Kent County Commissioner Ron Fithian told the Spy on Tuesday that the new Maintenance of Effort law, signed by Gov. Martin O’Malley on April 10, takes away local control of education and discourages giving more to the school system when times are good—because allocating more than MOE sets a new minimum funding level for subsequent years when times aren’t so good.
“Because of this new law, [the state has] taken away the flexibility for us to give more when we have more, and take away when we don’t,” Fithian said. “I don’t think you’ll ever see the commissioners fund a dime more than MOE, because all you are doing is raising the funding floor.”
He said subsequent bad years would keep the county pinned down to match the years when funding may have been more generous than the base MOE requirement.
The MOE law requires counties to fund schools at the same amount per student as the prior year or the state would withhold local aid to education. But the state waived the MOE requirements last year because of cuts to education.
Prior to last year’s cuts, Kent historically funded the school system above MOE requirements–an additional $8.5 million over the last 11 years, Fithian said.
Last year’s MOE requirement for Kent County was $16.9 million but the county was forced to make cuts of $820,000 in the absence of state funding and a decline in local revenues—bringing total funding last year to $16.1 million.
New MOE law forgives last year’s shortfalls if counties max local income tax rate at 3.2%
The new MOE law requires the counties to make up last year’s cuts, unless the Commissioners raise the local income tax rate from 2.85% to 3.2%, the maximum allowed by state law.
Fithian said he found this the most troubling because it doesn’t require the additional revenues go to education.
“There was a stipulation that if we charge the maximum income tax, we wouldn’t have to make up the [$820,000] from last year,” Fithian said. “How does that associate with educational funding?”
Kent County is requesting a waiver of MOE from the Maryland State Board of Education, citing falling income and property tax revenues and unemployment figures that are higher than the state average.
The state school superintendent is expected to make a recommendation based on Kent’s waiver request. The outcome of a subsequent hearing will determine if the waiver is granted, said Kent County Administrator Patricia Merritt. She said the county will know the decision by May 23.
Jack Offett says
This is really not true. The county should be taking over all of the redundant services including mowing, maintenance, cleaning, and consortium purchases. This is the push going on the the larger counties where the conclusion is that we should let the teachers (and their former teacher now bureaucrat leaders) teach, and let the county deal with buildings and grounds.