No tax increase for Harford County residents, Cassilly pledges

Harford County Executive Bob Cassilly has pledged to not raise taxes to balance the county’s fiscal 2025 budget, despite revenue shortages being experienced throughout the state.

According to the Maryland Board of Revenue Estimates, the state expects to gather $255 million less than it estimated for the 2024 and 2025 budgeting years, resulting in Harford County receiving $13 million less from the state’s income tax distributions.

Cassilly’s office had originally estimated Harford County’s revenue would grow by 5% this year and planned to increase funding for public schools and the sheriff’s office by the same percentage. In a January video message, Cassilly explained his administration’s plans to increase school funding by $15 million, and sheriff’s office funding by $6 million.

In his most recent message March 14, Cassilly said he is prepared to limit local government spending and asked residents to scale back expectations.

“Folks, we cannot ignore our state’s economic reality,” Cassilly said in the March video .

“If your household income dropped unexpectedly, you wouldn’t keep spending as usual. Likewise, county government must not spend more than we take in,” he said.

In Harford’s fiscal 2024 operating budget , public school spending accounted for 48% ($371 million) of the $768 million total, while public safety took 22% ($168 million).

Cassilly’s plan to limit spending comes after the Harford County Board of Education had backed the superintendent’s proposed $354 million school budget in February — a 7.7% increase over the current school year that asks the county government for $40 million in local funding.

“No superintendent wants to cut student-facing, but they also don’t want to cut any positions that support teachers,” Harford County Superintendent Sean Bulson said in a February meeting before the vote.

Meanwhile, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said his office’s needs already “outnumbered” the county executive’s previously planned 5% increase for fiscal 2025. The sheriff highlighted the growing county population, combatting crime and number of service calls as important aspects to consider when developing a budget.

In an interview, Gahler criticized the county executive for not working with departments enough to develop a budget, while also pointing out that the county executive’s office almost doubled its own budget between fiscal years 2023 and 2024.

The county executive’s office received $953,309 in fiscal 2023 under then-County Executive Barry Glassman. Cassilly increased his office’s budget to $1.8 million for the 2024 fiscal year — a 96% increase.

“Bob is operating on Bob-knows-best and not working with his other agencies,” Gahler said. “I believe all this is malarkey.”

The 96% increase came from an executive order to eliminate the Office of Government and Community Relations, resulting in the Office of Executive Staff taking over its services and absorbing $1.5 million into its budget, according to Harford County Executive Staff Chief Joe Cluster.

According to Cluster, the Office of Government and Community Relations had seven employees and the county executive office had four employees. Cluster said the merger of the two offices actually saved the county $144,000.

Fiscal 2025 begins July 1 and ends June 30, 2025. Cassilly said he will release his proposed budget by April 15, and the County Council must approve final local funding by June 15.