And now, some budget fundamentals. Are taxes going up in Anne Arundel?

As the Anne Arundel County Council begins weeks-long deliberation of the $1.876 million budget County Executive Steuart Pittman has proposed, there is bound to be some confusion about what constitutes a tax increase. Some of this is political; there already are three declared or possible Republican candidates for county executive. But much of it has to do with the complicated nature of public sector finance and the unique history of taxes in this county.