Lexington Park, MD – Some changes in state legislature over the 2018 session could have major negative impacts on more rural school systems including the St. Mary’s County Public Schools (SMCPS).

On Tuesday, Oct. 2, the St. Mary’s County Board of Education went before the county commissioners seeking approval of their State Capital Improvement Plan for the fiscal year 2020.

House Bill 1783, also know as the “21st Century School Facilities Act,” went into effect June 1. However, this was only after Governor Larry Hogan’s veto was overridden.

In his letter to veto, Hogan said, “this bill represents one of the most irresponsible, partisan, and tone-deaf legislative decisions ever made by members of the Maryland General Assembly.”

Hogan went on to point out the bill, which puts together a group of non-elected political appointees, is “insulting to our citizens.” This group of individuals will form the Interagency Commission on School Construction (IAC) which replaces what was the Public School Construction Program. 

A major impact made by this change is there will no longer be an appeal process for the board of education to submit to. Rather, the IAC will have the power to take projects forward at their discretion.

Additionally, after taking into account the county’s wealth index and sustainability, the state decided to reduce their share of funding for capital improvement projects in the county from 58 percent to 57 percent. The figure will likely be lowered when reevaluated in three years, but it is already extremely small when compared to the initial 75 percent share that the state had.

SMCPS Director of Capital Planning Kimberly Howe made it clear to the commissioners that this number will likely continue to decrease. “The bottom line on state participation is 50 percent and as we have seen over the last couple of rounds of this, we are clearly headed towards the 50 percent model,” Howe explained.

Commissioner Todd Morgan [R-District 4] was not the only commissioner with a strong opinion on the decreases. “The wealth index doesn’t help St. Mary’s County at all,” Morgan said. ”It actually will cost the taxpayers more money because of the way the money has been allocated.”

“So we are being punished for doing a good job?” Commissioner President Randy Guy [R] asked. “We have renovated schools and added to [them] when we had to. We built schools so we could add to them in the future if we had to versus building new, and now we are being punished for it.”

Commissioner Tom Jarboe [R- District 1] managed to get a few laughs when he suggested that “If the state is going to give us less, then we should be paying less state taxes.”

The current funding target from the IAC would give SMCPS $4.6 million dollars, although SMCPS wants $7.4 million for capital improvement projects in that fiscal year. Based on current enrollment projections, no new school projects should be needed for at least 10 years.