OAKLAND — The Garrett County Commission will decide the fiscal 2015 appropriation for the county’s public school system during a Tuesday meeting.

During a meeting in November, board of education members pleaded with commissioners for a funding number and Commission Chairman Robert Gatto, ex-officio member on the board, made a motion to designate $2.2 million to the board for fiscal 2015 with the amount to be reduced if funding is secured from the state. The motion died from a lack of a second. Also at that meeting, Commissioner Jim Raley indicated that he would like to wait until the Tuesday meeting to give the board a number because at that time the amount of state funding will be known.

During a meeting in Finzel in November to discuss the proposed closure of Route 40 Elementary, an accountant confirmed that the county doesn’t have $2.2 million to help the school system.

“We are going to have to dip into our coffers,” said  Jeff Conner of Fike, Conner & Associates CPAs, who looked at the county’s financials. “We do have some rainy day funds but it’s only going to buy us a couple years.”

The Garrett County financial forecast for fiscal 2015 looks bleak because it is facing a projected loss of $5.4 million. A previous estimate of a $2.5 million projected loss of real property tax revenue has increased by $700,000, to $3.2 million, based on the revision of assessable base calculations, according to Monty Pagenhardt, county administrator.

More here.