Montco passes budget, quietly

Montgomery County commissioners unanimously adopted a $409.7 million budget for 2013 this morning that holds the line on taxes.

After a controversial runup to the vote, the budget resolutions were passed without any additional comments from commissioners or from the public.

Three nonprofits that had their earmarked funds zeroed out - the Montgomery County Child Advocacy Project, Legal Aid, and the Women's Center of Montgomery County - ended up getting most of their funding. While the county no longer will use earmarks, those agencies will receive funding in 2013 through fee-for-services contracts.

Commission Chair Josh Shapiro said that when he and Leslie Richards took office in January to sit alongside the returning Bruce Castor, they inherited "a mess" that included a $10 million shortfall and projected a $49.3 million shortfall for 2013.

The 2013 budget, Shapiro said, corrects "errors of commission and omission."

Said Shapiro, "It is an honest budget, and it is a transparent budget."

In contrast to their predecessors, the three commissioners sounded like a harmonious a capella group.

Castor said he had taken heat from being a consistent critic of the earlier commission's fiscal practices.