Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., pledged Monday to expand federal aid to areas like Anne Arundel and Harford counties, where military base growth may soon strain resources.
Mikulski joined Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold in Annapolis on Monday to announce she would seek to expand the federal Impact Aid program ? which makes federal money available to improve educational facilities before an estimated 45,000 new jobscome to Maryland through the Base Realignment and Closure process.
The Impact Aid program, which provides government funding to areas supporting large military populations, would be modified to include areas where the military growth is projected to happen, Mikulski said. Fort Meade in Anne Arundel is expected to get 5,000 new on-base jobs by 2011, while Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford will get an estimated 9,000 jobs.
“Those people who will be coming bring families, they bring automobiles, and we want to make sure they’re not all on the same cloverleaf at the same time,” Mikulski said.
As a result, Mikulski said she would work with Gov. Martin O’Malley, Maryland’s other congressional representatives and lawmakers to improve the Impact Aid program.
“This is a national priority, and I’m pleased she’ll be able to build coalitions with her colleagues,” Leopold said. Mikulski said she would visit other county executives and state planners to get more need projections.
The planned program expansion could bring in as much as $25 million for building new schools, upgrading technology and hiring new teachers, Mikulski said ? up from the state’s current share of only $5 million. The funding is calculated based on how many military families are brought in ? though Mikulski said it should not matter that most of the new jobs at Aberdeen and Fort Meade are civilian contractors working on-base.
“Whether you wear the uniform or support the men and women in uniform, it?s the same code,” she said.
