Politicians, principally County Executive Ken Ulman, created a mess in pursuit of a deal to spend $2 million on artificial turf. These elected officials can now set the matter right.
The trouble started when the state came into some extra money from a recently implemented increase in the alcohol tax. As Gov. Martin O'Malley, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy Kopp — collectively the state Board of Public Works, which holds enormous power over state expenditures — began to divvy up the proceeds, officials of the Howard County Public School System came to them with an outline of what they would do with the for $4 million that constitutes Howard's share. Half of the money would be used to install synthetic turf athletic fields at Atholton and Hammond high schools.
The Board of Public Works approved it in October. That's when the Howard County Board of Education said, effectively, "Hold the phone."
County schools officials, it turns out, had submitted the hastily assembled proposal, apparently at the urging of Ulman and others, without first getting the elected county school board — which is ultimately responsible for the school system's policies and purse — to sign off on it.
When the school board rightly balked at being left out of the loop and insisted on priortizing the system's needs before it would agree to the plan, Ulman hit the roof, threatening to withhold future Recreation and Parks funding for turf fields at county schools. He later backed away from the ultimatum and offered an alternative plan that would have the Rec and Parks build the fields at all the high schools and then share in their use. But Ulman continues to insist the original proposal is the better way.
Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. There's strong sentiment that the money would be better used to repair school roofs. While it isn't necessarily an either-or choice — the alcohol tax is not the only source of revenue to be tapped for any schools project — it's one for the school board to decide. Whatever the board's decision, Ulman and the county's delegation to Annapolis ought to back it.
They should go to the Board of Public Works and effectively say, "This is what Howard County wants to do with our share of the alcohol tax hike," whatever the county Board of Education determines is best. And it would behoove the Board of Public Works, which has to approve how the money is spent, to listen.