Md. governor wants to shift some teacher pension costs to counties

Gov. Martin O’Malley discussed plans Tuesday with legislative leaders and local officials to shift teacher pension costs to Maryland counties and reduce tax exemptions for high-end earners, according to participants in the meetings.

Maryland currently is one of the few states in the nation that picks up the entire teacher pension cost, which is projected to be about $900 million in the next fiscal year.


O’Malley, a Democrat, is talking about specifying in state budget legislation that counties would split the cost with the state.
In return, the state would share half of the $450 million in Social Security costs currently paid entirely by counties. Overall, the state would save about $225 million.

“I think it was a balanced proposal by the governor — some revenue enhancements, as well as a discussion about shared responsibility and liability for teachers’ pensions that we’ve talked about in the past,” House Speaker Michael Busch, D-Anne Arundel, said after the meeting.

Local officials, however, were not happy when they emerged from a meeting with the governor late Tuesday afternoon. Unlike past years when proposals called for gradually shifting the burden over three or four years, the shift would happen all at once, local officials said.

“It’s a difficult pill to swallow, and I’m not swallowing it,” said Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett, a Democrat, describing proposals to mitigate the shift as not going far enough to offset the new expense, which will be hard to absorb.

Howard County Executive Ken Ullman said he appreciated the governor’s efforts to explore ways of softening the blow, but it’s still a tough proposal for counties.

“I still don’t think it should be shifted,” Ullman, a Democrat, said. “I know my colleagues don’t think it should be shifted. It’s a huge burden, but I do respect and appreciate the governor’s attempt to make it more palatable.”

In an interview before specifics of the governor’s plan began to emerge, Del. Andrew A. Serafini, a Republican and chairman of the Washington County delegation, said Tuesday that a shift in the financial burden of pensions to the counties could be “devastating,” in light of other obligations they face for school and highway funding.

Serafini said he was “pretty confident” the shift wouldn’t be proposed this year, but he isn’t surprised that a variety of tax and funding changes are on the table.

Wayne Ridenour, president of the Washington County Board of Education, said Tuesday afternoon that he had heard the governor was going to make a recommendation, but had not seen the proposal.

“We haven’t gotten anything,” he said. “So I really can’t say anything.”

 Richard Wright, a spokesman for Washington County Public Schools, said in an interview at a school board meeting Tuesday night that he did not know how much county teacher pensions cost.

He said the county school system pays about $1.5 million into pensions for nonteaching employees like custodians and bus drivers. The school system also pays the state an administrative fee of about $360,000 for pension programs, Wright said.

About 1,800 teachers in the county are in the state pension plan, he said.

The idea of sharing teacher-pension costs has been bubbling for years, as the state has faced budget constraints from the recession and its aftermath. The teacher pension cost also has risen rapidly in recent years.

Maryland is facing a $1.1 billion budget deficit, and lawmakers have called on O’Malley to take steps to reduce half of the state’s ongoing deficit this year. The governor is scheduled to make his budget proposal public today.

Busch also said the O’Malley administration talked about doubling the state’s “flush tax,” currently a $30 annual charge on sewer bills to upgrade wastewater treatment facilities to reduce pollution in the Chesapeake Bay.