Wicomico County

Wicomico County sits on Maryland's lower Eastern Shore, with Salisbury as its county seat. It has a charter government: an elected County Executive who runs the administration, and a County Council that legislates, approves the budget, and provides oversight.

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Elections

Wicomico County — 2026 General Election

2026-11-03 · 17 races covered

Whole ballot on one page →

Recent meetings

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Wicomico County Council — September 15, 2026

2026-09-15 · Recap With Transcript

This meeting was dominated by emergency legislation on the Wicomico County Nursing Home. After more than an hour of public comment, council passed Legislative Bill 2026-11 by a vote of 6 to 1, adding a new chapter to the county code that establishes a nursing home commission, sets rules for the facility's operation, and gives council a role in removing its administrator. The county executive's administration opposed key provisions and raised the possibility of a veto.

The meeting also included a lengthy work session on the county's 15% mobile home park tax, prompted by a new park owner who began billing that tax to residents as a separate line item rather than absorbing it into lot rent. Council disposed of routine resolutions on mosquito control, a holiday lights donation, a library trustee appointment, an internal audit report, and two intern job descriptions.

Wicomico County Council — June 16, 2026

2026-06-16 · Recap With Transcript

The Wicomico County Council spent a short legislative session clearing routine business — airport grants, a water and sewer plan amendment, budget fixes, a banking contract and three Police Accountability Board appointments — and then spent nearly an hour on a single item: the internal auditor's report that she could not complete an audit of county grants because the records she requested were never produced. Council members described a year's worth of unanswered document requests, debated whether to subpoena the records or refer the matter to the state, and ultimately voted to put the failed audit on the public record while scheduling a work session with the executive branch to sort out what went wrong.

Public comment included the county executive's handling of the audit, AI data centers, the Hickory Mill biorefinery stop-work order, a Las Vegas retail conference trip, and a social media photo. The council's attorney read a prepared legal opinion on the publicized dispute between the county executive and the sheriff, saying the council's available inquiry was limited to whether county equipment was used and describing the legal steps that would require. Afterward, an open work session covered a detailed public works update — landfill cell seven, dredging, and the comprehensive water and sewer plan — and a visit from the Maryland Association of Counties warning of a state budget problem that could reach $4 billion next year.

Wicomico County Council — April 21, 2026

2026-04-21 · Recap With Transcript

This was a wide-ranging meeting that combined ceremonial recognitions, parks and facilities approvals, a lengthy recap of the 2026 General Assembly session by the county delegation, submission of the county executive's proposed FY27 operating and capital budget, and several operational resolutions. The biggest live point of hesitation came on a proposed Salisbury annexation waiver for the North Shoemaker Drive property, which council ultimately postponed for a future public hearing. The meeting also included a late-added temporary outdoor burning ban because of dry conditions.

Wicomico County Council — April 7, 2026

2026-04-07 · Recap With Transcript

This meeting combined a corrective land-use bill, several practical budget and infrastructure resolutions, a failed retirement-plan administrator resolution, an amended invocation-policy resolution, and a long public-comment period dominated by biorefinery concerns, the Westside Community Center roof, and broader transparency questions.

The clearest final legislative action was unanimous passage of Legislative Bill 2026-03, which removed the set-aside requirement for certain minor subdivisions in the Agriculture/Rural district after a resident explained how the existing rule affected his property. The most politically revealing vote was on Resolution 57-2026, which failed on a 3-3 tie after debate over whether a retirement-plan administrator should be a single HR official or a broader committee.

Wicomico County Council — March 17, 2026

2026-03-17 · Recap With Transcript

This meeting was anchored by Legislative Bill 2026-02, a major rewrite of the county's Critical Area Resource Protection code to align with state requirements. But the most important part of the meeting was not just the rewrite itself — it was the debate over administrative variances, public notice, and appeal rights. After public comment and extended council discussion, the bill was amended to require mailed notice to adjacent and adjoining property owners, then approved as amended. The meeting also approved an airport hangar lease, authorized a sole-source mosquito sprayer purchase, and confirmed appointments to the Commission for Women and School Building Commission.

Topics

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Wicomico County Charter Amendments — 2026

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.

Wicomico County FY2027 adopted budget

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.

Wicomico County Waste-Diversion / Biorefinery Debate — 2026

This topic tracks the 2026 dispute over a county-supported or county-adjacent waste-diversion concept that many residents described as a biorefinery proposal. Public concern intensified after a support letter tied to Morgan State University and a nearby agricultural operation circulated publicly, leading residents to worry that industrial-style processing was being explored in an agricultural area.

On April 9, 2026, Wicomico County formally announced that it had withdrawn support for the previously considered concept.

Nothing located since has revived it. A county advisory committee carried "Biorefinery proposal status" as an old-business item on May 13, but no minutes or other record was found saying what was reported under it — so that establishes the subject was still being reviewed, and nothing more. A search of official county sources through September 24 found no later decision, permit, grant or agreement reviving the proposal.

That is a negative search result rather than proof nothing exists, which is why this page is marked monitoring rather than closed.

Two council candidates are campaigning on waste-to-energy, and on whether facilities of this kind are industrial or agricultural for zoning purposes. That is a live political argument and it is not the same thing as this proposal returning. The county's own withdrawal letter distinguished the exploratory concept from a stand-alone biorefinery, and this page keeps the two apart unless a source joins them.

Wicomico County State of the County Address — March 2026

This topic tracks the County Executive’s March 2026 State of the County address and related administration materials. The official county report currently linked with this material is titled State of the County 2025; CivicBury treats that report and the March 2026 PAC 14 address as distinct sources rather than relabeling the report as a 2026 document.

Unlike a council meeting recap, this is not a record of votes or final legislative action. It summarizes the administration’s own framing of county priorities, claimed accomplishments, and areas it wants residents to view as progress.

The address and report emphasized financial stability, employee recruitment and retention, infrastructure modernization, public safety investments, and long-term capital projects including the health department, child advocacy center, libraries, and sheriff’s office.

Legislation

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