Presented with a request from the school system for nearly $253 million – a $29 million increase – Harford County Executive Barry Glassman says Harford County Public Schools leaders "need to come to grips with shrinking enrollment and flat revenues," something he believes their latest budget doesn't do.
On the eve of delivering his first state of the county address Tuesday night, Glassman said he wouldn't be mincing words about the county's overall financial position and suggested those running the school system should take note.
The county's Board of Education passed a $451 million operating budget for the 2015-16 school year on Jan. 28. In doing so, the board first agreed to increase by about $2.6 million the amount of money it was originally seeking from the county, citing an anticipated decrease in state aid.
Glassman said he had reviewed the executive summary of the school budget and questioned if any new thinking had gone into it, unlike what he has prompted his own departments to do with their budgets.
Choosing his words carefully, Glassman said school leaders should have seen that most of the state aid shortfall would be forthcoming "no matter what" because it is based on formulas tied to enrollment and county wealth. Total enrollment has steadily declined while county wealth, based on tax revenue and other economic factors, is increasing slightly after a number of flat years.
"We all have to work with what we have," he added, noting the county could probably give the school system less next year than the $223.7 million it is currently receiving and still stay within the so-called "state maintenance of effort" requirements, again because of the continued declines in enrollment.
Glassman stopped short, however, of saying there would not be any increase for the school system, nor would he say what specific approaches school officials should take to present the county with more realistic funding requests.
But, he also pointed out the county departments have been working to reduce spending and to restructure the way they do business to be more efficient and suggested school leaders should make similar efforts.
School leaders, several of whom claimed there had been consultations with Glassman and his advisers prior to last week's vote to approve their budget, said about $12 million of the additional funding sought from the county is for projected increases in costs for maintenance and operations of buildings, higher health insurance and other employee benefits costs and for meeting various state and federal instructional mandates.
Another $16 million is basically a salary increase pool for the system's 5,000 employees, with the actual amount of any raises contingent on the outcome of negotiations with unions representing teachers and other employees.
Glassman said he is sympathetic to what he called "human capital" needs of the county government and the school system, raises chief among them, but he warned it won't be a one-sided deal if any money is provided by the county for that purpose.
"Again, depending on the financial situation, we could put up some money for a [school] wage package, but we would expect them to match it," he said of school officials.
Glassman's own budget for 2015-16, which will include the county's proposed funding for the school system, will be presented in mid-April.
"It will be an interesting few months until the budget goes in," he said.