A $4.4 million budget transfer request made by the Charles County Board of Education was shot down by the Charles County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday morning. The budget transfer for the 2012 fiscal year, which cited healthcare costs, confused the commissioners.
Charles County Public Schools Assistant Superintendent for Finance, Business Administration & Technology Paul Balides made the request for the budget transfer, citing rising employee healthcare costs.
“We are seeking approval to amend state revenue budget,” Balides said.
The formal request states, “January 2011 Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) reduced FY 2011 state funding to Charles County by 4 million when one time federal funding for the Education Jobs Fund was distributed as a federal grant. That funding was treated separately from the aggregate state aid grant award issued by MSDE for FY2012.
In June MSDE issued a separate State grant award which reallocated those funds back to Charles County as a prefunded state aid distribution for FY2012. This budget amendment request is to recognize the deferred revenue already recorded. Since this funding is essentially a return of operating budget related to the Education Jobs Fund transfer our recommendation is to reallocate those amounts back in FY2012 to provide funding for increased cost in health care.”
Remarks about a budget amendment offset on expenditures side in $4.4 million in healthcare costs, and the need for it to be passed as part of the FY2012 budget instead of the FY2013 budget sparked the curiosity of Commissioner Ken Robinson (D: 1st).
“I’d like a more definitive briefing on why this is going to healthcare costs instead of wage increases,” Robinson said.
“It’s a little premature,” Commissioner President Candice Quinn Kelly said. “We should get through the budget and make sure we have the teachers taken care of.”
“We’re looking for a change this fiscal year,” Balides replied, which irked Robinson, because the fiscal year ends in a little over a month.
At that point, Commissioner Bobby Rucci (D: 4th) made a motion to table the amendment, which was seconded by Robinson. The full board voted unanimously to table the amendment.
Later in the meeting, Director of Fiscal and Administrative Services Deborah Hudson, when asked if the school system had paid their Other Post-Employment Benefits (OBEB) contribution, said that they had not paid their contribution last time she had checked but had not checked in the past few days.
