The word is officially out about the cuts that were made public in which Montgomery County proposed a $384.4 million operating budget.

It’s expected to bring significant cuts in services for the community.

Those services include cuts to the library system, the Elmwood Zoo and Montgomery County Community College — just to name a few.  

Residents arrived in bunches to the public hearing recently about the budget. Over 60 residents spoke in a three-hour long meeting in front of county officials.  

The moment the budget was made public, people made their opinions clear in Internet forums around the county.

On the county website, a large round of comments was made.

“We invited the public to comment on the budget on the website,” said Montgomery County Communications Director John Corcoran. “We never had this much input by the public.”

There is a $40 million gap in the budget the county has to fill. In order to do make a dent in that debt without raising taxes, the county proposed a budget that would cut funding.

“The budget that we have posted has not included tax increase,” said Chief Financial Officer Randall Schaible. “We had to eliminate or reduce quite a few items.” 

Montgomery County Community College seems to be taking one of the biggest cuts in the budget, as the college would lose $2.5 million in funding.  

Tuition at the college can rise up to $11 per credit — leading a handful of students being present during the meeting. 

With the amount of people that attended the hearing, a special room had to be reserved for overflowing residents. One resident in the room started to break down in tears as she pleaded, “It is just so relaxing to be on the trail,” she said. “Please do not do away with parks and cleaning commission, increase taxes.”

Simply put, the residents want taxes to remain the same.  

“We want to be here and we want to continue to hear from the public on these important matters,” said commissioner Joseph Hoeffel.

Commissioners are set to resume reading e-mails and comments from residents until a final decision is made later this month. It is clear taxes may become a possibility in order to solve the issue, but the new administration that will take over in January promised voters they would not raise taxes. 

Commissioner Bruce Castor had something to say about that.

“Hoeffel and I never pledged that we never raise taxes under any circumstances,” he said. “I hope that everyone is listening to this because when a political candidate runs for office and says that he or she will never raise taxes in under any circumstances, there are consequences to making that statement. If Commissioner Hoeffel and I had made such a pledge and were bound by our word of honor by telling the public that, there would be no chance that any of these funding cuts would possibly be restored.”