The Anne Arundel County Council caused a stir this week by slashing the budget for County Executive Steuart Pittman’s $1.5 million proposed investment in the county’s nascent public campaign financing system.

The council approved a budget amendment cutting $1.25 million from Pittman’s request. Several lawmakers said they could add money later and would prefer in the meantime to use those dollars for public safety, schools and libraries.

The decision irked Pittman; the candidate he endorsed to succeed him, who is seeking to qualify for public campaign funds; and members of a commission set up to estimate how much money should go into the program each year, one of whom resigned as a result of the vote.

“Instead of having a democratizing effect, this reduced allocation of $250K makes the fund beholden to political forces, which undermines it,” wrote Rebecca Forte, whom the Democratic county executive appointed to the bipartisan Public Campaign Financing System Commission, in a letter announcing her resignation. “This choice is poison.”

In 2023, the council passed legislation at Pittman’s request creating the public campaign financing system. The next year, it allocated $1 million to the fund.

The council also created the commission to estimate how much the county should invest each year. The council appoints seven members, one from each district, and the county executive chooses two more.

After studying counties with public campaign finance systems and Anne Arundel’s past elections, the commission recommended $1.5 million in fiscal year 2026. Pittman obliged.

But the three Republican members of the council — Nathan Volke, Amanda Fiedler and Shannon Leadbetter — moved an amendment that would reduce the $1.5 million request for the program to $250,000, leaving $1.25 million to spend elsewhere during a budget season when state and federal funding is in flux.

County law on the public campaign financing fund says money has to be added by July 1 each year. Several council members said that date needed to be changed and that they were committed to pursuing legislation to that effect.

Volke, who represents Pasadena, noted that the deadline to file for the next election is Feb. 24, 2026.

“That means that by the time we come to [the] next budget cycle, we will know exactly who the universe of candidates are that are running for county executive and County Council,” Volke told his colleagues Monday. “We will know at that time unequivocally what the number of participants in this public financing system is. We will be able to extrapolate from that, using pretty simple math, do we have enough money or not?”

Council member Julie Hummer, a Democrat who represents west county, cast the deciding vote for the amendment. A self-proclaimed “huge supporter” of public campaign financing, she said in an interview, her reasoning was twofold.

First, Hummer said, Pittman’s administration failed to publicize the program, leading to few candidates expressing interest in using it. As such, she said, she believes $1.25 million left in the program “is more than enough to fund” those who choose public campaign financing.

“The administration dropped the ball on this,” Hummer said. “They only released guidelines for this program about 10 days ago. ... At this stage, which for campaign season, we’re late in the game because people have declared, they’ve started raising money. This should’ve been done two years ago.”

Anne Arundel officials also are crafting the county’s budget in unprecedented political and economic times, she said.

President Donald Trump has overseen a dramatic downsizing of the federal workforce at the same time he’s threatened cuts to spending. The county is expecting $33 million in grants from the federal government in the coming fiscal year. About 10% of residents here rely on federal incomes, meaning the county’s tax income base is likely to suffer if they lose their jobs.

“I simply, in this economic climate, was not comfortable having $2 million sitting in an account that we can’t touch in any way if it’s not used,” Hummer said.

She said the council intends to allocate the $1.25 million plus savings from other cuts to buy new patrol cars for the entire class of sheriff’s deputies graduating from the police academy, pay for three-year-long internships with the library system, provide certified guidance counselors to the school system and two special education positions.

“It’s only because we reduced that fund and made some other cuts. That’s the only way we’re able to do these additional things that are important,” said Hummer, adding that it also leaves the county with wiggle room in case federal grants are cut. “If we had a lot of extra money this year and were flush, I may very well have done this.”

Hummer said she’s working on legislation that would allow lawmakers to add to the public campaign financing system as needed.

Pittman and Forte, the commission member, separately criticized that idea, saying it would politicize the fund.

The program matches funds up to $750,000 for county executive candidates and $125,000 for County Council candidates.

“Considering that Anne Arundel County has 7 county council seats and 1 county executive seat, this sets up the fund to fail at its intended purpose with less than one person utilizing the fund per race,” Forte wrote. “County Council members are actively advocating for breaking the fund at this rate.”

In a statement, Pittman said he was disappointed the council cut 83% of the recommended investment.

“If candidates use the program as intended, and are not discouraged by this budget amendment, the Council will be voting in the heat of the election on how much money their opponents can access,” Pittman said. “That will discourage candidates and undermine a program that was designed to restore trust in government.”

James Kitchin, who serves as a special assistant to Pittman, is running to succeed his boss and alluded in a statement to political motivations for reducing the investment in the fund, noting that Hummer endorsed council member Allison Pickard in the race for county executive.

Pickard voted against the amendment to reduce the county’s investment in the fund. And Hummer rejected the suggestion that her decision was political or done in any way to undermine the commission’s work, as Kitchin and Forte separately suggested.

“It is sad that, at a time when so many of our residents are disenchanted with our political system, our County Council did not protect this program, which is designed to empower everyday residents and make elected officials more responsive to people,” Kitchin said. “Buying back our democracy from the developers and other corporate interests who pull all the strings should be among the very first things we budget for, not the last.”