Montgomery County Public Schools could have to cut 600 teachers and increase class sizes by an average of 2.4 students if lawmakers approve Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s proposal to shift half the cost of soaring teacher pensions to the counties, Montgomery County Board of Education President Shirley Brandman said Tuesday.
The increase would result if the school system has to pay its $38 million portion of the county’s $47 million pension tab in fiscal 2013, Brandman told the County Council.
If the county charges Montgomery College for its share, the resulting $3 million bill would mean a tuition increase of more then $4 per credit hour, college President DeRionne Pollard said. Tuition per credit hour is currently $110 for county residents.
The shift “will exacerbate our already eroding menu of public services,” said Gino Renne, president of the Municipal and County Government Employees Organization.
Prince George’s County officials also fear the pinch of a pension cost shift. The county’s $34 million pension tab is larger than the budgets of all but five county agencies, County Council Chairwoman Andrea Harrison said. “If pension costs are to be paid by counties as the governor proposes, then we are left with no choice than to cut from the public work force and from services we all want and need to protect and serve county residents.”
The pension shift also could harm the counties’ credit ratings and ability to borrow money for construction projects, said Montgomery County Council Staff Director Stephen Farber.
The Maryland pension fund has an $11.4 billion shortfall, which local officials blame on poor investment performance and a small annual contribution by the state.
O’Malley has called the proposal a fair way for the state to fill a looming $1.1 billion gap.
“As contracts are negotiated, if you’re not covering much of the cost of pension benefits, you haven’t the incentive at the negotiating table to keep them within the metes and bounds of the parameters of fiscal responsibility,” he said when he presented his budget last month.
