The Mayor and Council in May adopted a $141.2 million city budget that addresses financial pressures on the Rockville community due to the COVID-19 pandemic and maintains the levels of service that city residents expect.
The adopted budget is an increase of just under 1% from the Fiscal Year 2021 adopted budget.
The adopted budget for Fiscal Year 2022, which begins July 1, keeps the city’s real property tax rate of $0.292 per $100 of assessed valuation the same. All residential and commercial property owners pay this tax. Rockville has not increased its property tax rate in over 25 years.
Water and sewer rates will remain the same through calendar year 2021 and the Mayor and Council will continue to evaluate the rate structure after hearing from property owners during the city’s Fiscal Year 2022 budget deliberations. City staff will examine how the federal American Rescue Plan, which provides relief funds to aid state and local governments to offset budgetary, economic and financial impacts of the pandemic, can be used to provide rate relief to water and sewer customers in coming years. Staff will return to the Mayor and Council in the fall with a proposed rate plan that takes effect beginning in January.
The budget includes an increase of $14 per year for refuse and recycling collection and no increase in the stormwater management fee.
The budget uses resources wisely and focuses on several Mayor and Council priorities, including assistance to the community impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic; affordable housing and tax credit programs; safe streets and sidewalks for pedestrians and bicycles; environmental sustainability; social justice, inclusion, and diversity initiatives; and economic development. It includes funding to contract with Montgomery County to provide mental health services and support to the police department, and an assistant to the city manager for social justice, inclusion and diversity. The Mayor and Council also directed funding of regular employee merit and step pay increases, and a $15-per-hour minimum wage for temporary employees.
For more info, visit www.rockvillemd.gov/budget, where the adopted budget will be posted later this month.