Today, we examine public school spending and look at Montgomery County’s per capita budget in detail.
In FY 2009, Maryland’s twenty-four public school districts received a combined $11.2 billion. Of that sum, $5.3 billion came from state aid, $529 million came from federal aid and $5.4 billion came from county taxes. Aid to public schools is the single biggest line item in the state’s budget and accounts for over a third of its general fund expenditures. But school aid is not distributed evenly. Instead, like almost all other forms of state aid, school aid is apportioned based on a wealth formula that favors jurisdictions with lower property values and lower incomes over counties that perform better on those measures. That has real consequences.
Here is total and per capita school spending by source for each county.
In per capita terms, the leaders on local school spending are Howard ($1,654), Montgomery ($1,592), Worcester ($1,474) and Calvert ($1,135). The lowest spender of local money on schools is Baltimore City ($326). But the city makes that up by being the biggest beneficiary of state aid ($1,417 per capita) and federal aid ($178). In terms of per capita funding from all sources, Baltimore City ($1,922) is very close to the state average ($1,994).
The wealth formula creates enormous disparities on the local burden of funding public schools. In FY 2009, here are the percentages of public school district budgets paid by state and federal aid.
On one hand some jurisdictions have overwhelming percentages of their school budgets covered by the state and federal governments, including Baltimore City (83%), Caroline County (80%), Allegany County (78%), Somerset County (76%) and Wicomico County (72%). All of these jurisdictions contribute much less than the state per capita average in local funding to their schools. On the other hand, other jurisdictions largely go it alone, such as Worcester County (28%), Montgomery County (28%), Talbot County (31%) and Howard County (36%). Taxpayers in Worcester, Montgomery and Howard pay very large amounts to maintain their own schools as well as the schools everywhere else in the state.
And what of Montgomery County? The county’s colossal FY 2011 budget deficit is prompting questions by many elected officials and staffers as to where the county’s spending is going and whether it is justified. Here is how Montgomery’s per capita spending compared to twenty other counties around the state for which we have data in FY 2009.
On a per capita basis, Montgomery spends more than the vast majority of other counties on pretty much everything. The only major items in which it is middle-of-the-pack or lower are the Board of Elections (on which it ranked 11th), economic development (11th) and the State’s Attorney office (19th). But in terms of total spending, the county ranks high for one big reason and one less important reason.
The big reason is schools. As we have seen above, Montgomery is a big-time loser in school aid due to the wealth formula. The county has chosen to overcome that handicap through massive local spending on its schools. The less important reason is the county’s health and human services spending. As we saw in Part Three, Montgomery spends almost seven times as much per person on health and human services as does Prince George’s County. Montgomery is effectively subsidizing Prince George’s on that measure by paying for the needs of the latter county’s poor.
If Montgomery wants to get more state aid, there is a quick way to do it: get poor – the faster, the better. Given the calamitous state of the county’s economy, that option is not completely out of the question.
Friday, March 26, 2010
How the Counties Spend Your Money, Part Five
Thursday, March 25, 2010
How the Counties Spend Your Money, Part Four
Today, we examine total and per capita county spending in three categories: libraries, economic development and debt service.
Here is total and per capita spending on libraries by county.
Well-educated and liberal Montgomery County is not a leader on library spending. Its per capita library spending of $42.50 is little more than the state average of $40.48. The leaders are Harford County ($69.35) - which is run primarily by Republicans – and Howard County ($62.13).
Here is total and per capita spending on economic development by county.
Baltimore City is the runaway leader here, spending more than three times the state average in per capita terms. But this could very well be wasted money. The city’s real property tax rates are more than double any other Maryland jurisdiction’s, and as we will see, the city’s local contribution to its schools is the lowest in the state in per capita terms. Sky-high property taxes and under-financed schools are enormous hurdles to economic growth that cannot be offset by government spending on economic development programs. Montgomery County, the state’s economic engine, actually spends less than the state average on economic development per capita.
Here is total and per capita spending on debt service by county.
Unlike the federal government, county governments cannot rely on debt to finance their operating budgets. The counties issue general obligation bonds to pay for capital improvements and finance the interest payments out of their operating budgets. The size of debt service payments depend on the size of the counties’ capital programs and the percentage of capital spending paid by current revenues rather than borrowing. Montgomery County has been reducing the amounts of current revenues dedicated to capital spending, guaranteeing that debt service payments will rise in the future.
We’ll look at public schools and examine Montgomery County more closely tomorrow.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
How the Counties Spend Your Money, Part Three
Today, we examine total and per capita county spending in three categories: fire and rescue/emergency medical services, law enforcement and health/human services/housing.
Here is total and per capita spending on fire and rescue/EMS by county.
In per capita terms, the leaders on fire and rescue are Howard County ($299.28), Baltimore City ($245.94) and Queen Anne’s County ($212.44). The lowest-spending counties are St. Mary’s ($51.50) and Allegany ($58.06). Does it really cost six times as much to provide fire and rescue service in Howard as it does in St. Mary’s?
Here is total and per capita spending on law enforcement, including police, sheriff and corrections functions, by county.
These statistics are colored by two factors. First, only seven jurisdictions have full-fledged police departments. In the others, the sheriff assumes broader law enforcement responsibilities. Second, Baltimore City’s correction costs are completely assumed by the state government. Even so, the city’s per capita spending on law enforcement ($573.48) blew away everyone else. Surprisingly, Charles County ($456.40) was number two, followed by Prince George’s County ($439.56). Three out of the four lowest spenders were in Western Maryland.
Here is total and per capita spending on health, human services and housing by county.
Baltimore City spends more on these services per capita ($380.58) than any other jurisdiction. But the real story here is the enormous gap between Montgomery ($332.32), which is second only to Baltimore City, and Prince George’s ($43.82), which is third-to-last. Back in 2008, the Post noted the lack of non-profit service in Prince George’s and how non-profits in neighboring jurisdictions had to pick up the slack. Our statistics strongly suggest that Montgomery spends large amounts of resources to take care of Prince George’s residents in need. So long as generous Montgomery is right next door, Prince George’s County can save a lot of money.
We’ll have more tomorrow.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
How the Counties Spend Your Money, Part Two
Today, we examine total and per capita county spending in five categories: Executive and Legislative branches, Boards of Elections, Circuit Courts and State’s Attorneys.
In analyzing county spending on the Executive and Legislative branches, we should bear in mind that the counties have different forms of local government. Baltimore City has an elected Mayor and a City Council. Montgomery, Prince George’s, Anne Arundel, Wicomico, Baltimore, Howard and Harford Counties have elected County Executives and County Councils. Dorchester and Talbot Counties have County Councils but no Executives; the councils appoint County Managers. The other counties have County Commissioners with less authority than those with councils.
Here is how the counties compare in spending on their Executive and Legislative bodies.
The highest-spending counties on Executive functions are Talbot ($13.79 per capita), Charles ($13.51) and Garrett ($12.17). All are rural counties in which the legislators appoint managers. It is quite possible that those managers perform functions that are delegated to department heads in bigger counties. Among counties with elected Executives, the biggest per capita spenders on that function are Anne Arundel ($11.08) and Harford ($8.41). Both of their County Executives are Republicans.
Worcester County is nominally the biggest spender on its Legislative branch ($18.91 per capita), but we believe that figure is inflated because it may include spending on the county’s appointed Chief Administrative Officer. Next in line are Prince George’s ($17.11), Howard ($12.05), Dorchester ($11.31) and Montgomery ($10.08), all of which have County Councils with full power of home rule. Baltimore City’s spending on its City Council ($7.62 per capita) is actually below the state average for local legislatures ($8.02).
Every county has a Board of Elections, Circuit Court and State’s Attorney. All serve vital functions in protecting citizen rights, but only to the extent that each is funded. Here is how the counties compare on that measure.
The leaders in per capita spending on the Board of Elections are Worcester ($15.18), Garrett ($14.17) and Dorchester ($12.60). Prince George’s County, a jurisdiction plagued by citizen distrust of its government, is next to last ($4.73). Baltimore City spends more on its Circuit Court ($26.37) than any jurisdiction except Worcester ($26.90). Does rural Worcester County really need to spend more on its court than crime-infested Baltimore? Baltimore City predictably spends more per capita on its State’s Attorney ($51.85) than anyone else. Montgomery ($13.42) is surprisingly next to last, surpassing only Baltimore County ($10.23).
We’ll have more tomorrow.
Monday, March 22, 2010
How the Counties Spend Your Money, Part One
Many Maryland counties are experiencing budget problems these days, exacerbated both by the economy and cutbacks in state aid. That is prompting many elected officials and government staffers to try to get a handle on county spending. What drives it? What levels are reasonable? What should each county’s priorities be? This series, in which we compare county spending levels across a number of criteria, is our effort to contribute to that investigation.
Our goal is to compare county spending in several major categories as well as on a per-capita basis. We obtained approved Fiscal Year 2009 budgets from every county website except for three that did not post them: Caroline, Kent and Somerset. We then broke that spending down into the following categories that are reported by the remaining twenty-one jurisdictions:
County Executive/Mayor/Manager
County Council/County Commissioners
Board of Elections
Circuit Court
State’s Attorney
Fire & Rescue/EMS
Law Enforcement (Includes Police, Sheriff and Corrections)
Health/Human Services/Housing
Libraries
Economic Development
Public Schools
Debt Service
Total
This proved to be a challenging exercise for two reasons:
1. Some county budgets include state aid and others do not. We partially accounted for that by subtracting the county school budgets from the county totals and putting only the local contribution to schools back in, thus systematically removing state and federal school aid from the budgets. Over eighty percent of state aid to counties consists of aid to public schools, but other aid sources do remain. That introduces some variability into the data by biasing the total budgets of the poorer jurisdictions, which receive more aid, slightly upwards.
2. Some counties include different line items in each of the above functions. We attempted to standardize them – for example, by looking for all housing-related items no matter their department and including it alongside HHS – but we suspect we could not achieve 100% standardization.
Nevertheless, after weeks of crunching this data, we believe we have gotten as close to an apples-to-apples comparison between the counties as anyone else ever has.
Following are the total budgets for each of the twenty-one reporting jurisdictions. We list the raw total reported by each county, the adjusted total when only local school spending is included and the per capita total based on 2008 population counts.
Montgomery County spends $3,986 per resident, the second-highest total in the state. That is no surprise given the county’s liberal political culture. But the biggest spender in per-capita terms is Howard County ($4,298), which is very wealthy but is also competitive between the two parties. Worcester County (third at $3,779) is another surprise since it often votes for Republicans. The lowest-spending counties tend to be located in Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore. Baltimore County is a standout for its spending restraint.
Some of the differences in per capita spending can be explained by differences in area wealth. Howard and Montgomery residents tend to have high incomes and can afford high tax burdens. So we compared per capita county spending to 2007 per capita incomes to calculate what percentage of resident incomes was spent by each county. Here are those results.
Baltimore City, which spends 15.4% of its residents’ income, is off the charts. While that figure includes some forms of state aid, it does not include school aid or the state’s operation of its community college, booking facility, detention center or subway system. The city charges by far the highest real property tax rate in the state. Its 7/1/09 rate of 2.268 per $100 of assessable value is more than double the second-highest rate in Maryland, which is charged by Harford County (1.064). Howard (at 10.0%) and Montgomery (8.6%) are second and third in county spending as a percentage of per capita income. Prince George’s County is fourth (at 8.4%) despite its tax-limiting TRIM amendment.
We will start looking at line items tomorrow.
