Leggett's Montgomery budget proposal would add police officers, library hours Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) proposed a $4.8 billion operating budget Friday that would add police officers to streets and schools, restore some library hours and give most county employees their first pay raise in four years. The spending blueprint, for the fiscal year that begins July 1, calls for a modest rise in property taxes. The owner of a home assessed at $443,000 - the average value in the county - would pay an additional $80 a year, an increase below the rate of inflation. But Leggett also proposes to retain the 2010 expansion of the county's energy tax, which has added about $150 a year to residential bills and $1,400 a year to businesses. The levy was supposed to expire last year but was extended by the county council. The budget, a 4.1 percent increase over the current fiscal year, continues a gradual restoration that Leggett began in 2012 as the economy began to recover from a recession that ravaged local governments across the Washington region. In Montgomery, the loss of tax revenue triggered more than $2 billion in budget shortfalls between fiscal years 2008 and 2012, forcing furloughs, the elimination of 1,200 county jobs and cuts in everything from road repairs to recreational facilities. Under Leggett's plan, this year's budget gap, about $136 million, would be closed by drawing on a combination of sources, including higher-than-projected income tax revenue, increased state aid and lower than estimated debt service costs. In a budget message delivered this morning to County Council President Nancy Navarro (D-Mid-County), Leggett said that painful decisions made during the lean years have positioned the county to recover. "Our balanced approach to addressing these difficulties has helped bring us out of the worst of this economic crisis," Leggett said. The budget goes to the council, where members have expressed surprise over the size of the pay packages Leggett negotiated with the county's police, fire and general employee unions. They will cost an estimated $31.6 million in fiscal 2014. Leggett, 68, has not announced his plans, but it is widely believed within county political circles that he will run for a third term in 2014. That has led to speculation on the council that the contracts are intended to help smooth the way with the Montgomery's influential public employee unions. Leggett aides reject that idea, and point out that the raises are paltry compared with the savings accrued over the four years of wage freezes and furloughs, which officials place at an estimated $469 million, and to the financial ground workers have lost. "These pay increases will not reverse the erosion of our employees" buying power," Leggett said in his message to Navarro. It only restores a fraction of the lost wages that they experienced. Leggett said he negotiated the raises because binding arbitration - required under the county charter for labor negotiations that reach an impasse - could have resulted in a doubling or tripling of the unions" financial package.