University of Maryland College Park Office of Executive Programs

Newswire Week 17(1/20-1/26)

LOCAL

Smith optimistic about school funds

The Baltimore Sun - January 23, 2003 Thursday

http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/bal-md.smith23jan23.story

Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. said he is confident the state will approve much of the funding the county requested for middle school renovations this year after meeting with the Maryland Board of Public Works yesterday.

Before the legislative session began Jan. 8, Smith had complained about a policy change for state school construction funding that made county renovation projects ineligible unless they added "programmatic enhancements" such as computer labs and libraries when they made repairs.
Smith and Superintendent Joe A. Hairston said they don't mind the policy in theory, but in a year when neither the state nor the county has the money for new projects, it makes more sense to focus on fixing basic problems rather than trying to add features, they said.

Schools seek boost in capital funding

The Baltimore Sun - January 23, 2003 Thursday

http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/howard/bal-ho.funds23jan23.story

In one of the tightest budget years in recent memory, the Howard County public school system was pleading yesterday in Annapolis for $39.3 million more than the $3.1 million it was granted in state funding for capital projects.

"We are not asking the state to assume an increasing share of school construction costs for Howard County or even the full amount," Howard Superintendent John R. O'Rourke wrote in his appeal to the Board of Public Works. "We are seeking a cooperative relationship. ... But we need more than the $3.1 million approved." During what's affectionately become known as the "beg-a-thon," representatives from 21 of the county's 24 school districts pleaded their cases to the Maryland bigwigs at a daylong public hearing.

O'Rourke and most of the county delegation and school board stood before Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele (Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. stepped out during their presentation), state Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick, Comptroller William Donald Schaefer and Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp, and asked for the money.

Officials request school funds

The Baltimore Sun - January 23, 2003 Thursday

http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/carroll/bal-ca.schools23jan23.story

An entourage of 17 Carroll County officials traveled to Annapolis yesterday to woo Maryland's new Republican governor and ask for nearly $11 million for a new Mount Airy elementary school and for the state's final share of construction costs for Westminster's Winters Mill High School.

Carroll's Republican state legislators, who have griped for years about political favoritism by former Gov. Parris N. Glendening, tried to turn the tables at yesterday's Board of Public Works hearing on school construction dollars - the first to include Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
With the tight budget year, the Public Works Board has less fruit to distribute than it has in recent years. Although Glendening suggested in August that $150 million might be allocated for school construction and renovation projects this year, more recent budget estimates have put that amount at $78.5 million. Maryland's 24 school systems have requested $305.9 million in projects.
State school planners have recommended $3.5 million for Carroll this year, including $2.5 million toward a $17.4 million modernization of 46-year-old North Carroll Middle School near Hampstead and heating and air-conditioning projects at North Carroll High and Mount Airy Middle. The state Public Works Board typically approves in the spring recommendations from state school planners and announces additional allocations of the sort that Carroll officials sought yesterday.

Harford seeks extra $1.8 million from state for school building

The Baltimore Sun - January 23, 2003 Thursday

http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/bal-md.harford23jan23.story

Harford County politicians and education officials appealed to the state Board of Public Works yesterday for an additional $1.8 million in school construction funds in the coming fiscal year, arguing the money is needed for projects to modernize school buildings, provide basic maintenance and alleviate crowding.

County Executive James M. Harkins said the county's burgeoning population will necessitate $309 million in school construction funding over the next 10 years.

Although the current requests were modest compared to the wish lists of some other counties, he said Harford's four listed projects are essential. A group of 20 delegates, senators, county councilmen, school board members and others joined him before the board to seek money for the projects, some of which have received funding.

Public Works Board Low on School Funds

The Washington Post - January 23, 2003, Thursday

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30637-2003Jan22.html

After a long line of school superintendents and local leaders pleaded for money, Maryland's Board of Public Works yesterday approved a preliminary $ 78.5 million school construction budget that many officials said won't come close to meeting their needs.

Unofficially dubbed the "beg-a-thon," the meeting has become an annual rite in which local officials become supplicants before the governor, asking for money to build more schools, renovate old ones, fix broken boilers and create ball fields.

Yesterday's meeting was no different -- except that this year, with the state facing a $ 1.2 billion shortfall in the next fiscal year -- local officials were far more fatalistic about their chances.

"It's kind of hard to beg when there's no money," noted Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens (D). The meeting also marked the first time Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) has attended a meeting of the three-member board, which approves the state's largest capital expenditures. Comptroller William Donald Schaefer (D), who had used the meetings to fire colorful polemics at former governor Parris N. Glendening (D), was downright pleasant.

Board rejects school calendar

The Baltimore Sun - January 24, 2003 Friday

http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/howard/bal-ho.schools24jan24.story

The Howard County Board of Education sent next year's proposed school calendar back to the committee for revision last night, and heartily embraced an ambitious transfer-tax plan that could raise millions for school construction - a welcome prospect considering the state is offering little in the way of capital funding.

Representatives from County Executive James N. Robey's office stood before the board and outlined a tax increase that could potentially earn $215 million in revenue over the next seven years, all of which would be used for school construction.

The plan would raise the transfer tax, paid when property is transferred from one person to another, from 1 percent to 1.5 percent, the difference of which would go entirely to the school system.
Robey's transfer tax would see that the buyers of old homes as well as new ones pay for the school system, which Raymond S. Wacks, the county budget director, said is just.

"In a way, you've done too good a job," he told the board. "The demand for housing in Howard County is there because of the school system."

ACROSS THE NATION

Florida

Impact fees aren't simple to implement Public boards try to iron out rough spots

The Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, FL) - January 22, 2003 Wednesday

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/012203/nec_11522816.shtml

Approving the concept of impact fees to help fund school construction is one, relatively simple, thing.
Implementing them -- with five governmental entities involved and countless administrative, financial and legal issues to be ironed out -- will be far more difficult.

Last year, the School Board voted to seek impact fees on residential development and a half-cent sales tax increase. The new revenues would be used to help bridge a gap between expected revenues and facility needs over the next 20 years or so. Because of population growth and aging schools, the school district will need 35 additional schools by 2025 at a cost of $ 341 million for construction alone.

Sounds simple enough on the surface, but some underlying questions are still to be worked out:
Who gets any interest earned on the fees while they are accumulating, before they are sent to the school district?

How much will the county and municipalities charge the district to cover the administrative cost of collections, as well as any increased audit fees that might result?

Attorneys with expertise in impact fee ordinances and government auditors will have to be consulted before those issues can be settled, the officials said.

West Virginia

Schools can't build on profits Video slots share sent to wrong fund

The Charleston Gazette - January 23, 2003, Thursday

https://ecomm.cnpapers.net/confirm.php?id=3e30f2f827&url=/cgi-

A 2001 law that legalized video slot machines directs that $ 20 million a year from the state's share of the profits will go for school construction.
However, because of an error in the law, the state School Building Authority can't spend a penny of that lottery money, Executive Director Clacy Williams said Wednesday.
Williams said the video slots bill inadvertently requires the Lottery Commission to transfer the $ 20 million a year to the authority's debt-service fund, instead of its school construction fund. When the lottery transferred the first year's profits, the state auditor's office did not release the money, because the account can be used only to pay off debt service on bonds, Williams told the Senate Finance Committee.

Articles compiled by Sujin Bae

Graduate assistant for the School Construction Funding Project

Van Munching Hall University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-1821

poissone@wam.umd.edu