Council approves union contracts, ending skirmish over raises during tight budget year

County Council members voted unanimously Monday to approve labor agreements that three unions reached with County Executive Marc Elrich and his administration, ending consideration of lower employee raises to reduce the need for deep spending cuts elsewhere in the budget.

A crowd of union members in matching yellow T-shirts and police officers belonging to the local Fraternal Order of Police awaited the council’s decision — but not for long. The council took only 10 minutes to approve the contracts and related items.

“Our membership is extremely pleased that the County Council ultimately decided to honor the collective bargaining process,” said Gino Renne, president of UFCW Local 1994 MCGEO, which represents county employees outside the school system and the police and fire departments.

Renne said he and other union leaders told council members that they should turn to the labor contracts last in their search for cuts.

“They ultimately understood the wisdom of that approach,” he said.

A budget puzzle

Council members had tussled over the contracts as they try to hammer out a budget. They have rejected key parts of Elrich’s $8 billion spending plan, introduced in March, including property and income tax increases that would have generated an estimated $189 million.

But they now have to cut about $152 million to balance next year’s budget.

Council President Natali Fani-González had proposed lower raises for county employees as part of an alternative plan that avoided a property tax rate increase.

But on Monday, she joined her colleagues in an 11-0 vote to uphold the negotiated contracts.

Fani-González said her alternative budget was an attempt to “put everything on the table” and convey to the council that, without a property tax increase, they would need to find ways to significantly slow the growth of county spending.

“People feel that, ‘we don’t want to touch contracts,’ which is fine,” she said in an interview after the vote. “But then that means that we’re going to have to reduce a whole bunch of programs and departments so we can have a balanced budget.”