On Thursday, the Baltimore County Council approved all but $6.6 million of County Executive Kathy Klausmeier’s proposed $4.8 billion budget for fiscal year 2026, denying county funds for a golf course renovation that her predecessor had championed.

Council Chair Mike Ertel said the council members shared a “concern over spending tax dollars to fund an amenity we believe should be paid for by the Revenue Authority itself.” Council member Todd Crandell, who brought up the concern, has been critical of the Rocky Point project since it was proposed.

The Dundalk Republican criticized the administration of Democrat Johnny Olszewski Jr. for not giving the council opportunity to scrutinize the project’s funding. Others in the community and on the council also had expressed concern about taxpayer dollars funding the renovation, including local restaurateurs who bristled at future competition from a taxpayer-funded restaurant.

“Why should the county taxpayers be funding a restaurant that’s going to compete with local businesses?” Crandell said after the budget vote.

Rocky Point was a pet project of Olszewski, who hails from the east side and is now a member of Congress. His father, former council member John Olszewski Sr., was close to one of the golf course’s biggest boosters, attorney and philanthropist Robert J. Romadka.

Romadka went to see the younger Olszewski after his 2018 election to discuss the need for renovating the clubhouse and eventually secured a commitment to fund it. Olszewski knew the course; he had taken lessons there and held fundraisers there in 2023 and 2024.

The funds would have transformed a stuffy, decades-old clubhouse into a modern space fitted with a “grill room,” kitchen, patio outdoor seating, a new pro shop and banquet space. County officials had described it as a “down-to-the-studs” renovation.

The Baltimore County Revenue Authority operates the county’s public parking garages and its five public golf courses. It is generally a self-sustaining agency that “does not directly receive appropriations from general purpose units of government,” according to its website. According to the county code, under an agreement executed in 1997, the authority is supposed to put a percentage of its profits from golf courses and parking garages back into the county general fund. Crandell said it never has done so.

Olszewski said at last year’s groundbreaking that “the county had to put up enough money to make the numbers work” for the kind of renovations that course boosters wanted to see.

Revenue Authority Executive Director Ken Mills was not immediately available for comment Thursday. Olszewski didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

It’s not clear how the Rocky Point renovations will be funded now, but the Revenue Authority has the ability to issue its own bonds. The Revenue Authority has close to $19 million in total current assets, although much of that is earmarked for future projects.

Ertel praised Klausmeier and budget director Kevin Reed for proposing a no-frills budget that does not raise taxes and increases spending a modest 3%, including a 2% cost-of-living increase for county employees.

However, he called the school system’s budget “very frustrating” because officials had sought an 11% increase to deliver on promised raises, and Klausmeier provided only 3%. Instead of the 5% raise that Superintendent Myriam Rogers promised teachers, now they are getting only 1.5%.

Ertel said the council believed the county’s teachers deserved the raises they were promised and even discussed conditional appropriations or cuts to the school system’s budget as a motivation to find money for them. Ultimately, Ertel said, they declined to do that.

“But I hope our message to BCPS is clear — that it needs to find the funding to honor the expected salary increases to the greatest extent that it can," Ertel said.

The school system is expected to negotiate with the teachers’ union now that the council has approved the budget.

Baltimore County is grappling with cuts in federal and state funding, as the Trump administration moves to slash government spending to fund a multitrillion-dollar package of tax breaks.

Ertel said the county has not raised property taxes for 37 years — a line that generated raucous applause. The county’s real property tax rate will remain $1.10 per $100 of assessed value.

Klausmeier said in a statement, “This uncertain budget season has presented unique challenges, and I am proud Baltimore County is working to overcome these challenges with a responsible, commonsense budget that delivers uninterrupted county services without raising taxes for our residents.”