MCPS Superintendent wants $62.4 million Increase in MCPS Operating Budget

MCPS Superintendent Advances .5 Billion Budget Aimed at Racial, Economic Disparities: Smith says he’s looking to move more students to a ‘high level of learning’

Durso said lowering all schools by two students would be an exaggeration.

ROCKVILLE – The Montgomery County Council president said reducing the achievement gap among public school students was a major part of the council’s budget but she did not explain how the council would spend money to address it.

County Council President Nancy Floreen (D) referred to a letter she said Montgomery County Public Schools chairman Michael Durso (District 5) wrote in which he explained how the board would address the gap in academic performance between different groups of students.

“The detail is in Mr. Durso’s letter and it hasn’t been fully spelled out yet,” said Floreen...

 http://www.thesentinel.com/mont/newsx/local/item/3620-questions-rise-on-school-budget

increase of $326 in property taxes next fiscal year for the average county homeowner

...The property tax increase, which had to be approved by all nine council members because it surpassed the county’s inflation-based charter limit, will mean an increase of $326 in property taxes next fiscal year for the average county homeowner. The average home value in the county is $464,441...

...The operating budget will fund Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) at almost $90 million above the minimum per-pupil spending amount required by the state, an amount that will require at least as much per-pupil education funding in future budgets.
Floreen proposed the recordation tax increase, which the council unanimously approved with a straw vote Wednesday, to net the county about $200 million over the next few years. Most of the money will go toward the school system’s record $1.73 billion portion of the county’s $4.6 billion capital improvements program...

...Many in the real estate industry opposed the increase, but Floreen pointed to the fact the money will be used to stave off one-year delays to addition projects at Whitman and Wootton high schools...

 http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/Web-2016/County-Council-Approves-87-Percent-Property-Tax-Increase/

Kicking the Can Down the Road: Salary Increases Moved to 2018

“The contracts were returned to Leggett, who had 10 days to renegotiate them with the unions. He returned them to the council last week with the increases not cut but shifted nearly entirely toward the next fiscal year. Council staff said the move would result in just $115,485 to be paid in salary increases for fiscal 2017 but $6.8 million devoted to raises in 2018.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/montgomery-council-citing-schools-needs-trims-raises-for-unionized-employees/2016/05/16/ecdc8428-1b5e-11e6-b6e0-c53b7ef63b45_story.html?hpid=hp_local-news_moco-budget-615pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

Montgomery schools, teachers near deal to divert pay increases to classroom

The Montgomery County Board of Education is nearing an unusual agreement with unionized teachers and other school staff to divert $37 million earmarked for pay hikes into initiatives to reduce class size and otherwise improve instruction.
The deal is one element in a busy two weeks of deliberations before the County Council’s scheduled May 26 vote on a new $5.1 billion operating budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Two tax increases are under consideration: a 6.4 percent hike in residential property taxes, and a rise in taxes to record home sales. Most of the new revenue would be steered to schools.
Details of the union concessions — which are coming from renegotiation of a labor contract signed in 2014 — were still being finalized...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/montgomery-schools-teachers-near-deal-to-divert-pay-increases-to-classroom/2016/05/10/ec020c0c-1646-11e6-924d-838753295f9a_story.html

Howard Co: Generous school budget proposal is anything but 'devastating'

...School leaders need to get out of the dark, put the brakes on such hyperbolic turn-out-the-lights language and consider the facts. The school system is getting a fair amount of taxpayer money. The school superintendent and board members must do their jobs and manage spending effectively and efficiently.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/ph-ho-cf-editorial-school-budget-hearing-0428-20160427-story.html

Montgomery Council calls for reduction in wage in negotiated wage hikes

...Leggett and the Board of Education have until May 10 to renegotiate wage provisions with unions and send a revised package back to the council. Leggett and the board could also opt to leave the increases unchanged.
The council has the authority to set pay. It is scheduled to take final action on the budget May 26...

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/montgomery-council-calls-for-reduction-in-wage-in-negotiated-wage-hikes/2016/04/26/fed323aa-0bdf-11e6-bfa1-4efa856caf2a_story.html

MCPS Operating Budget Up $217,389,240 since 2009. MCCPTA Says Budget "Flatlined"

This month PTA's across Montgomery County will be deciding if they should push for a ballot referendum to repeal the "Ficker Amendment."
 
The MCCPTA memorandum to local PTAs is shown below. 
In the MCCPTA memorandum, some facts are given while others are glossed over.  
For example, the memorandum would have parents believe that the MCPS Operating Budget has flatlined since Fiscal Year 2009. 

In fact, the MCPS Operating Budget has multiple funding sources and the budget has increased since FY 2009 by over $217 MILLION dollars.

MCPS Actual Operating Budget:

FY 2009   $2,038,228,863

FY 2016   $2,255,618,103

Source: MCPS Operating Budget

   MCCPTA's Ficker Amendment Analysis by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland

When County Spending Exceeds County Income

Montgomery County Taxpayers League Meeting

 www.mctaxpayersleague.org

 Wednesday, March 23, 2016

 7:00 - 9:00 PM

5th Floor Conference Room,  Council Office Building
     100 Maryland Avenue, Rockville, MD 20850

                                                                       

Topic:  FY 2017 Budget for Montgomery County
 - Straight Talk

Speaker:  Jennifer Hughes, Director, Office of Management and Budget, Montgomery County

This meeting is scheduled for shortly after the County Executive submits his FY 2017 budget to the County Council.

As background, here is a link to a position paper we sent to the County Executive and County Council on closing the budget gap.