A People-Centered Budget That Uplifts All Prince Georgians
Dear Prince Georgians:
Today, the Prince George’s County Council passed the fiscal year (FY) 2024 budget. We are proud of the final budget that we submitted to the County Council, which provides important services to residents, gives our County agencies the resources they need to serve our residents, and upholds the values of our community. I want to thank my colleagues on the Council for working closely with us to deliver a budget that improves critical government services while making investments to help grow the commercial tax base long-term, without raising taxes on residents.
Just like jurisdictions across the country, we are still feeling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation, which impacted our revenues and forced us to make difficult and fiscally responsible decisions. Even though we faced a number of challenges this year, I’m proud that we came together to pass a budget that contains people-centered investments that will uplift all Prince Georgians.
The FY 2024 budget includes nearly $5.4 billion in operating funds, an increase of $318 million or 6.3% over the FY 2023 budget. The General Fund totals $4.5 billion, an increase of $254.3 million or 6.0% over the FY 2023 budget. The largest portion of General Funds, nearly $2.8 billion or 62%, goes directly to the Board of Education for Prince George’s County Public Schools. Over $886 million supports public safety agencies, nearly 20% of General Funds. The remaining 18% of the budget supports the rest of County Government operations.
The FY 2024 budget was tight due to several factors, including new funding obligations mandated by the funding formula under the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future (Kirwan). Kirwan is a transformational program that promises to propel K-12 students in Maryland to the top. We fully support its core tenets of early childhood education, high quality diverse teachers and leaders, a focus on college and career readiness, more resources for students, and greater accountability.
We are proud that this year, once again, we are funding our school system at historic levels with $2.8 billion in funding. The Kirwan funding formula legally mandated that the County spend an additional $88.4 million on education this year, which represented nearly half of all new spending in our County budget. That required us to make careful decisions about how we spent the additional dollars we had remaining.
In addition, we announced earlier this month that income tax revenue projections were $60 million lower than initial projections when I released our FY 2024 proposed budget, which threatened to create a potential revenue shortfall. My team made adjustments to the proposed budget to close the gap, using reserve funds for FY 2024 while also closely reviewing the budget for ways to optimize spending. We were able to avoid a budget shortfall this year without making cuts to government services or raising taxes.
As I said when I released the proposed budget on March 15, ultimately, we need to grow commercial revenues, so we can stop balancing our budget on the backs of homeowners. For too long, we have placed too much of the tax burden on residents, and that burden threatens to increase if we don’t change the way we generate revenue. I’m proud that the FY 2024 budget contains key investments that, over time, will help us shift the tax burden away from residents.
Even with the challenges during this year’s budget cycle, the FY 2024 budget still makes people-centered investments that meet the immediate needs of residents while positioning the County for long-term success. Highlights of those investments are below.
Education & Youth Development
- Board of Education - $2.8 billion
- Increase of $170 million, or 6.5%, over FY 2023
- Includes $24.5 million for the Alternative Construction Finance program
- Prince George’s Community College - $131.6 million
- Prince George’s County Memorial Library System - $38.1 million
- Youth development programs like Summer Youth Enrichment Program (SYEP) and Alsobrooks Summer Passport Experience - $2.5 million
- SYEP has hired over 17,000 youth over the past four years
- Summer Passport provided opportunities for over 1,600 youth over the past two years
Safe Neighborhoods
- Prince George’s County Police Department - $390 million
- Includes four new recruit classes for a total of 120 officers
- Continued funding for recruitment incentives for new officers
- Funding for Police Explorers Program to expose young people to careers in law enforcement
- Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department - $261 million
- Includes three new recruit classes for a total of 96 firefighters
- Prince George’s County Department of Corrections - $106.7 million
- Includes two new recruit classes for a total of 36 new correctional officers
- State’s Attorney’s Office - $25.3 million
- Includes funding for six new Assistant State’s Attorney positions
- Vision Zero Prince George’s - $41 million
- Supports outreach and various road safety improvements/projects
- Hope in Action Anti-Violence Initiative - $1 million
- Over 29,000 residents have been served with wraparound services such as afterschool programming, mental health services, workforce development, and housing support
- Includes continued funding for violence interrupters
Environment/Beautification
- Stormwater Management Fund - $113.2 million
- Increase of $16 million over FY 2023
- Programs help combat climate change and mitigate flooding
- Stormwater Management Capital Improvement Program - $141.1 million
- Funds multiple flood protection projects
- Clear the Curb - $135.5 million
- Includes continued rollout of countywide curbside composting program, reaching all households with County trash and recycling by end of 2023
- Includes improved curbside bulky trash program
- Watershed Protection and Restoration Fund - $20.7 million
- 13 new hires in Department of the Environment - $1.2 million
- Includes new positions in Animal Services Division
- Litter reduction/beautification programs - $9.9 million
- Includes enhanced street sweeping and litter removal services in the Department of Public Works & Transportation
Economic Development & Affordable Housing
- Economic development agencies funding - $10.8 million
- Preserving and creating affordable housing - $45.25 million
- Emergency Rental Assistance Program - $14.5 million
- Expands eligibility of current program funding
- Procurement and assistance programs for businesses - $17.8 million
- Increases procurement opportunities and assistance programs across multiple agencies for local, small, and minority-owned businesses
Health & Human Services
- Health Department - $35.3 million
- Includes 3 new positions
- Supports behavioral health programs for residents
- Office of Veterans Affairs - $548,700
- Increased funding from FY 2023 to better serve County veterans
Government Services
- Department of Permitting, Inspections, and Enforcement - $30.8 million
- Funds all vacant positions and IT initiatives to improve permitting services
- Funding to hire after-hours inspectors
- Office of Human Rights - $3 million
- Supports continued implementation of language access program for public services
- Office of Information Technology - $58.1 million
- Includes funding for increased cybersecurity protections
This was a difficult budget year, but by working together, we were able to produce a fiscally responsible budget that uplifts all Prince Georgians. I want to again thank my Council colleagues for working collaboratively with us on this budget, despite the challenges that we had to navigate.
I also want to thank Prince Georgians for being so engaged throughout this budget process. Earlier this year, we held a budget listening session to hear from Prince Georgians as we developed our proposed budget. We incorporated this feedback into the decisions we were making about this tight budget.
Even after releasing the proposed budget, we continued to connect with residents, attending a series of community meetings to engage the public. Our Administration explained the key priorities funded in the budget and received feedback from residents. This engagement helped guide our Administration throughout the budget process, ensuring critical priorities for residents were funded in the FY 2024 budget.
I’m confident that the people-centered investments we’re making in education, our youth, government services, and smart economic growth will pay dividends for decades to come.
Yours in service,
Angela Alsobrooks
Prince George’s County Executive
 County Executive Angela Alsobrooks discussing key priorities funded in the FY 2024 proposed budget with residents.
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