Information not easily found on government websites
Anne Arundel County, MD
Citizenship ~ Open Government ~ Public Information ~ Open Data ~ Transparency
Information not easily found on government websites
Anne Arundel County, MD
Citizenship ~ Open Government ~ Public Information ~ Open Data ~ Transparency
Bill 65-25 to amend the County Supplement to the Homeowners Property Tax Credit was introduced July 7, 2025.
> The Public Hearing is Monday, 9/2/25, 7 pm, Arundel Center (44 Calvert St, Annapolis).
As proposed...
Bill 65-25 completely misses the mark!
It's not "rocket science"...
The income amounts associated with each “allowable percentage tier” have not been updated for 20 years!
Educate yourself ... Then come to the Public Hearing on 9/2/25 to support real change.
> I will testify at the "Invitation to Audience" at this Monday's Council meeting (7/21/25) to "Ring the Alarm" & set the stage for 9/2.
> written testimony & Info sheet
> previous testimony with more info
Contact me with questions or to schedule a briefing at aacountycitizenshare@gmail.com
Anne Arundel County Budget Information Resources
Property Tax Inequity due to Anne Arundel County's implementation of Homestead Credit (just updated on 5/21/2025)
Public Hearing Testimony - PDF link
Interactive Dashboard; see where you fit-in ("winner" or "loser") - Tableau Public Site link
Explanation video (9 minutes) - YouTube link
Dashboard Overview - PDF link
Proposed Budget Open Data Files
FY26 released on 05/01/2025, FY25, FY24, and FY23 (first year this data was released)
An interactive "dashboard" to easily explore the above data source (Not yet updated for FY26 Proposed Budget - last update 05/13/2024)
Click Here to access this interactive dashboard (a web-based data exploration tool via the Tableau Public website)
Explanations and "How To" Documents and Videos
A 3-class course: Understanding the County Budget - How to make sense of it all? (June 7-9, 2023) part of the Peer Learning Partnership (PLP) program at AACC
Short videos from portions of this course:
Silent walk-through of slide deck which served as structure for these 3 classes (5 minutes)
Class 1 - Part 1 - Purposes of a Public Budget & why we should care (13 minutes) optional & "academic"
Class 1 - Part 2 - Evolving best practices and five-stage explanation of process (21 minutes) optional & "academic"
Class 1 - Part 3 - Navigating contents of AA County Budget Book (20 minutes) essential to understanding budget presentations
Important "backgrounder" - Understanding Governmental Accounting 101 (15 minutes) essential to understanding budget presentations
5-part Comprehensive Budget Primer - presented to County Council via "Invitation to Audience" testimony Mar-Apr of 2023
A 2-hour presentation entitled "Data Exploration Resources - AA County Budget" was given on June 10, 2022 to a "Fridays with Friends" group of PLP
Link to the slide-deck PDF
Video of pre-recorded version of the presentation:
Part 1 - Key concepts and core legal & accounting principles underlying the Budget (53 minutes) Part 3 & Govt Acctg 101 from above covers this material
Part 2 - Detailed demonstration showing "how-to" connect Tableau Public to the above open data file, and explore the data (1 hour)
First 17 minutes essential to understanding advantage of Open Data File (via Excel PivotTables or Tableau Public dashboards) vs "BuDDE" tool
Letter to the Editor: 05/22/2022 (PDF) Here's a guide to county budget concepts Link to Capital Gazette
My opinions as expressed in Letters to the Editor and in Testimony at public hearings.
The beginning of a repository of requests & responses of AA County governmental entities via the Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA)
Link to the Maryland Public Access Ombudsman website (the key resource in Maryland)
Lot's of data is publicly available but it's often difficult to access or understand.
Here are links to "sourced" factual data; hopefully presented in a more understandable manner.
The Charter Review Commission held two Public Hearings on December 13 and 16 to receive public comments on proposed redistricting maps for County Council Districts: Click Here for a two page summary, including thumbnail maps, and Here for County Press release.
The County Charter is the "Constitution" of local government.
First approved by County voters in 1964, it is subject to formal review every 10 years.
Here are links to historical documents, and reference materials on relevant topics.
There are lots of videos of public meetings, but it's often difficult to find what you are looking for.
Here are links to some of these videos with chapters listed in the Description which provide "clickable" links to the start of each item on the agenda.
Biographical information about me, and my reason for providing this information share.