In his first official one-on-one meeting with Martin O’Malley on Wednesday, Ike Leggett said Maryland’s governor-elect mainly was noncommittal on the amount of state money Montgomery County could expect to receive in the coming year.
But the new county executive said he felt the meeting — at O’Malley’s Baltimore transition headquarters — was a productive one in which he was able to convey just how crucial Maryland dollars are in improving Montgomery’s schools, jail and transportation infrastructure.
“It went very well,” Leggett told The Examiner. “I was able to re-emphasize the additional resources needed in the county and go through a number of important projects with him.”
On this list of projects was a proposed state gas tax increase Leggett has been pushing since his campaign for county executive began. Leggett has been hesitant to suggest an amount that the tax should rise because, he said, it’s more about how the added revenue will be used and what share Montgomery County’s transportation priorities will get in any such deal.
O’Malley listened to his thoughts on the proposal, but did not commit to either adopting or dropping it, he said.
Calls to O’Malley’s spokesman Tuesday were not returned.
The incoming Maryland governor also got an earful from Leggett about the desire of a number of county officials to increase Montgomery’s share of state education dollars, especially in the area of school construction.
Last year, Montgomery schools received about $40 million to help with the building of five new schools and a number of campus modernization efforts.
Administrators are seeking in excess of $130 million in state funds this year to get students out of portable classrooms and add classrooms in a host of schools.
“The overall size of the pot is $330 million, so you can see how much our request impacts that,” Leggett said.
The Montgomery County executive also detailed to O’Malley requests the county is making of the state to help fund the construction of a $62 million courthouse in Rockville as well as renovations to the county’s ailing detention center.
According to Leggett, Wednesday’s session was just the start of what he expects to be numerous dialogues on state spending.
The day before, a committee of lawmakers decided in their annual advice to the governor that state spending should grow by about 8 percent, which is less than last year’s suggested growth.
