{"id":8661,"date":"2017-10-05T07:00:02","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T11:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=8661"},"modified":"2017-10-05T07:23:02","modified_gmt":"2017-10-05T11:23:02","slug":"more-on-mcps-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=8661","title":{"rendered":"More on MCPS Funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco.<\/em><\/p>\n

Word has reached Seventh State that the governing establishment in Rockville is displeased with our recent post on MCPS funding<\/a>, questioning whether our data is accurate.\u00a0 Let\u2019s establish the data\u2019s presence in the public record.<\/p>\n

The assertion in our post generating the most unhappiness is that the county cut local support for MCPS while it gave most other functions of government double digit increases over the FY10-16 period.\u00a0 Local funding for MCPS can be found in the County Executive\u2019s recommended budget<\/a>.\u00a0 The table excerpted below shows a $33 million cut in local funding for MCPS between FY10 and FY16.\u00a0 That happened at the same time that enrollment grew from 140,500 to 156,514, an 11% increase.\u00a0 Another item of interest is how dependent the county is now becoming on state aid for school operating funds.\u00a0 For much of the 1980s and 1990s, at least 80% of MCPS\u2019s operating budget was financed with local funds.\u00a0 Now, the local share is down to roughly two-thirds.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As for the other departments and agencies, actual funding for FY10 can be found here<\/a> and approved funding for FY16 can be found here<\/a>.\u00a0 Those data points, along with the MCPS local funding history above, are assembled in the table below which shows how much of an outlier MCPS was during the FY10-16 period.\u00a0 Three notes.\u00a0 The Department of Environmental Protection\u2019s big increase is due to a hike in the water quality protection charge, which is used to finance stormwater projects mandated by the state.\u00a0 It does not reflect a significantly greater draw on property tax revenues.\u00a0 The Department of Housing and Community Affairs\u2019 budget drop reflects a significant one-time expenditure for the Housing Investment Fund in FY10.\u00a0 It does not illustrate a slash in the department\u2019s operating activities.\u00a0 The Department of Transportation\u2019s operating budget is not included in this data because it was subject to departmental restructuring in FY11, preventing an apples-to-apples comparison.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Data on the county\u2019s local per pupil contribution to MCPS can be found in this Office of Legislative Oversight report appendix<\/a> and in County Council budget packets like this one<\/a>.\u00a0 This information was the basis of our statements that the county cut per pupil local funding for three straight years and froze it for four straight years, as illustrated by charts we published a year ago<\/a>.\u00a0 The Maryland State Department of Education\u2019s Fact Books<\/a> are our source for the actions of other counties after the Maintenance of Effort (MOE) law was changed.\u00a0 During the first three years of the new MOE law, most other counties \u2013 including ones controlled by Republicans \u2013 increased their local per pupil contributions while Montgomery County did not.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be fair.\u00a0 There is an intellectually honest argument to explain these actions.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a statement from Hypothetical Council Member X, who has decided to level with constituents about the county\u2019s history of funding public schools.<\/p>\n

Yes, we cut MCPS during the Great Recession.\u00a0 We had to.\u00a0 Our reserves were being drained to zero and we were about to lose our bond rating.\u00a0 We were raising the energy tax, breaking our collective bargaining agreements, furloughing county employees and laying some of them off.\u00a0 State law prevented us from cutting MCPS like the other agencies, so we did what we had to do.\u00a0 The state also shifted a portion of its responsibility for paying teacher pensions down to the counties and now we are paying $60 million a year for that.\u00a0 But it\u2019s true that we squeezed MCPS longer and harder than any other part of county government and that was a mistake.\u00a0 We tried to reverse that with the 9% property tax hike.\u00a0 Going forward, we should give MCPS small and steady increases so we don\u2019t run into problems with our schools again and we will pay for it by restraining growth in the rest of the government.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There\u2019s a reason why intellectually honest arguments are not often used in politics: they are not pretty!\u00a0 But it\u2019s time to be honest about where we have been and where we are headed.\u00a0 That SHOULD be what the next election is about.<\/p>\n

One more thing.\u00a0 The establishment may choose to respond with a guest blog.\u00a0 We welcome fact-based debate.\u00a0 But we caution anyone who responds that they must acknowledge and address the data we present here that appears in the county\u2019s own budget documents<\/em>.\u00a0 Failure to do so will be perceived as political pap and puffery by Seventh State\u2019s discerning readers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco. Word has reached Seventh State that the governing establishment in Rockville is displeased with our recent post on MCPS funding, questioning whether our data is accurate.\u00a0 Let\u2019s establish the data\u2019s presence in the public record. The assertion in our post generating the most unhappiness is that the county cut local support for … Continue reading More on MCPS Funding<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,32],"tags":[1545,1475],"class_list":["post-8661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","category-mcps","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-mcps"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-2fH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8661"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8670,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8661\/revisions\/8670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}