Montgomery County Gazette -- Monday, May 18, 2009
County leaders looking to close school funding gap
Montgomery schools could be on hook for $80M
by Janel Davis Staff Writer
Montgomery County leaders met Monday for about three hours in closed session to determine how to close an $80 million budget gap created when the state school board denied the county's request for a school funding waiver last week.
With the school system set to get that amount more from the county than originally planned, county officials were considering possibly recouping the money by charging the school system $80 million to pay the debt on school construction bonds, according to sources in the meeting. Thus far, school officials seem cool to that idea.
Also unknown is whether officials will require county employees to help close the gap by taking unpaid furlough days or forgoing their incremental step increases.
Local leaders were continuing meetings Monday evening.
The county can appeal the state board's decision in Circuit Court. County leaders also could choose not to fund its required school payment. If that happens, the county could lose between $50 million and $60 million in state education funding.
A vote on the budget is set for Thursday. The budget must be approved by June 1.
In addition to denying Montgomery County's waiver request, the state school board denied requests by officials in Wicomico and Prince George's counties. The counties had sought waivers of the maintenance-of-effort law that requires jurisdictions to maintain per-pupil spending from year to year.
In its decision Friday, the state board found that the counties had not met the burden of proof in showing that revenue losses would prevent the counties from meeting the required funding levels.
This is the first time Montgomery County has sought a maintenance-of-effort waiver from the state. Jurisdictions in the state were given a uniform school funding waiver during the recession of the early 1990s.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
12 comments:
Was the maintenance of effort debacle on the agenda when the Wicomico County Council met today, and what happened???
Joe:
It's too bad we don't have a decent local newsmedia here like the Montgomery County Gazette.
But then we wouldn't need you!
This is getting beautiful! Local governments who for years have chanted "If we don't spend it, we won't get it next year" are now unable to keep up their spendmore ways; having to learn how to live on a budget like the rest of us, and our taxes go down as a result! Bounce those "assistant to the assistant" positions off the rolls and trim it down!
When I bought my house in 1991, my taxes were half what they were now. At that time, half went to education. Since then, ALL increases have been in the name of "education". This is either too much money for education, or a cheap ploy to raise taxes overall in the name of. To hell with the "General Fund", also. If there is no representation, then there is no tax assessed.
Again I must comment on the fact that these governing bodies know in advance that this charge is im posed. why is it not looked at as a fixed charge? Are these counties not paying their electric and gas bills, also????
The whole country is broke. This country is writing checks that it cant cash. Its going to get worse. If your home keeps being valed at less and all the expenses with the home keep going up, whats the point?
You know what the point is? Its so our kids can grow up in a HOME like we did, makes for happier memories later in life.
All of these are nice thoughts about education spending less and cutting perceived waste, but the reality is that unless and until the State legislature decides to revamp the Maintenance of Effort (MOE) calculations, there will never be the kinds of cuts that many in this community are looking for. MOE means just that. The County must be at least consistent with its support per pupil for education. It may go down if enrollment went down, but otherwise the minimum funding required by the county stays the same or goes up each year if the county is to be dependent on state aid. In this county, the local share of education funding is declining while the state share is increasing. Education funding is also declining as a % of the county budget, so local public schools are dependent on state aid.
Do the revenue cap supporters understand this? In essence, only education must be funded with an MOE calculation. The other county depts will suffer substantially more unless the state law is changed and that is not likely.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Ain't that right, Jonathan?
They (Montgomery) have a much bigger problem than Wicomico.
They have a total budget deficit of about $600 Million so requested a MOE waiver for about $80 Mil., and would (if granted) fund their schools at about $1.45 Billion (yes you read that correctly).
And, unlike Wicomico, they also have a surcharge tax on telephone and electric/gas bills in Montgomery County.
Prince George's County is in the middle -- its projected total budget deficit is only about $115 Million.
We spend $14,000+ a year per student in Wicomico County, I think the WCBOE needs to trim some fat. This is the first step-REcognizing and admitting you have a problem. Dependence is not pretty.
7.62-39 , $4.00 a year ago
$19.99 today. stock up fast guys
everybody's going bankrupt!
I beleive that the Council told the BOE to find the $2 mil
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