Maryland County Executives Support School Construction Bill
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP/WJZ) -- Top local officials in Maryland's most populated counties gathered Thursday to support a measure to steer significantly more money to school construction in the state.
Under a $2.2 billion plan, known as the "Built to Learn Act", additional funding would go to school construction over several years.
The public first caught wind of the plane when House and Senate leadership introduced it last fall.
Baltimore Delegate Maggie McIntosh is Chair of the House Appropriation Committee.
"The voters at the ballot box said a few years ago that they wanted money from casinos to go to education, to improve or enhance schools, not just be folded into the formula," McIntosh said. "So that gave us the opportunity to use some of that money as the bond repayment."
It would be financed by bonds through the Maryland Stadium Authority. The debt would be paid by $125 million annually from casino revenue that goes to the state for education.
Mathew Palmer, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan's deputy legislative officer, expressed support for the measure. Hogan also has made a school construction proposal.
"The administration's legislation and this bill would allow the state to address almost all of the annual funding requests from local school systems over the next five years," Palmer wrote in a letter to the committee.
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