The Board of Carroll County Commissioners this week discussed changing a rule that requires a supermajority of commissioners to vote on passing a budget.
A supermajority means that four of the five commissioners, who are all Republicans, must vote to approve a motion or else that motion would fail.
Commissioner Ed Rothstein said he is concerned about the board’s voting structure, which allows the board to pass motions with by a simple majority vote as long as there is a quorum of at least three board members present. A supermajority is only required to authorize taxes.
“I think that we should have a tool in place,” Rothstein said. “The supermajority (rule) does not give us that tool. It limits that tool and we should have the tools in place to do the work necessary. So I’m in favor of going back to a majority vote.”
In January 2023, the board voted unanimously to adopt a resolution requiring a supermajority vote to repeal Resolution 815-201, which required a supermajority of four commissioners voting in favor of any decision to raise taxes in Carroll County. Until that vote, a simple majority of three commissioners could reverse or repeal the resolution requiring a supermajority.
Rothstein said he made a mistake in voting for the measure in 2023.
Gordon said on Thursday that the supermajority rule reflects the need for a compelling argument to raise taxes.
“I do not want to raise taxes,” Rothstein said. “You gotta realize that is not my intent here. My intent is, as I shared for five years now, is put it all on the table, and then take it off as appropriate. We can’t even put the taxes on the table … because it’s not on the same equal playing ground as everything else.”
The board is able to, in a simple majority vote, repeal its decision to require a supermajority to repeal the rule requiring a supermajority to raise taxes. Then, in another 3-2 vote, the board could repeal the rule that requires a 4-1 vote to raise taxes, Rothstein said.
“The discussion about a vote to change a supermajority doesn’t make any sense to me,” Commissioner Michael Guerin said, “I don’t think you can do it. So what’s the alternative? If you really want to make a case about raising taxes, go ahead and do it.”
Commissioners President Ken Kiler said the county has a problem generating enough revenue to fund important programs.
Guerin said the county has a spending problem.
Rothstein said recent county budget increases have largely been due to funding priorities such as education, police and emergency services.
“I do struggle with the fact that we can’t raise revenues without a 4-1 vote, but we can keep putting crap in the budget with 3-2 votes,” Kiler said. “It just seems foolish.”
Commissioners Vice President Joe Vigliotti said it would be more straightforward to either remove the supermajority requirement for a tax increase, or to require a 4-1 supermajority to include items in the budget.
“That would negate the concerns about having a 4-1 supermajority with the taxes,” Vigliotti said, “but it would also really require us to think carefully about what we add to the budget as well. Now, given that, at any point between now and going through the budget, we can certainly vote to undo something like that, but it would certainly speak directly to the issue of having to compromise and having to balance revenue with the expenditures.”
Guerin said he supports the idea of requiring a 4-1 majority for other budget-related votes.
Kiler said requiring a 4-1 vote for adding budget expenses would be a bad idea.
“I’m not ready to vote today on getting rid of the 4-1, but I think it’s a conversation we need to talk about,” Kiler said. “And I think, legally, we could do a 3-2 to get rid of the 4-1 to remove the 4-1, and then we could do the other one, but I don’t know that I want to. I think you made a good point if four of us can’t agree to something, then it ain’t that important.”