Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett requested that County Council members limit spending in a memo Friday after state tax distributions came in lower-than-expected this month, according to The Washington Post.
The November income tax distributions came in $96 million below the $443 million projected, according to the Post, which obtained Leggett’s memo that asked the council “to be particularly cautious about undertaking new initiatives or adopting legislation with a fiscal impact…”
Meanwhile, the current political environment has led Montgomery County’s delegation to the General Assembly to ask Montgomery County Public Schools leaders to use a more sensitive approach in requesting state money for school construction funds.
During a Tuesday meeting with MCPS officials, Del. Kathleen Dumais (D-District 15) asked school leaders to recognize that state representatives are working to obtain additional school construction funds from the state. The conversation was recorded by The Parents’ Coalition of Montgomery County, a watchdog group that monitors school spending and controversies.
“We constantly hear that the state delegation isn’t strong and doesn’t bring enough money back,” Dumais said. “But you know what, that doesn’t help us any. It doesn’t help us when we go to Annapolis and all we hear from [the] County Council and [others] that Montgomery County doesn’t have a strong delegation. So cut it out. Just cut it out because that’s not correct.”
Dumais pointed out that the county received $39 million in school construction funds during the 2014 session of the General Assembly, despite a recent school press release saying the schools’ request proposal to the state “fell through.”
Last week, the Board of Education approved a six-year capital budget totaling $1.75 billion for MCPS, which includes an additional $223.3 million over last year’s request. Earlier this year the County Council approved a $1.53 billion six-year capital budget that was $214 million less than the school system requested. The school system is hoping to recoup the difference in funding with its latest request, but doing so hinges on receiving additional funds from the state.
Del. Ariana Kelly (D-District 16) said a narrower approach should be taken to help focus other state legislators on the need for the funds in Montgomery County, especially with Republican Larry Hogan coming into the governor’s office with a desire to reduce spending, according to comments in the video.
“We’re coming in later at a much worse political time in a terrible political context with this huge revenue shortfall and a mandate across the state from the voters to roll back taxes, so we need to frame it in a way that sounds better than what you said to us when walked in this room,” Kelly said in the video.
After the delegates’ comments, MCPS Superintendent Joshua Starr said, “We have to figure out how to help our community understand what’s possible, what the reality is and what we will do within that realm of possibility and how we will collectively push this agenda.”
