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State lawmakers offered few comments and no public resistance to county officials pushing for changes in Maryland law that could significantly impact county and state education funding.

In testimony before the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee on Wednesday afternoon, Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), Montgomery County Council President Valerie Ervin (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring and others spoke in support of a Senate bill that could make it easier for counties to receive a waiver from a state requirement that they spend at least as much on education, per pupil, as the previous year.

Violating "maintenance of effort" puts the counties and Baltimore city at risk of being penalized the amount of their slated increases in state education aid for the upcoming fiscal year. The Maryland State Board of Education can grant a waiver from the requirement.

"This law really does not work," said Leggett, citing the budget deficits and cuts the county has made since the start of the economic downturn. "Despite the best of intentions, it does not work and it needs to be changed."

Senate Bill 53 would increase the number of factors the state school board may consider when determining whether to grant a waiver.

The new factors in the bill include whether the county has funded schools above the maintenance of effort per-pupil level in previous years; whether there has been broad economic difficulties affecting more than one county; whether the county government and school board have agreed to seek the waiver, and whether state aid to county and municipal governments is scheduled to decrease in the fiscal year the waiver is sought.

Under current law, the board may consider the loss of a business or industry in a county, a county's tax base, the rate of inflation and a county's legal ability to raise taxes.

Over the decade prior to 2009, Montgomery County funded schools above the maintenance-of-effort requirement by $577 million, but it faced a $1 billion budget deficit for fiscal 2011 and is confronting a $300 million deficit for fiscal 2012.

Leggett conceded to the committee that, in retrospect, "the amount we went above maintenance of effort probably would have been reduced," although he said he still would have supported funding county schools above the maintenance-of-effort threshold.

This year, if Montgomery County does not increase its funding to schools by $82 million — up to nearly $1.5 billion — it would be penalized by losing $22 million of its state aid increase for fiscal 2012. Student enrollment has increased by about 2,200 in county schools this year to 144,000.

After the hearing, Ervin said that because a county's inability to meet maintenance of effort triggers another state funding loss, school systems unfairly get hurt twice. "We believe the penalty makes no sense," she said.

Last year, Montgomery County received a waiver for a $138.8 million funding decrease to county schools.

One sponsor of the bill, Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Dist. 18) of Kensington, noted the number of Montgomery County officials in the audience.

Wicomico also received a waiver last year for an appropriation $7.4 million less than the amount requested by its school board.

Discussing his testimony before the state school board in seeking a waiver last year, Wicomico County Executive Rick Pollitt (D) told senators, "I was ashamed to be there."

A state analysis said if the bill were to pass, the number of waiver requests likely would increase.

Maryland Association of Counties Executive Director Michael Sanderson advocated in favor of delaying any loss of state aid until the fiscal year after a county applied for a waiver to give officials more time to consider how the reduction affected their budgets.

Similar legislation has been proposed in the House, where a comparable bill did not get a vote last year after passing the Senate.

aujifusa@gazette.net