Marty Gordon
NRVsports@mainstreetnewspapers.com
Tough decisions will have to be made to balance budget requests between the Montgomery County School Board and supervisors.
The debate between the school board and the county’s board of supervisors centered this past week on a shortfall in the amount given to schools from the county for the upcoming fiscal year.
County Administrator Angie Hill said in total, budget request increases for FY 27 amounted to $16.6 million.
“To fully meet these requests, the real estate tax rate would need to increase by 12 cents, to 88 cents per $100 of assessed value, and the annual budget would need to increase by nine percent, allocating $99.3 million for county functions (34 percent of the total budget) and $194.9 million for Montgomery County Public Schools (66 percent of the total budget).”
She said while it is not possible to fund all budget requests each year, she is pleased to present a balanced and financially sound proposed budget for FY 27.
This would include a recommended five-cent increase in the county’s property tax, establishing a real estate tax rate of 81 cents per $100 of assessed value.
For FY 27, Hill is recommending a proposed total county budget of $285.7 million, an increase of $14.9 million, or 5.5 percent over the originally adopted fiscal year 2025-2026 (FY 26) budget.
Public education continues to represent the largest share of the county’s annual budget.
“Of the total proposed budget amount,” Hill told the two groups, “I am recommending $190.7 million, 67 percent, be allocated to Montgomery County Public Schools ($160.8 million for school operating; $3.2 million school capital; $7 million for school nutrition funds; and $19.7 million for school debt service).”
While this reflects a $3.4 million increase in county funding for school operating funding, it still leaves a shortfall of $4.88 million for the school operating budget.
This funding approach, Hill pointed out, allocating more than two-thirds of the overall budget to public schools—has been a long-standing practice for Montgomery County for many decades.
“Because public education remains one of the board’s highest priorities, the FY 27 proposed budget continues to dedicate a significant portion of county resources to MCPS,” she said.
The county has increased the school’s overall budget every year since 2014, and figures supplied by the school system, the total cost per pupil has increased by approximately 37 percent since 2022.
In addition, the budget reflects an estimated $3.8 million in increased state and federal funding for MCPS for a total proposed funding increase to the Schools Operating fund of $7.9 million.
School officials have not commented on the possible deficit, but spokesman Andrew Webb did state it is important to note, Montgomery County does not directly fund the School Nutrition Fund, as it is a self-supporting special revenue fund.
“The free student lunch initiative would be funded from the School Operating Fund as an interfund transfer, if approved. The total budget amount will appear inflated due to the inclusion of this interfund transfer that was not included in prior fiscal years, leading to a double-counting effect of revenue and expenditures,” he said.
The two groups are scheduled to meet again in June before a final tax rate is established with both holding work sessions in the new month.