The Prince George's County Council's Committee of the Whole approved Proposed Draft 2A of CR-5-2025 on Tuesday, forwarding a multi-year spending plan for local impact grant funds generated by the county's video lottery terminal (VLT) facility. The committee recorded a unanimous procedural vote in favor of the amendment.

County staff member Nathaniel Tutt presented CR-5-2025 as the county's local impact grant fund multi-year spending plan for fiscal years 2025 through 2027 and said consideration was required by state and local law. Tutt told the committee the original plan transmitted by the county executive totaled $11,536,600; the proposed Draft 2 that the committee considered reduced that total to $9,736,600.

The original plan, Tutt said, had line items including $2,434,000 for the Crossland High School area academy; $1,275,000 for Prince George's Community College; $974,000 for the police department; $767,000 for the fire department; $500,000 for Employ Prince George's; $519,800 for the Department of Public Works and Transportation; $400,000 for a youth employment program; and $215,000 in scholarships for students at Friendly, Oxon Hill, Potomac and Crossland High Schools. Tutt said the grants-to-community-organizations subtotal originally was $2,062,000 and that proposed Draft 2 reduced that subtotal to $1,580,900.

Secunda Skinner of the County Executive's Office raised concerns about changes in Draft 2A that removed or reduced several referenced line items. Skinner asked the council to confirm whether the Crossland blueprint item and certain community college funding levels remained in the plan and flagged reductions to public safety and DPWT line items. “It looks like the blueprint requirement for Crossland ... that's no longer there,” Skinner said, and she warned the council to be mindful of state requirements the administration believed applied to some line items.

Vice Chair Burrows, who moved the amendment, presented the revised spending plan as fulfilling promises tied to the MGM National Harbor VLT facility and highlighted programs targeted to District 8 and nearby areas. Burrows detailed prior outcomes credited to earlier local impact plans — including tuition-free community college participation, a free lawn-care program for seniors, a security-camera program in honor of Jay Agnew and workforce and financial-empowerment initiatives — and outlined proposed investments in a year-round jobs program for 15-to-24-year-olds, scholarships, foreclosure-prevention mediation, HIV testing and treatment outreach, veteran benefit assistance, and monthly fresh food box deliveries for food-insecure residents.

Burrows also defended the proposed allocations against administration concerns, saying some county budgets had been “subplanted” and that the impacted area did not receive the promised incremental resources. He asked county administration staff (referenced by name in remarks) to prepare independent analysis so the council could assess legal obligations and prior uses of the fund.

Council members who spoke in favor explained their votes. Council Member Leggett and others described ongoing work by local nonprofits to prevent eviction and support seniors; Council Member Fisher and Council Member Hawkins explained their votes in support and thanked Burrows and staff for the plan and community outreach. The clerk recorded the final vote in favor by the committee as unanimous.

Administration staff noted the plan will still need follow-up steps for any additional funds the executive expects to transmit separately; the administration said an additional amount identified during staff discussion must be submitted by the executive with its own cover letter and go through council and LDC review before allocation. The committee's approval of Draft 2A advances the multi-year spending plan to the full council and sets the funding priorities described in the approved draft.