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University of
Maryland College Park
Office of
Executive Programs
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Newswire Week 12 (12/16-12/22)
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LOCAL
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Glendening sends
proposed capital budget to Ehrlich
The Associated Press State & Local Wire _ December 20,
2002, Friday
http://wire.ap.org/public_pages/WirePortal.pcgi/us_portal.html
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Gov. Parris Glendening has turned over to his successor a
proposed capital budget that he said stays within spending guidelines while
maintaining his commitment to public school
construction.
The governor's plan calls for spending a little over $1 billion to buy land
and construct and renovate buildings during the fiscal year that begins next
July 1. It includes $150 million to help counties and Baltimore pay the cost
of building and maintaining public schools. The governor also proposed
spending $197.7 million for land and buildings for public colleges and
universities.
Glendening also included about $117 million for land preservation programs
that were a top priority during his eight years in office.
Chuck Porcari, the governor's spokesman, said Glendening and Gov.-elect
Robert Ehrlich discussed the plan Wednesday before it was forwarded to
Ehrlich's staff.
"The governor characterized it as a very cordial and productive meeting,"
Porcari said.
There was no immediate response from Ehrlich's staff about Glendening's plan.
Ehrlich can make whatever changes he wants to reflect his own priorities
before submitting the budget to the legislature.
Porcari said the capital budget "fulfills the governor's promise to
fully fund school construction
and other priority capital projects."
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ACROSS THE NATION
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Tennessee
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School construction demands
accountability
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) _ December 18, 2002
Wednesday_Editorial
http://newgomemphis.com/newgo/core/archives.htm
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Several Memphis Board of Education members continue to
defend the current formula that distributes tax money to the city and Shelby
County school districts for capital projects. They say the state-mandated formula,
which is based on relative pupil attendance, provides an essential guarantee
that the city system can meet its vital school construction and maintenance needs.
That position entitles taxpayers, parents and local officials to ask in
return: How accountably and efficiently has the school board spent capital
money? The apparent answer: not very.
The Commercial Appeal reported this week that the board has agreed to spend
as much money per square foot to make limited repairs to two city schools as
many districts across the Southeast spend to build schools from the ground
up. The newspaper cited a credible industry consultant who said the $14.9
million the board plans to pay to replace air-conditioning and heating
systems at Longview Middle School and Whitney Elementary School is more than
twice as much as the work should cost. Board members have challenged the
newspaper's analysis rhetorically, but have done nothing substantive to
refute it. Schools Supt. Johnnie Watson, whose staff also concluded the contract
for the two schools costs too much, has distanced himself from the board's
decision.
The city board already spends twice as much per square foot as its county
counterpart to build schools. All of which suggests County Mayor A C Wharton
is on the right track when he proposes replacing the automatic aid
distribution formula with a mechanism that would respond to the demonstrated
construction needs of the city and county systems.
Both districts should get the money they truly require; neither should be
expected to cut corners on construction and maintenance. But their boards
should have to make the case before, not after, they get the money.
Hubon 'Dutch' Sandridge, who chairs the city school board's construction
committee, seemed to reflect the sentiments of his colleagues when he said
they had no choice but to award the expensive heating and cooling contract to
the sole bidder, Honeywell International. He told The Commercial Appeal:
"If no one else bids the job, then that's it. Boom, that's all you have."
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Arizona
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Lawmakers withhold
inflation boosts for school building work
The Associated Press State & Local Wire - December 19,
2002, Thursday
http://wire.ap.org/public_pages/WirePortal.pcgi/us_portal.html
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Lawmakers preparing to wrestle anew with budget shortfalls
voted Thursday against adjusting school
construction and maintenance for inflation despite the threat
of a possible lawsuit.
The Joint Legislative Budget Committee, an oversight panel, voted to leave
unchanged per-square cost factors used to calculate state funding given to
school districts to build and maintain schools.
The threat of a possible lawsuit came from an attorney who represented school
districts whose lawsuit challenging inequities in local school funding
prompted the Legislature to create the statewide Students First school
building program in 1998. The Students First law requires the Legislature to
annually adjust the cost factors.
"Unless and until the law is changed, JLBC has no discretion and must
make an annual adjustment," attorney Tim Hogan said in a letter to
committee members.
The School Facilities Board's recommended 4.8 percent inflation adjustment
from a construction cost index would cost an estimated $9.4 million in the
next fiscal year.
Rep. Laura Knaperek, R-Tempe, urged colleagues to not make an adjustment so
that lawmakers reporting for the 2003 regular session can consider all
cost-cutting options.
"Every dollar that we are spending here is going to hurt something
somewhere else so it just leaves me with this uncomfortable feeling,"
Knaperek said, "All the next legislature to look at the big
picture."
The state still faces a $300 million shortfall in the current fiscal year
despite $200 million of spending cuts and other changes made during a
November special session. Lawmakers also face a projected $1 billion
shortfall in the next budget.
Ed Boot, the Facilities Board's acting director, said the Students First law
still permits the agency to provide extra funding for construction projects
on a case-by-case basis if warranted by circumstances.
No adjustment means fewer schools can be built within the funding provided
under the formula, Boot told the lawmakers.
"That will occur. I'm prepared to deal with that if that is the
committee's choice," Boot said.
Hogan said later he would consider "taking legal action against them to
enforce their obligation."
"They wrote this law. They made the law and they keep on breaking
it," he said in an interview.
Hogan won rulings by a judge that lawmakers twice acted illegally by
suspending state payments for building maintenance. The state is appealing
both decisions.
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Wyoming
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School construction
Wyoming
Tribune-Eagle _ December 20, 2002 Friday
http://www.wyomingnews.com/archive.asp
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State Rep. Tony Ross, R-Cheyenne, is
sponsoring a bill that is sure to anger many Wyoming property owners. But the
reality is that Mr. Ross is doing want needs to be done.
He is sponsoring House Bill 37, which calls for a two-mill levy on the
assessed valuation of property in this state for the sole purposed of school
capital construction. Wyoming lawmakers need to find a way to help fund about
$500 million worth of school capital construction (that could rise as high as
$1 billion if bonding is used). That's because they've been ordered to do so
by the Wyoming Supreme Court.
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