Politics & Government

County Commissioners Decrease School Operating Funds, Set 'New Tone' in Fiscal Management

The Carroll County Board of Commissioners presented its budget, which includes a decrease in "spendable" funding for education. But the commission president says it's a step toward reigning in spending.

The Carroll County Board of Education is going to have to figure out how to do more with less under the County Commission’s proposed fiscal year 2012 budget, which cuts “spendable” funding by $1.4 million.

The Board of County Commissioners presented its proposed FY12 budget at an open work session in Westminster Thursday afternoon.

The bottom line shows that the Board of Education would receive flat funding from the county, but a closer examination shows that public schools would actually take a $1.4 million reduction in operating funds in FY12. Still, the board of education said it could have been worse.

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In FY11, Carroll County Public Schools received $164.9 million. This year the commissioners are proposing funding at just under$163.5 million, a $1.4 million reduction. However, the commissioners are proposing an increase in the Carroll County Public Schools debt service, from $12 million in FY11 to $13.5 in FY12.

According to county budget documents, school construction is funded with local income tax, impact fees, revenue from the state and bonds issued by Carroll County. The debt service budget funds the principal and interest paid on bonds issued for school facilities and construction projects.

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Although the proposed budget decreases “spendable” funding, the proposed funding amount ($163.5 million) is still almost $1 million above the Maintenance of Effort—the amount of funding per pupil as required by the state.

“If you look at the total funding, including debt service, we’re flat,” said Steve Guthrie, superintendent of Carroll County Public Schools. “We get some in debt service to reduce the bond but less in spending. They are giving us $1 million above what is required by law and we’re thankful for that because at one point they were discussing funding at Minimum Effort.”

Earlier in the budgeting process the commissioners were considering a property tax rate decrease of 2.5-cents and a $1.9 million decrease in funding to the Board of Education. Doug Howard, R-District 5, president of the board of commissioners, said the board was able to put money back into education in the current proposed budget by reducing the tax decrease to a 2-cent decrease instead of 2.5 cents.

“Flat funding is the same amount of money coming from us,” Howard said. “For them, it means more money into debt service, less money into operating budget. The way we accomplished getting there was by changing the amount of the property tax decrease from 2.5 cents to 2 cents. And, that half a cent represents about a million dollars, $460,000 of which went to education.”

Howard said that the board of commissioners considered public input in its decision-making, particularly from individuals who showed up to speak at meetings and have serious discussions with board members, although he also noted that the process exists so that different options can be explored.

“Personally I did not give a lot of credence to the repetitive emails that were clearly just form letters,” he said, “but the input we had when people came up to speak with us, specific messages they sent, repeated discussions with the Board of Ed and Steve Guthrie--we took those very seriously. It entered into our decision.

“It was a work in progress,” he added. “Obviously the first decision we came up with was not where we ended up.”

Guthrie said that he now has the task of taking the numbers from the county and putting together his final education budget recommendations to present to the Board of Education May 4. He said that he will continue to work with his administration to look inward for ways to save and cut.

“Between the two—the state and county—we’re considerably better off than we thought we might be two months ago,” Guthrie said. “I don’t know yet how this will translate into reductions though. Keep in mind that we have already had to make $3 million in reductions.”

In spite of having less “spendable” money from the county this year, and already identifying $3 million in cuts to the FY12 budget as a result of state cuts, Guthrie said that there is hope for an acceptable budget outcome.

“At this very early stage, I think we can put together a budget that is acceptable to the board of education and citizens of Carroll County,” he said.

Ted Zaleski, director of management and budget for the county, said that the budgeting process has been difficult.

According to Zaleski, the commissioners’ proposed budget has reduced economic funding by $500,000, and the contingencies reserve, a fund government entities use in times of emergencies, such as major snowstorms, was cut by $900,000.

The new budget also proposes a $150,000 cut to the Carroll County Public Library, from $7.635 million in FY11 to $7.485 million in FY12.

County government funding to fire and EMS programs is proposed to increase by $160,000 for fiscal year 2012, Zaleski said, to account for rising fuel prices and the cost of physical examinations for volunteers, which the county funds.

"It was a difficult process," he said. "We’re still dealing with the effects of the recession. We’re having to deal with the problems the state is having with their budget. The board came in with ideas they wanted to do including tax relief. You throw that in the mix and you have tough decisions to work through."

Howard said that the board of commissioners has taken a first step in reigning in spending at the county level.

“If you look at cost reduction, debt reduction, property tax decrease and funding--the major things--I think this is the best budget that’s been produced in 10 years,” he said. “Generally the feedback we’re getting is extremely positive.

“I think we have started the process, we have set a new tone. We have set a new measure for how detailed we’re going to be in looking at things, certainly freezing and eliminating $50 million in projects is a dent in it and where we came in on this budget is important.”

Next week, the board of commissioners will present its proposed budget to the community at four different locations: Monday at 7 p.m. at the Taneytown Library, Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Mt. Airy Library, Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Eldersburg Library and Thursday at 7 p.m. at the County Office Building.  

*Updated April 22 at noon to clarify some numbers that were confusing.


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