Reply to Elrich and Friedson confusingly blame each other for underfunding MCPS

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]More from the article :

Elrich said he believes the council’s decision during budget deliberations in 2023 not to raise the property tax rate by 10% to help fund MCPS, as he proposed, set the school system back. The council compromised with a 4.7% rate increase, while still fully funding the school budget proposal. Friedson, who was then council vice president, did not support a property tax rate increase.

“The council created the problem last year when they told the school system to use $33 million to hire people. But that was federal money, not county money,” Elrich said. “Those costs rolled into this year’s budget, putting additional pressure on the budget, leaving aside the normal inflation and everything else the school system had to deal with.”

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I think Elrich is in the right totally pointing out that hiring people whose salary is to be paid by federal funds that they knew would disappear was a fiscally irresponsible choice.  The county needed to have raised property taxes so they could fund these new hires after the federal funds dried up or not to have hired people they knew they could not afford to keep the following year.  Everyone knew ESSR funds were ending this year so there is no excuse for not planning ahead.    [/quote]

The County has no power to demand that the schools come back with cuts that don't involve cutting staff.  The county government does this to every other department and forces them to find savings.  Stuff like training, take home vehicles, p card privileges, replacement equipment, etc. get reduced, delayed, or cut outright.  It's never an optimal service delivery, but it's one that recognizes we have limited revenues that have to fund millions of things.

MCPS never has to do the same, so they don't. They whine for more money. They threaten to cut jobs. They suck at prudent fiscal management, and there's no way to fix that, other than hold maintenance of effort requirements as a ceiling and not a floor.[/quote]

+1 Thank you Montgomery County Taxpayers League.[/quote]

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