Chairman's Message:
Montgomery County School Board's
Budget Rhetoric Doesn't Pass the
"Straight Face" Test

The Montgomery County Council has tentatively completed work on its $4.4 billion operating budget for fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1. Final action is expected next week. The plan increases spending by 2.2% over the current budget year. Montgomery County's schools are slated to receive $1.95 billion, of which the county will furnish $1.37 billion. The county's budget share of the schools spending is $45 million less than in fiscal 2011.

There not much to like in the Council's budget. Besides increasing government spending, homeowners face a 5% jump in the property tax rate, up from 90 cents per $100 of assessed property value to 95 cents per $100.

The Council also plans a nuisance tax of 5 cents for each bag given out at checkout, which will raise $1.5 million per year. This new money will almost cover the cost of a $2 million subsidy for a new Costco in Wheaton. (So in coming months, each time you pay the new bag charge at checkout, keep in mind that your nickel helps finance Costco's new Wheaton location.)

It is hard to make the Montgomery County's Council ever seem reasonable on any issue, but this week the School Board has managed to do so by being even more unreasonable.

According to Friday's Montgomery Gazette, Montgomery County's public school system is "not ruling out a lawsuit" over the County Council's cut schools' funding by $45 million. Under Maryland law counties are prevented from ever reducing school funding through a state "maintenance of effort" requirement.

Christopher S. Barclay President, Montgomery County Public Schools

The Washington Examiner quotes school board President Christopher Barclay as saying that the budget could "eventually undermine the tremendous progress we have made. The council has stated that they support the school system and that its cuts will not hurt the classroom. That simply isn't true. Every school will feel the effects of these cuts."

Consider the cuts being proposed.

Of the $45 million the Council cut from the schools, $20 million comes from retirement benefit payments for schools employees which the county government will manage, rather than transferring to the schools. The Council proposed another $25 million in cuts, mostly by reducing benefits for its roughly 20,000 school employees. The schools' cuts bring health care costs for schools employees more in line with plans available to other government workers.

Only in the Alice in Wonderland world of government budgeting would making a $20 million payment directly to a retirement fund, rather than to an agency, be described as a "cut." And it is a measure of the School Board's arrogance that they would sue to prevent this, because such a transfer will "hurt the classroom."

Among the most contentious aspects in the budget is the requirement that county employees pay a 5% higher share for point of service health care plans, 2% more for defined-benefit pensions and 2% more next fiscal year for 401(k)-style arrangements. The County Council's budget also extends these changes to school employees by expecting them to pay 5% higher share for their health care plans and reduces pension benefits in a similar fashion to a state changes passed earlier this year.

Schools employees previously have been required to pay as little as 5% of their health insurance cost, less than the 20% that other county employees have contributed. Raising the share paid by school employees, when other county employees are making sacrifices, seems simple equity.

More to the point, the Montgomery County School System's noisy response to the current budget realities undermines confidence that the schools have been doing anything to tighten their own belts. Surely there must be some cuts that the system would be willing to make on its own. Even a reduction through attrition in the large number of headquarters staff might give taxpayers some hope that the schools understand the challenges that other residents face. Instead, School Board responds with "head in the sand" obstinacy.

The Montgomery County School Board has accomplished an impossible feat, by actually making the Montgomery County Council seem reasonable and fiscally responsible.

Mark Uncapher
Montgomery County Republican Chairman