, the Drone as First Responder (DFR) program has expanded to protect people living in Wheaton, Montgomery Village and parts of Gaithersburg. This week, the first drones flew over Bethesda and my proposed budget for FY26 expands the drone program to Germantown.
This program is a model recognized by the American Civil Liberties Union in balancing effective public safety with transparency and accountability. This balance is achieved through the structure of the program. For example, these drones are never on their own patrolling from above; rather, they are prompted by a resident’s call for service. While flying to respond to calls, the camera is pointed up and not in surveillance mode. Also, every call is mapped and maintained on a website for public scrutiny. You can access that dashboard by visiting remote.dronesense.com/dashboard/MCPDDFR .
So far, this program has flown over 2050 calls, and around 70 percent of the time, they arrive before the first responding officer is on-scene.
Once the drone arrives overhead, the pilot can begin to provide information to responding officers on the ground in real time. This allows the officers to respond more efficiently and safely for themselves and members of the public.
For example, a 911 caller recently told an operator that a man was waving a gun in a public space. When the drone arrived, it was clear that the man was holding a phone. That information changed the entire nature of the police response and deflated a potentially tense situation.
As we prepared for the launch of the Bethesda drone, we held a public meeting about the drone program at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School last summer to earn community buy-in and address residents' questions or concerns.
Drones are one of several tools we are using to improve public safety. We will continue to embrace new technology and use the techniques that work to prevent crime. Drones help us save time and resources, but they cannot replace an officer.
I want to thank Chief Marc Yamada and the MCPD leaders who have embraced this addition to the police department. We saw crime drop 7 percent in 2024. Property crime dipped 6 percent, motor vehicle thefts dropped 15 percent and carjackings plummeted 43 percent. There were also fewer homicides in 2024—19 down from 29 in 2023. Those trends have continued, or in some cases accelerated, downwards over the first few months of 2025.
We continue to signal to criminals that if they commit crimes in this County, we are going to after them.
For more information on our DFR program, please visit the MCPD website.
Climate Action Plan Update
On Tuesday, I took the opportunity to update the community on Montgomery County’s Climate Action Plan with the release of our annual report. We did that at Walt Whitman High School in front of students in the Leadership for Social Justice Academy. I enjoyed talking to these students and, specifically, the conversations I had with many following the event. It makes me feel good to know that we have so many young people in our County engaged and caring about climate issues.
Montgomery County declared a climate emergency in 2017, laying the groundwork for its commitment to bold climate change solutions. Before we even developed a road map, we set nation-leading goals through extensive community input and then created an ambitious, actionable Climate Action Plan in 2021. Our goal remains reducing greenhouse gas emissions, or climate change pollution, by 80 percent by 2027 and 100 percent by 2035.
The plan charts the way to meet the County’s climate change goals, become resilient to a changing climate and address environmental injustices of the past. The County has started 78 of the 86 actions in the Climate Action Plan and made significant progress on or completed 55 actions. As always, money is the biggest limiter on progress – along with the commercialization of new cutting-edge tech that could bend the cost curve in a favorable direction.
As you can see above, the County has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 31 percent from 2005 to 2020, despite a 13 percent increase in population over that same time. We get our emissions data from the Metro Washington Council of Governments, and 2020 was the last year data was published, with an update expected later this year.
Just a couple of weeks ago we enacted our Building Energy Performance Standards—–or BEPS regulations. I thank the County Council for their unanimous approval of these regulations. BEPS is a major step forward in achieving our Climate Action Plan Goals. With BEPS, we are striking the right balance—reducing carbon pollution and supporting jobs while giving building owners a clear, flexible and fair path to compliance.
Over the long run, these regulations will reduce the greenhouse gas impact of building operations, addressing 15 percent of countywide greenhouse gas emissions. We are one of only 14 cities and counties in the nation with this sort of standard.
The Montgomery County Green Bank has deployed $37 million in clean energy and climate-resilient projects, leveraging an impressive $129.5 million in total investment, with a 2.5x return in private sector funding. This includes 60 projects across public, commercial, residential and nonprofit sectors.
The Capital Area Solar Switch Program successfully registered 1,843 households and small businesses to learn about solar and participate in a group buying program. And the County microgrid projects at key locations – the Equipment Maintenance Transit Operations Center, the 6th District Police Station and the Public Safety Communication Center as well as the Brookville Smart Energy Bus Depot. These microgrids will provide crucial emergency power in case of extended power outages.
To reduce our transportation emissions, last year, we completed our Zero Emission Bus Transition Plan, to transition its entire bus fleet to zero-emission vehicles by 2035.
To address greenhouse gas emissions from waste management, the County expanded its Recycling and Reuse Program, allowing residents to drop off mattresses, textiles, film plastics and durable medical equipment at the Shady Grove Processing Facility and Transfer Station.
As a County, we are leading by example, but it would make an even bigger impact if more residents helped. Together, let’s confront this challenge head-on and advance a healthier, more sustainable future for Montgomery County. Visit MontgomeryCountyMD.gov/ClimateSmart to take the pledge and commit to simple, actionable steps that make a difference. Remember, small actions can lead to big change.
Women Making History Award Nominees
Throughout the month of March, we are putting the spotlight on outstanding women in our community.
The Montgomery County Commission for Women— in partnership with Montgomery Women— is proud to recognize the outstanding recipients of the 2025 Women Making History Award.
The awards honor 30 women in Montgomery County who are making a real difference—whether through their leadership, advocacy or dedication to their communities and professions. These women are driving change, breaking barriers and working toward a more equitable and inclusive future for all of us.
You can read more about them online and through their profiles posted to the Commission for Women's X, Facebook and Instagram feeds. These women are a diverse group who represent the best of Montgomery County. Their commitment to service is inspiring, and they remind us of the progress we've made—and the work we still must do.
Change doesn’t just happen—it is driven by people who are willing to stand up, speak out and do the work. The women being honored with this award have done exactly that. They are making Montgomery County stronger, more just and more inclusive, and their contributions deserve to be celebrated. But we also know that the fight for equity is ongoing. We need to keep pushing for policies and opportunities that ensure every woman in our community can thrive.
In April, these remarkable women will be recognized at the Women Making History Celebration.
Let’s celebrate their work and advocacy, share their stories on your social media and recommit to building a future where all women in Montgomery County have the opportunities and support, they deserve.
A Longtime Advocate for Individuals Experiencing Homelessness Retires
I want to take a moment to recognize and thank Susie Sinclair-Smith for her decades of dedicated service to our community. As the leader of the Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless, Susie has been an unwavering advocate for some of our most vulnerable neighbors. Under her leadership, MCCH has been an essential partner in our work to combat homelessness, helping us achieve major milestones like ending veteran homelessness in 2015 and moving hundreds of chronically homeless individuals into permanent housing by 2017. You can hear her passion for helping our community in her remarks at the opening of the Nebel Street Shelter in 2022.
Her vision and leadership were instrumental in expanding critical services, including the opening of a new men’s shelter and increasing the resources available to those in need. She has always centered her work on the well-being and dignity of the people she served. Montgomery County is stronger because of her efforts.
While Susie’s retirement marks the end of an era, her impact will be felt for years to come. I want to personally thank her for her tireless commitment to making Montgomery County a place where everyone has a chance at stability and a home. I wish her all the best in this next chapter and believe that her legacy of compassion and action will continue to inspire us.
As always, my appreciation for all of you,
Marc Elrich
County Executive