The Wicomico County Council is plugging a financial hole with unused road-maintenance funds to help pay for an expected $3.5 million tax revenue shortfall.
Supporters on the council called it an accounting fix to meet the slower than expected job growth.
Council member Sharee Sample-Hughes, who voted with the 4-to-3 majority, told her colleague, “No one has a crystal ball.” She added, there are no perfect budgets.
The Salisbury Daily Times reports that critics argued that the $2.7 million comes from surplus funds that should be used to repair the county’s highways.
John Palmer, a Delmar resident, told the council, that it seemed to him that county was “…robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
Critics noted that the county raised spending this year by $10 million raising the tax property tax rate along the way.
