Message From the Chairman: 

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.

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 of 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

Governor O'Malley - Just out of Touch

 Maryland House Republican Caucus

http://marylandhousegop.wordpress.com/ 

 With gas prices at $4 a gallon and climbing, Maryland drivers will soon experience even more pain courtesy of Governor O'Malley.  Coming this fall, they will be subject to whopping toll increases - a 100% increase at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge alone.  Not only that, but O'Malley is already laying the groundwork to push for an increased tax on gas during the fall Special Session.  

This is all coming at a time when Maryland's economy is hurting and ordinary citizens are having trouble finding jobs. Maryland's unemployment rate is 7.3%, and that isn't likely to improve any time soon with major companies like Northrop Grumman planning to cut over 200 jobs in Maryland by the end of the month.  This in addition to the 600 voluntary buyouts the company has planned in our state.  Last year, that company chose to locate its headquarters in Virginia rather than in Maryland.  

With Maryland ranked as the 45th worst state to do business in, it's likely that other large companies will be making choices similar to the one Northrop Grumman made, forcing out-of-work Marylanders to either commute or re-locate out of state.

Perhaps the reason that the governor seems so out of touch with the realities of Maryland employment numbers is that no one in his inner-circle has trouble finding jobs - in fact, several of them have been on the taxpayer dole for years.  The Governor himself has gone from City Council to Mayor and then to Governor (and all the time he spends picking on Governor Chris Christie makes you think he's looking for a national run sometime soon).

First Lady Katie O'Malley received a Glendenning appointment to a 10-year term as an Associate Judge to the First District Court of Maryland in 2001.  This was two years after her brother, Max Curran, received a Glendenning appointment to a 6-year term on the Maryland Public Service Commission.  (Max by the way just landed a job with O'Malley Enemy #1, Constellation Energy. 

That should make family dinners interesting).  Governor O'Malley's father-in-law, Joseph Curran III, has been a Delegate, a Senator, and the longest-serving Attorney General in Maryland's history.  Not wanting his father in law to get bored counting his pension dollars, O'Malley appointed Curran to chair the Sex Offender Advisory Board.  

But, the nepotism doesn't stop there.  The Gov's baby brother, Peter O'Malley not content in his post at the Maryland Democratic Party, is about to start a new job as Chief of Staff for the Mayor of Baltimore.  It isn't hard to find work when you know people. 

But you know, maybe we're being too hard on the Governor.  After all, he wants to give you a job too (well, if your name is Jeeves that is).  A job listing posted Thursday on the Department of General Services website seeks a Housekeeper/Butler for Government House, the home of Maryland's governor. Starting in the mid-$30,000s, the salary is negotiable. So nice that he could open his doors and hire one of the unwashed masses.  If you're having problems finding a job because Martin O'Malley has run employers out of the state, don't worry!  The Governor has a job for you, provided of course that you don't mind washing the "First Underpants".