The Montgomery County Council is ratcheting up pressure on school officials to slash benefits for their employees, saying the wealthy Washington suburb can no longer afford to protect any workers from reductions in benefits needed to stem the tide of red ink. Under a council blueprint released Monday, school employees would face similar cutbacks in retirement and health care plans being outlined for general government workers in filling a $300 million shortfall.
The council plan calls for school employees to pay 5 percent more in medical costs regardless of their coverage.
Council members said a previous proposal from County Executive Ike Leggett diminished paychecks too drastically for general government and public safety workers while sparing school employees.
Under Leggett’s budget, nonschool employees would pay 2 percent more of their salaries for pension benefits and the county would cover 70 percent instead of 80 percent of the cost of health care plans.
The council blueprint maintains the same HMO plans for general government workers, while reducing point of service coverage by 5 percent and eliminating salary-based surcharges as proposed by Leggett.
Council members say the plan represents a fundamental shift in how they fund a school system that accounts for 57 cents of every taxpayer dollar spent and spreads the burden across the entire workforce.
“They’re not happy because I don’t think the council has ever gone this far,” Council President Valerie Ervin said of the reaction from school officials. “We’re resetting this year. It’s an unsustainable situation. They’ve always had their budget funded at almost their entire request. What we’re saying is we can’t afford this.”
Leggett and the council are ignoring state-mandated requirements for school funding next fiscal year, which will cost them millions of dollars in aid from Maryland.
Though the Board of Education dictates school spending, the council decides the amount of money devoted to the “fixed-costs” pool, which includes benefits. In theory, the school board could resist the changes but would be hard pressed to produce the same savings from elsewhere in the same funding category.
“I haven’t seen it,” School Board President Christopher Barclay said of the proposal. “I can’t comment on something I haven’t seen.”
Ervin said her staff outlined the proposed changes both for Barclay and outgoing Schools Superintendent Jerry Weast, among other school officials, on Friday.
“I hate when people lie,” she said.
The council is scheduled to meet with school officials Tuesday in a session likely to produce fireworks.
Council staff estimates the plan would produce more than $273 million in savings over the next six years, compared with roughly $215 million in reductions outlined by Leggett.
The county executive and his public information office have not returned calls from The Washington Examiner for more than two weeks.
