Published on: Wednesday, September 16, 2009

By Justin Karp

Prince George’s County Councilman Will Campos says that before solutions to issues facing the region can be found, it is important that his constituents know of them in the first place.

That is why Campos, who has represented District 2 at the County Council level since 2004, is hosting another Town Hall meeting this Thursday at Northwestern High School in Hyattsville.

Campos, who tries to host a meeting like this at least “three or four” times per year, said that simply disseminating information to the residents of his district is very important.

“I think people appreciate getting information out there, period,” he said.

Campos said one of the main topics addressed at Thursday’s event will be the current state of the county budget and how the state of the economy will directly affect residents in Prince George’s County.

“We try to do these meetings before and right after the budget during the summer to give people an understanding of what’s going on,” he said.

Maryland and Prince George’s County, like the rest of the country, continue to face cuts and job losses and it is forcing the county council to take another look at their economic plan.

“We’re going to have to redo our numbers once again,” Campos said. “We already did them and we’ve already had to do things in reaction to the already bad economy.”

According to the county Office of Management and Budget, the 2010 proposed Prince George’s County budget will decline by $93.3 million from 2009, which represents a decrease of 3.5 percent.

While solutions to budget woes continue to be worked on by the County Council, Campos believes it is important for his constituents to be aware of the pressing issues, even if they aren’t pleasant to discuss.

“We don’t always have solutions,” he said. “Sometimes we just have situations to talk about. No one likes talking about bad news, more cuts and layoffs and other things along those lines.”

Campos will be joined by representatives of several county agencies to speak about their recent activity and to interact with District 2 residents.

Representatives from the State Attorney’s office, County Police, Department of Public Works and Transportation, Revenue Authority, Department of Environmental Resources, Highway Administration and Department of Taxation will all be on hand.