One month into her term, Kathy Klausmeier said she has no plans to be just a placeholder Baltimore County Executive.
In her first formal interview since taking office, Klausmeier talked to WYPR’s John Lee about grappling with a difficult budget year.
For starters, the school system is asking for an almost 11 percent increase in spending. Klausmeier said it’s not happening.
“I go way back with the school system and we just have to say no,” Klausmeier said.
School Superintendent Myriam Rogers said the increase is needed for things like special education, Pre-K expansion and staff benefits, but Klausmeier countered that other agencies need money too.
“We have the police,” Klausmeier said. “We have the fire. We have the EMS. It’s not that I want to be stingy. But we just don’t have the money.”
The county has around $127 million dollars in new money to spend in the fiscal year that begins in July. The county schools want all but about $20 million of that available money, but about half of that $127 million goes to mandatory costs like employee health insurance and repaying debt.
Kevin Reed, the director of Baltimore County’s office of budget and finance, said county agencies and the school system can expect increases of around three percent.
“It’s not just about the school system,” Reed said. “I have to balance out the rest of county government too.”
There are lots of reasons for the tough budget year.
For one thing, the state has its own problems, a $3 billion dollar budget shortfall. Klausmeier said the state is passing along to the county $17 million dollars in costs it has historically picked up.
Klausmeier said, “My ask to the state is please don’t take anything else away from us at this point.”
And then there's the Trump administration and the fate of the $400 million in annual federal aid the county receives. Budget Director Reed says about one quarter of that money is used for housing vouchers for people who otherwise can’t afford a place to live.
Reed said, “We also have a lot of federal grants in health and human services and the department of aging These are services that we provide and get funded for.”
Reed says about 600 county employees’ salaries are tied to federal aid.
Adding to the budget headache: inflation driving up the cost of construction and maintenance, COVID relief money drying up and the county maxing out on what it can borrow.
Klausmeier said there are no plans to raise taxes to try to bring in more cash.
“It’s not on the menu right now, that’s for sure,” Klausmeier said. “I had said that, I believe, when I said I wanted to be county executive.”
The County Council last month picked Klausmeier to complete the final two years of Johnny Olszewski’s second term after he won a seat in Congress. She is Baltimore County’s first female executive, as noted by Sandra Kurtinitis, the president of the Community College of Baltimore County, at a budget town hall last week.
Kurtinitis asked, “Who better could they find to fill those big shoes, especially now that they’re high heels, than our well beloved senator?”
Before becoming county executive, Klausmeier served 30 years in the Maryland General Assembly, most of those in the State Senate.
Several members of the County Council are considering running for county executive in 2026, so before choosing her the Council made her promise not to run as well.
Klausmeier said, “I have to say I’m enjoying myself and I’m thinking I said I’d only do it for two years but that was my word. My bond is my word.”
With that said, Klausmeier doesn’t want to be a placeholder.
Klausmeier said, “It’s important to look into the future because that’s where my grandchildren are, that’s where my family is and I may not be here but I want to leave them in a good world.”
Klausmeier will present her first budget to the County Council in April.
