Dori Henry:         Welcome to The County, a podcast that covers issues important to Baltimore County, Maryland, explores our vibrant communities, and introduces you to some of the best people and places the county has to offer. I'm your host, Dori Henry. For our inaugural episode, I'm joined by county executive, John A. Olszewski Junior, or as you might know him, Johnny O. The county executive just introduced his first budget to the County Council, and we're going to be talking about the budget and how it will help carry out the county executive's vision for the next four years.

Dori Henry:         Mr. County Executive, thank you for joining us.

John Olszewski:     Thanks for having me.

Dori Henry:         You just introduced your first budget. If you had to tell us in just a couple of sentences what this budget is about, what would you say?

John Olszewski:     This is a budget about investing in our county's future, and it's about the kind of county we want to be, it's about a county that puts education first. It's a budget that ... in a county that invests in sustainability, and in diversity, and in making us the best that we can be.

Dori Henry:         You've been transparent over the last few months about the challenges with the county's fiscal situation that you encountered after taking office. Can you tell us about those challenges, and how they came about?

John Olszewski:     Sure. It all started with a footnote on page 94 of our budget from last year, or the budget that we're currently operating in. Page 94 of the budget book on a five point font, where the prior administration basically assumed in their projections and in their spending, years past, that we were going to pass a budget that had a 10 cent property tax increase, and max out the income tax rate. And you know, that's completely at odds with what I believe government should be, and how we should operate. And so we've really tried to change the narrative by engaging the public, being honest about where we were, and having a collective conversation about what are the priorities of this country so that we can make decisions that are inclusive and transparent.

Dori Henry:         I want to talk a little bit more about how we got to where we are. So you mentioned the footnote, what were the spending decisions that the previous administration and administrations before them, made that allowed us to get to a position where our spending is outpacing our revenues?

John Olszewski:     Yeah, so we've closed an 81 million dollars deficit this year with our budget. A deficit that was projected to grow to hundreds of millions of dollars in the years ahead. And decisions in the past really put us in this position, decisions that had the county spending down a lot of our reserve fund balance. And now, while a lot of that was for good reason, we invested in our schools, on pay as you go projects, but we also maxed out our borrowing capacity, and put us up against limits that would've jeopardized our triple A bond rating.

John Olszewski:     And then we also had decisions that saw us drain down what's the OPEB fund, other post employment benefits, which is the fund that pays for retiree healthcare and life insurance. And rather than keep that fund sustained for future obligations, we had administrations starting in 2015, where we started drawing on that fund to be operational supports. And it created a false sense of operational solvency, and so when you start taking away that, and you recognize the longterm investments and obligations that we have, quite frankly, that 81 million just reflected our contractual and legal obligations. It says nothing of the investments in our education system, and our quality of like, and our parks, and our transportation and roads.

John Olszewski:     And so there really has been a confluence of a lot of events, coupled with a lack of transparency that got us to this point, and I'm really proud of the way that our team is changing that narrative, engaging with the public, opening up the budget, and being decisive, and taking action to both resolve the deficit, but also make the investments that are needed.

Dori Henry:         So speaking of those investments, in your first budget that you just introduced, what do you think are the most consequential investments?

John Olszewski:     The fact that we put education first, and if people know anything about me they know that my heart is always in the classroom. First and foremost, I'm a teacher. I'm Mr. O who spent in time in trailer four at Potapsco High School. And so that's the most consequential thing that we can invest in. I'm really proud that despite the challenges we faced, we still found a way to spend more money than ever before on education. We found a way to not only provide for the 3 percent raise that we just gave teachers, but we gave them an additional COLA on top of that, and that we sustained the steps and increments in their longevity that really recognizes that we have to invest in our teachers.

John Olszewski:     I'm proud that we are planning for our future success, and that we've put up our half of school construction funding, our portion for finishing schools for our future, which are elementary schools and middle schools across Baltimore County that need to be replaced or renovated, and have additions added. And we're already moving forward on our high school challenges, putting forward planning money for a new Lansdowne High School in southwest Baltimore County.

Dori Henry:         You recently visited Lansdowne High School.

John Olszewski:     Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Dori Henry:         Why is it so important that they get a new building there?

John Olszewski:     The condition of a school says something about how we value our students, our teachers, and the families that send our kids there. And every student believes ... I believe that every student should have access to learning conditions that affirm their dignity and their worth. And when we look at a school like Lansdowne, it's consistently been rated as the worst physical condition. And you layer on top of that the fact that we have these overcrowding challenges on the horizon, with 1600 plus seats that we don't have enough capacity to meet the need in the future.

John Olszewski:     So Lansdowne sort of speaks to both of those imperatives. We certainly have more schools that we want to do more. We've been pushing really hard to have the state step up and be a strong leader and partner in that process. There was legislation that passed the House of Delegates but failed in the Senate this year. And it's disappointing, because it would've allowed us to do so much more in this budget and in the years ahead. So I'm disappointed and frustrated that we've denied so many kids those conditions, those quality school learning environments that they deserve. But my resolve is stronger than ever to go back in and get it right next year so that we continue to match what we're doing in this budget to move our school system forward.

Dori Henry:         Beyond education, are there other areas of investment in this budget that you think are consequential and help move the county forward in other ways?

John Olszewski:     Yeah, I mean, the world around us is changing, and so the idea of sustainability is really important, that we're, for the first time ever, having an Office of Sustainability in Baltimore County, to think about issues of climate change and resiliency, and help address our communities who are devastated by flooding. We both have a dedicated position in this budget for sustainability, as well as dedicated funding to help start tackling some of those resiliency challenges.

John Olszewski:     Also, we're a county that's becoming incredibly diverse. We're changing every day, and we want to be a county that views everything with an equity lens. And so we're also really excited that in this budget we have a chief diversity officer to help make sure that in all that we do across the county enterprise, we are taking that approach to our decision making, in our hiring, in our practices, in everything we do. So I'm really excited that we're doing that.

John Olszewski:     We're investing in economic development and having a real strategy for tourism, and the arts, and entertainment, Main Streets. We're investing in trying to build out a transportation network, whether it's more money for road paving and sidewalks, to putting forward money to help get a pilot off the ground for Towson to see if a circulator can be the kinds of things that really gets this county to the next level. Because that's really the choices, is what kind of county do we want to be in the years ahead? And I'm really proud of some of the choices we've made to get us there.

Dori Henry:         I think another area that you hear people talk about in addition to schools, and roads, and sustainability, is public safety. Are there investments in this budget related to law enforcement or public safety that you would point to?

John Olszewski:     Yes, and I'd say it actually goes back to the tie to education, and first and foremost recognizing that having additional social workers and psychologists and ESOL teachers, which are all additions to the school budget, help ... they are a part of the upstream investments that help make our communities more safe, and stronger.

John Olszewski:     In addition to that, we also recognize that as we're trying to build new schools, we have to invest in and support the infrastructure of our public safety officers. We are putting forward planning money for a new Wilkens Police precinct in this budget. We have settled a long standing lawsuit, and have part one of two payments for back payments for our officers. We're giving our police officers a reclassification as part of that settlement, putting their structure on par with our fire department. And I think that represents sort of a new way forward, where we're engaging and working with our public safety, and frankly, all of our employees in all that we do.

John Olszewski:     We've increased our funding to the volunteer fire departments. We are putting forward supports for our fire department employees where we are putting forward commercial grade washers. Issues of cancer and carcinogens with the work that they do is very concerning. But we are committed to not just doing that so they can wash their gear, in future budgets we're actually going to go ahead and start the process of giving them a second set of turnout gear.

John Olszewski:     And then the third leg of our public safety, our corrections officers, they've actually had to share the protective vests that keep them safe, and to me that's unacceptable, so we are putting forward the funding to make sure that all of our correctional officers are safe and have the tools necessary to do their job efficiently and safely.

Dori Henry:         All of these investments are important, but of course they're not free. And in this budget you proposed an increase in the income tax, you've proposed developer impact fees, and then a handful of other small fees and taxes. And I want to ask you about how you came to those decisions, because I know that they were not easy decisions for you to make. And what you expect the reaction to be.

John Olszewski:     Yeah, these are not easy decisions, but as we were talking about earlier, this is about the kind of county we want to be. And we're at a crossroads. We have to make decisions about whether we invest in our communities, and have them grow sustainably, or if we allow the things that we care about most to sort of wither and die on the vine. And I can tell you with absolute certitude that I'm proud of our team. Since taking office several months ago, we've taken a hard look at this budget, we include strategic cuts to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, innovations, and changes, but at the end of the day it was clear that we couldn't both finish the gap that we inherited, and make the investments that are needed without looking at some sort of increased revenue.

John Olszewski:     Now, the last time income taxes were looked at was 1992, and our education budget, just for perspective, was less than half of what it is today, in this budget. So I expect that people will have mixed reactions. I can tell you that our level of public engagement, there were people who have been clear about the need to invest more in our communities, in our schools. We had 1500 people engage in our town hall series across this county, we had people engage in our balancing act. And overwhelmingly people said, "Status quo and sliding backwards is not an option."

John Olszewski:     And so we're going to continue to innovate, we're going to continue to find grant money and partner with the private sector, and the business community. But I think this is a responsible path forward, where I can say even to people who are unhappy with the decisions, I hope that they give us a chance to show how these investments will improve the quality of life for them and their families. I trust that coupling the investments with the accountability and transparency that this administration's all about, people will have confidence that we're being responsible and we're making the right decisions for moving our county forward.

Dori Henry:         You mentioned transparency and accountability, and I know that was a big theme of your campaign when you were running for this office. Can you talk about steps you've taken so far to increase transparency and accountability in the county's government?

John Olszewski:     Sure, so in addition to the seven town halls I just referenced, we did a partnership with all of the council members across Baltimore County where hundreds of people testified on their priorities for the budget, as opposed to the two who've testified in the last two prior budgets. We're planning to introduce a tool that has an open budget, so that people can see both where resources are coming in and how and where they're being spent. We plan on creating a county stat type program. Effectively, when Baltimore City created a similar program, it was 20 years ago, and they were at the cutting edge. But it's 20 years later and we still don't have any sort of tool like that.

John Olszewski:     So I think all of those things, the public engagement, posting more documents online, coupled with an ethics reform package that I'm grateful that county council passed recently, creating an Office of Ethics and Accountability, which is effectively Baltimore County's inspector general, also funded in this budget. Having lobbying reform passed, and putting public campaign finance on the ballot in 2020 are all, I think, collectively a signal to the public, to the residents of this county that we take accountability and transparency seriously, and that we're going to have that be part of all that we do in the years ahead.

Dori Henry:         In your speech unveiling the budget, you spoke about pushing the county to reach its highest potential. What does that highest potential look like to you?

John Olszewski:     It goes back, for me, to what I've experienced in this county. I was a public school kid who was a first generation college student, who was lucky enough to go on and get a PhD and become county executive. That's pretty incredible, and I want every child in this county to have those same kinds of opportunities. That was only possible because I had people who took care of me as I was growing up in this county, and that's the kind of county we have to aspire to be, one that takes care of each other, that's the basic social compact. It's a county where we know that education is truly the best path forward. And that's everything from finding ways to expand access to high quality pre-K, to having teachers that are well paid and well trained, well supported, and in schools that are conducive to learning. A county where regardless of where you live you have access to high quality recreational opportunities and facilities, where we celebrate diversity, and we recognize it's our strength, and that we are taking that equity lens to our decision making.

John Olszewski:     But also a county that recognizes that we have to be thinking about the long haul. Short term gains don't matter unless we're thinking about sustainability in the future that we're leaving behind for future generations. And so I think what this budget does is it really tries to pull all those pieces together to say we have to have a fierce urgency both for the now, but also for the future. And I think it really puts us on solid footing for the years ahead, resolving the challenges and the shortfalls that we were left, but also building us up to really move forward and be exceptional in the years ahead.

Dori Henry:         Great, well, it sounds like you have your work cut out for you. Thank you so much for joining us.

John Olszewski:     Thank you.

Dori Henry:         Thanks for listening to the first episode of The County. This episode was produced with help from the Baltimore County Public Library Media Services. We hope you'll continue to tune in as we explore all that Baltimore County has to offer.