Committee reviews DEP operating budgets; leaf‑blower rebates to continue while outreach winds down

The Montgomery County Transportation and Environment Committee on April 20 reviewed the Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) FY27 operating proposals, concluding staff’s recommendation is largely a ‘‘same‑services’’ budget while sending any proposed enhancements to the council’s reconciliation list for later consideration.

Committee staff told members the county executive recommends roughly $45.8 million across DEP general‑fund and water‑fund accounts, a net decrease compared with the prior year driven mainly by technical adjustments. ‘‘We’re not seeing programmatic or staffing additions; most of this is technical and same‑services adjustments,’’ committee staff said during the presentation.

The committee spent an early portion of the hearing on the county’s electric leaf‑blower program. DEP director Jennifer Macedonia told the panel that funding remains available for both rebates and limited outreach in FY27. "Yes, in fact, there is funding available. We're in the wind down of the rollout for the Leaf blower program. But we do have some funds available for both education and rebates in FY27," Macedonia said. Staff said the FY27 rebate allocation is $300,000, with an additional roughly $65,000 earmarked for targeted outreach.

DEP officials described a recent residential trade‑in event that replaced gas blowers with electric units for about 300 participants, and said the program will increasingly target small commercial landscaping businesses. Staff noted the program’s earlier, one‑time rollout funding was larger and that FY27 assumes a drawdown consistent with a transition to steady‑state operations. Past rebate levels referenced by staff included approximately $100 for residents and larger rebates for qualifying small businesses.

Committee members also reviewed other components of the DEP budget packet. Staff flagged a personnel cost shift from the general fund to the Water Quality Protection Fund for certain shared positions, and noted the Tree Montgomery Program is supported by a dedicated tree‑canopy revenue source (about $1.5 million in the general fund portion) that is legally constrained to tree services.

On climate planning, the county’s climate officer described the climate NDA as a relatively modest but flexible fund used to advance cross‑departmental climate and equity priorities (examples cited included localized weather monitoring stations and pilot resilience‑hub projects with school partners). The officer said the executive recommended keeping the NDA at the same FY26 level for FY27 to preserve that flexibility.

What’s next: committee staff will incorporate any committee direction into the reconciliation list for the broader council budget process; no final appropriations were adopted in the meeting.