Montgomery County Council members are expected today to vote on collective-bargaining agreements with the police and county workers’ unions that will provide raises to a bulk of the county’s work force and increase next year’s budget by almost $30 million.

Last week, the council’s management and fiscal policy committee recommended support for the union deals, which were negotiated earlier this year.

And, even as some council members expressed concern about the high costs of funding the agreements, they promised to vote for them.

The agreement the county struck with the Municipal and County Government Employees Organization Local 1994 chapter calls for 4 percent general wage adjustments in fiscal year 2008 and 4.5 percent raises during the following two years. Combined with increases in tuition assistance for these employees and other benefit enhancements, the fiscal impact is said to be about $18 million.

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Police officers in Montgomery County also will get 4 percent raises next year as part of the deal between the Fraternal Order of Police and the county. The collective-bargaining unit, if backed by council members, would equate to a $9.4 million cost increase in the budget.

Council Member George Leventhal and Council President Marilyn Praisner earlier this month said they were unsure the county bargained hard enough during negotiations.

Praisner has even suggested that a more open process could be in order, as it used to be, in which the public could listen in on the discussion. But such a major change would take time to implement.

In the meantime, Leventhal said he merely “expects negotiations to be handled aggressively from both sides,” which he is not convinced happened on this go around.

According to Council Staff Director Stephen Farber, more than three-quarters of the recommended fiscal year 2008 budget increase comes directly from higher benefit and salary costs associated with new and continuing agency collective-bargaining units.

County government workers’ compensation accounts for nearly 70 percent of the budget, according to Farber’s analysis.

dlevitz@dcexaminer.com