For the first time in months the commissioners received a nice surprise at Tuesday’s meeting when the latest income tax distribution numbers were unveiled.

Kent County received a little more than $3 million in income tax revenue as part of the November distribution. This is a “huge change” from what was received at the same time last year, said the county’s Chief Finance Officer Pat Merritt. Last year the county received $1.7 million.

Merritt said the entire state has seen the income tax numbers jump 31 percent during this latest distribution. The state attributes the huge increase to bills coming in from people who filed for an extension on their 2010 taxes.

“I’m going to take the money, but I don’t believe what (the state) is telling us,” joked Commissioner Ron Fithian.

Merritt said that even though the numbers look promising now it could all change by the end of the fiscal year.

“This is not an indicator of how the year is going to end, this is how 2010 ended,” she said. “While it’s good news for now it may disappear at the end of the year with the last distribution.”

Meaning, the rest of the year’s distributions could be well below what the county budgeted swallowing up any positive difference in income tax revenue.

Kent County has joined the ranks of a growing number of counties and municipalities concerned about the state’s growth and development plan known as PlanMaryland.
PlanMaryland was introduced by Gov. Martin O’Malley as a way to address growing urban sprawl and environmental concerns, according to the plan’s website. Counties and municipalities statewide are concerned the plan does not take local comprehensive plans into account and will take the planning and zoning authority away from local governments.

“It’s almost laughable when people on the western shore think they can do a better job (with planning) than folks on the Eastern Shore … there isn’t a piece of waterfront land on the western shore that hasn’t been developed and here we are probably the most rural area around,” said Commissioner Ron Fithian.

During Tuesday’s meeting Gail Owings, county director of Housing and Planning and Zoning, introduced a letter to the commissioners written by the county planning commission expressing some concerns with PlanMaryland. This will be the second letter the county has sent to the state about the plan.

The letter mostly focuses on the big issues the planning commission was worried about, Owings said, primarily staff time.

“We remain concerned about the schedule for implementation, the bureaucracy, and the cost for both at the state and local levels that will become necessary to implement PlanMaryland. … All county departments have had staffing reductions and increased responsibilities, thereby increasing the difficulty in providing timely responses to various state requests,” the letter states. “In addition, several large state-mandated programs such as the Local Watershed Implementation Plan and changes to the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Program follow a similar implementation schedule. The combination of these major efforts places an untenable burden on our existing staff.”

The planning commission recommends that the state come up with a list of priorities regarding which state-mandated programs should be implemented first. The commission also asked that the state fill in the blanks in the plan regarding benchmarks.

Speaking from the audience, Paula Ruckelshaus said that Senate President Mike Miller and Sen. E.J. Pipkin recently asked for the O’Malley administration to defer implementing the plan until the general assembly has a chance to review it.

“PlanMaryland has significant control over local and county governments … I would urge you to join with Miller and Pipkin to ask O’Malley to defer it,” she said.
Commissioner Alex Rasin said maybe the commissioners should go on record saying they are against PlanMaryland.

Commissioner Fithian recommended that the commissioners send a letter asking that nothing be done with PlanMaryland until everyone has a chance to review it. Owings said she would draft a letter expressing the commissioners’ concerns.

What a difference a year can make. After being on the verge of financial disaster the Kent County Public Library’s audit for Fiscal Year 2011 reveals that all is well.

“Fiscal Year 2011 has had a lot of positive results,” said Library Board President Alice Ritchie. “We think the success has had to come at some cost to the public because we’ve had to reduce our service to the public by closing the library on certain days, we’ve bought less media and books, and we worked without an executive director for part of the year.”

She said the goals for FY2012 include celebrating the library’s 50th anniversary and buying more books and materials.

“We’re very proud of the library and I think the community is very proud of our library too,” she said.

Commissioner Ron Fithian praised the board for their hard work and how quickly they turned the library around.

Ritchie thanked him, but pointed out that the old board was in place for half of FY2011 “and they really set a bunch of measurements in place to help us toward financial health.”
The county also received the results back from its FY2011 audit and the county is in good financial shape.

After last week’s meeting which started off with a protest against the proposed rubble fill north of Massey it was back to the same old routine for the commissioners this week.

Representatives from Upper Shore Aging Inc. and the Department of Social Services presented yearly reports required for both agencies to receive continued funding from the state.

According to Gary Gunther, executive director of Upper Shore Aging, 29 percent of the county’s population is over the age of 60, which is the required age to be classified as an “older American” by both the state and federal government.

Because of the county’s large senior population Kent may receive extra funding next year for senior care programs.
“We have had confirmation verbally, but haven’t had anything in writing yet,” said Gunther.

The commissioners cautioned Gunther that until it was in writing, not to count on any extra money from the state or federal government.

Upper Shore Aging is the designated Area Agency on Aging for Kent, Talbot, and Caroline counties. It develops and manages programs focused on allowing elders to remain and live well in their homes as long as possible. It also provides activities and services through the Amy Lynn Ferris Activity Center and the Department of Social Services.

Linda Webb, director of the Department of Social Services, came to the meeting to discuss food. Specifically food donated to the Community Food Pantry through the federal government’s Emergency Food Assistance Program, which provides food and funding for the pantry.

In 2010 more than $55,000 worth of food was donated to the food pantry, the majority of which came from the USDA, Webb said. There were more than 2,000 visits to the pantry in 2010, averaging out to about 200 families a month. Most of the families that are served by the food pantry are referred by the Department of Social Services.
The amount of food and funding the pantry receives each year is based on the poverty and unemployment level in the county, said Webb. For this upcoming year the food pantry is expected to receive the same funding amount as last year, $1,500, which is used to cover storage and distribution costs.

Commissioner William Pickrum asked if social services receives word from the USDA when “bonus packages are available?” He was told that the agency receives an email from the state letting them know when extra food and funds are available.

The commissioners approved the reports from Upper Shore Aging Inc. and the Department of Social Services, allowing both agencies to move forward with the funding process.