Lawmakers are questioning Gov. Martin O’Malley’s proposal to transfer millions in funding from local youth programs to a single state agency.
Under O’Malley’s proposal, the Governor’s Office for Children would open up a competitive campaign for $15.7 million in children’s services funding previously administered to 24 local agencies across the state.
The measure would cut administrative funding for the local agencies — called Local Management Boards — by nearly 70 percent and add five positions to the state office at the cost of nearly $400,000.
“Local Management Boards were created to put these decisions under local control,” said Del. Murray Levy, D-Charles County. “Under the guise of a budget maneuver, that strategy has been reversed. I’m trying to understand why that happened, because the net cost has remained the same. Where’s the savings?”
Legislative Services Director Steven McCullough said the state would save approximately $3 million with the help of a federal grant. He insisted there is little difference between the current system and O’Malley’s proposal.
“This is not really a fundamental shift in terms of the program dollars,” he said.
Del. Gail H. Bates, R-Howard County, said the measure appears to be an effort to phase out Local Management Boards. She questioned how five people at the state level could manage to perform the functions of two dozen agencies.
Representatives from the Maryland Association of Youth Service Bureaus said many of their programs would be axed under the new plan. Much of local agencies’ administrative costs goes to securing local funding — which adds approximately $10 million to the state’s investment in each jurisdiction under the current system, they said.
In Montgomery County, the proposal could wipe out 35 after-school programs serving more than 1,000 children and cut more than 80 jobs, said Kathleen Lally, executive director of Montgomery’s Local Management Board.
But local agencies would be eligible to win the same amount of funding they have always had — it just wouldn’t be guaranteed, said Rosemary King Johnston, director of the Governor’s Office for Children.
“We’re streamlining to make sure the administrative costs do not outstrip the funding costs,” she said.
The 70 percent cut in local administrative funding leaves $2.4 million to be divided among the agencies. Funding would be determined by a formula weighing population at 30 percent, poverty at 50 percent and risk factors — from low birth rates to third-grade literacy — at 20 percent.
Del. Theodore Sophocleus, D-Anne Arundel, said using a formula is dangerous.
“You can’t paint everyone with the same brush,” he said. “You are dealing with different kids in different neighborhoods. Are you gonna drop 80 kids from a successful program just because they don’t meet your requirements?”
