Four of the seven questions on a Wicomico ballot this November come
from a single county council vote on June 16, 2026.
Resolution 110-2026 proposed four changes to the county charter.
The council cannot adopt a charter amendment on its own — it proposes,
and voters decide. So the resolution's passage did not change the
charter; it put Questions A, B, C and D on the ballot.
None of the four is dramatic on its own. Together they are a set of
adjustments to how the county's two branches work: what form the public
record takes, how the council talks to the administration, who can be
put in charge of a department without a permanent appointment, and what
counts as a work rule.
Salisbury's city council voted to repeal the charter article that gives
police, firefighters and other city employees collective bargaining rights.
Then voters petitioned the decision to a referendum, and it is now scheduled
for the city's general election on November 2, 2027.
The council adopted Charter Amendment Resolution 2026-03 on May 26,
2026, by majority vote after a public hearing. It would repeal Article
XXIII of the city charter, which was added by unanimous charter amendment
in 2022.
On July 6 the city clerk received a referendum petition signed by more
than 20 per cent of the city's qualified voters, and on August 10 the
clerk reported that it met the legal requirements. On September 14 the
council passed Resolution 3480, setting the referendum for the next city
general election.
So the question is neither settled nor still before the council. It is with
the voters, more than a year out.
What happens to the bargaining framework in the meantime is not something
this page can answer. The council has adopted a repeal that has not taken
effect and may never; how the city treats Article XXIII and the existing
labour agreements while the referendum is pending is a live question, and no
source examined here settles it.
Supporters framed repeal as a response to budget pressure and the need for
flexibility on labour costs. Opponents argued it would weaken recruitment,
retention and morale, and remove a formal process for employees to negotiate
wages, conditions and due process.
This is separate from Maryland's Question 1 on the November 2026 ballot,
which concerns collective bargaining for state employees and does not
govern Salisbury's municipal framework.
The budget was adopted. The County Council passed Legislative Bill
2026-04 on June 2, 2026, and it took effect on July 1. The council
made revisions to the Executive's proposal before adopting it.
The adopted real property tax rate is $0.7799 per $100 of assessed value
— the rate the Executive proposed. The adopted budget book contains the
county's own revenue-cap calculation: an FY26 revenue base of $71,155,291,
allowable FY27 revenue on the net base of $72,578,397 against an
assessable net base of $9,306,247,676, and $73,103,800 allowable once
new construction is counted. That is the county's arithmetic as adopted, not a
judgement about whether every aspect complies with the cap.
The clearest change between proposal and adoption is in savings: the
proposal would have drawn $33,439,818 from prior-year fund balance, and
the adopted budget draws $30,178,271 — $3,261,547 less.
The council also passed Resolution 82-2026 on May 27, moving its own
adoption deadline from June 1 to June 15.
The remainder of this page preserves the April proposal context so readers
can see what the council started from and what changed before adoption.
Wicomico County Executive Julie Giordano formally submitted her proposed
Fiscal Year 2027 operating and capital budget to the County Council on
April 24, 2026. The proposal totals $237.5 million, a 9.8% increase over
the adopted FY26 budget, and pairs that spending growth with a property
tax rate reduction.
The administration frames the budget as balancing tax relief, record
public safety investment, full funding of education obligations, and
significant capital spending, while absorbing state cost shifts including
the elimination of more than $700,000 in Teacher Retirement Supplement
funding.
Major items include a real property tax rate cut to $0.7799 per $100 of
assessed value, a $58.2 million education appropriation that begins
funding school weapons detection systems, a record public safety package
tied to the recently approved three-year Sheriff's Office collective
bargaining agreement, $11 million in new bond funding plus $21 million in
forward funding for the Fruitland Primary School project, and a 5%
salary increase for most county employees.
The County Council reviewed the proposal during May and adopted the revised
FY2027 budget on June 2, 2026.