Funding at same level as fiscal 2014
Elaine Blaisdell
OAKLAND — Mostly Garrett County Board of Education staff attended a public hearing on the county’s fiscal 2015 operating and capital draft budget and most of the comments were based on funding for the board, according to Monty Pagenhardt, county administrator.
The county commissioners committed additional funding to the BOE that will maintain an operating funding level equal to that of fiscal 2014. The Garrett County Public School system was faced with a $2.2 million projected deficit for fiscal 2015 due to the loss of state funding and had initiated the required process to consider closing three elementary schools.
“The board of county commissioners then committed to a funding appropriation that would assure that the $2.2 million deficit would be eliminated,” said Pagenhardt. “This commitment by the county would prohibit the closing of these schools.”
The school system’s deficit would be funded by directing $1 million of the BOE’s escrowed funds in the Coalition Health Care Trust, $500,000 in additional county funding and $500,000 in potential state funding and a $200,000 reduction in current operating costs, according to Pagenhardt.
“The county had agreed that if the additional state funding was less than the projected total, the county would be responsible for the difference — a net difference of $1 million,” said Pagenhardt. The county was also required to fund $235,544 in additional teacher pension costs for fiscal 2015.
The fiscal 2015 budget will confirm a $535,897 increase in operating funds to the BOE thanks to $464,103 in actual state funding, which equals the net difference of $1 million. The BOE is seeing a more than $770,000 increase for fiscal 2015, and funding of all other county agencies is being held at the same level or less this year, said Pagenhardt.
The draft budget contains an estimated $5.4 million difference in revenues and estimated expenditures, according to Pagenhardt.
“This is the biggest gap of revenue loss from one year to the next,” said Pagenhardt. “This was without a doubt the most difficult budget review and approval cycle that we have been faced with. Fortunately, our financial policy and past budget practices have positioned the county to maintain the high quality of public services that our residents, taxpayers and visitors ex-pect.”
