County talks Blueprint with MACo

CAMBRIDGE — Maryland Association of Counties President Johnny Olszewski told the Dorchester County Council at a council meeting June 4 that Dorchester County is not alone in “feeling the pinch” from the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future requirements.

“It’s large counties too,” said Olszewski, who is also the county executive for Baltimore County and the Democratic nominee Maryland’s 2nd congressional district. “I think we’re seeing, every year, a few more jurisdictions of varying sizes as sort of hitting that point where it’s like ‘Oh man, how are we going to actually make this all work?’”

At the June 4 meeting, which Olszewski and MACo Executive Director Michael Sanderson attended to present on the association’s efforts and hear from the county, council members talked about their concerns with being able to fund Blueprint.

The Blueprint is a plan passed by the Maryland General Assembly in 2021 that aims to improve student outcomes and the quality of education across the state through increasing education funding by $3.8 billion over a 10 year period.

“I’m not against education, I’m not against teachers,” council member Ricky Travers said. “I want to see the kids get a great education. But is throwing money at it going to do it?”

Travers said funding the Blueprint requirements is forcing the county to strip its other services.

“They want to buy a Lamborghini on a Toyota budget, and they want to pay for it in a really short time,” he said.

Sanderson told the council it’s not lost on him that income taxes and property taxes are the main revenue sources for county governments. Because two-thirds of Marylanders are at the “absolute cap” on the income tax, he said, property taxes are the only way counties are going to be able to pay for their share of the Blueprint.

“It’s exactly the wrong way to try and fund it,” Sanderson said. “Even if you’re a big fan of the progressive policies in the Blueprint.”

Those policies include expanding full-day pre-K for children in families with incomes up to 300% of the federal poverty line, increasing teacher starting salaries to $60,000 by 2026, implementing a new college and career readiness standard and increasing funding for special education and multilingual learner students.

In November, MACo sent a letter to Gov. Wes Moore, Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson and Maryland House of Delegates Speaker Adrienne Jones writing that “in many ways,” the Blueprint is a one-size-fits-all approach to investing in education in a state with “diverse local government capacities, processes and abilities.”

The letter says that record county funding and additional mandated funding for Blueprint will make it difficult for counties to fund other things in their jurisdiction.

In the letter, MACo makes a variety of requests — including a more comprehensive cost analysis of the Blueprint, an increase in state aid for the renovation and construction of pre-K facilities and more time for the development of educator career ladder models — to ensure the Blueprint’s success.

At the meeting, council member Rob Kramer pointed out that 72% of Dorchester County is considered critical area, like wetlands, and cannot be built on. He said that under the new critical areas map, that percentage will increase to 78%. With only so much space that can be built on, how much the county’s property tax revenues, which pay for Blueprint requirements, can increase without raising taxes is limited.

“We’re a small county and we basically rely on property taxes to operate,” Kramer said. “So that makes it tough on the ones that do own property here.”

Council member William Nichols said he refuses to raise taxes on seniors. There are a lot of seniors in his district, Nichols said, and they can’t afford higher taxes.

During his presentation to the council, Sanderson brought up the Cade Funding Formula for community colleges, which received a reduction from the state for fiscal year 2025, and highway user revenues, which Sanderson said could receive cuts in the future.

Olszewski talked about how this affects counties, especially when they have to meet Blueprint requirements.

“It sort of becomes, well we can’t fund community colleges, and roads, and all the other things and meet their obligations,” he said about the Blueprint requirements.

Sanderson said for any county governing body that doesn’t meet Blueprint requirements, its county income taxes will be sent directly to the schools, rather than to the county.

At the end of the conversation, Olszewski talked about the importance of facilitating these conversations between MACo and Maryland counties.

“They’re so helpful because they us sort of inform the legwork (we’re) heading into,” he said. “And it’s already sounding like Blueprint is going to be another major issue that we are going to be taking up in the year ahead.”