The Anne Arundel County Council and County Executive Steuart Pittman are beginning their planning for the 2026 fiscal year budget amid a chorus of pleas for increased pay and to fill out the workforce for first responders and public school employees.
Pittman’s office has held budget town hall meetings in high school cafeterias and auditoriums in six of seven county districts this month. At each event, dozens of people queued behind a single microphone and argued their case for a piece of the yet-to-be-unveiled budget. Many of the speakers were teachers and first responders, who are represented by unions and voiced concerns about what they called understaffed and exhausted workforces.
“We’re in a difficult position,” Pittman said Wednesday at the District 1 budget meeting at North County High School. “We know it’s a tight budget year – not a terrible budget year. The county is in much better shape than the state government is right now.”
Pittman’s concerns come as expenditures are expected to grow while the county’s $34 million in federal funding is in danger of being disrupted by the Trump administration’s executive action to freeze $3 trillion in federal funds. That executive order was rescinded Wednesday, but state and local officials are worried it could be reinstated in some form.
A $3 billion state budget deficit also looms. Gov. Wes Moore’s proposed budget would transfer roughly $144 million in state aid onto the shoulders of local governments.
“Often what [state governments] do is they transfer their costs onto counties to get out of their budget crunches,” Pittman said.
Pittman must propose a budget for council review by May 1. The 2026 budget must be adopted by June 15 and will take effect July 1.
On Wednesday, three members of the county Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 70 — O’Brien Atkinson, A.J. Gardiner and Mike Shier — addressed the county’s problem with attracting and retaining officers. The county has 763 officers, more than 400 short of the 1,200-person staff Pittman and the Fraternal Order of Police agreed upon, according to Atkinson.
“Sir, we believe you’ve tried; and you’ve made strides,” Atkinson, president of the FOP, said Wednesday. “We know that your efforts have kept us afloat, but we’re still treading water and don’t have enough officers to properly serve this county today.”
Under Pittman, public safety funding has increased about 290% since 2019, according to the Anne Arundel County Budget Office. That number includes spending on the fire, sheriff’s and police departments. This year, starting police salaries increased to $70,000 while signing bonuses dropped to $10,000. For the officers, the increased salary isn’t enough to justify the overtime shifts required to make up for the lack of backup.
Teachers — who graded homework on the lunchroom tables of North County High School Wednesday — made similar appeals to increase staffing and compensation. One after the next, in matching blue T-shirts, members of the Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County spoke.
“Right now, young teachers are leaving the profession in droves,” said Maria Côté, a teacher at Wiley H. Bates Middle School. “They see their college classmates making real money with time left over to have a life. Or they’re just leaving Anne Arundel County because Howard, Montgomery, [Prince George’s] and Baltimore counties pay much better.”
The teachers and school staff requested a pay scale that’s competitive with neighboring counties, a livable wage for all staff and an increase in staffing to reduce class sizes and support special education and multilingual students.
County Council member Allison Pickard, a Millersville Democrat representing District 2, had a similar showing at her Jan. 9 town hall at Severn Run High School.
“All of these issues around hiring teachers, it’s complex,” said Pickard, who served nearly two years on the Board of Education. “We’ve taken great care over the last six years to invest. We have historic investment in education and teacher pay, but there’s also a teacher shortage.”
In fiscal 2024, 50% of the county’s general fund went to the Board of Education, according to the County Budget Office.
“As we go into this budget cycle, I’m going to listen to everybody and the things they want the county to spend money on,” council member Nathan Volke, a Pasadena Republican who represents District 3, said at his district’s town hall. “If you have suggestions on ways the county can save money or spend less money, I welcome those too because I don’t normally hear them.”
The final district-specific budget town hall will be held in District 6 on Feb. 4 at 6 p.m. at Annapolis High School. A virtual town hall conducted in Spanish is scheduled for Feb. 5 at 6 p.m.
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