Re: Request to Return $22.5M in Funding to Calvert County Public Schools for Fiscal Year 2025 Dear Governor Moore, The State of Maryland reduced funding to Calvert County Public Schools (CCPS) for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) in the amount of $22,457,474 due to the end of the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreements with both Constellation Energy Generation’s Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant and BHE GT&S’s Cove Point LNG. The end of these agreements caused an unrealistic wealth assessment for Calvert County which skewed the results of the State of Maryland’s funding formula for CCPS.
Going into FY25, the Board of County Commissioners was facing a difficult budget year which forced us to reduce spending across all program areas and hold the local contribution to CCPS at Maintenance of Effort (MOE). We received the final State Aid calculations from the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) in May 2024. We began discussions with CCPS and the Calvert County Board of Education immediately to strategize on how CCPS could absorb the State’s reduction in funding with the least impact to the staff and students and allow CCPS to fund the state-mandates for the Blueprint for Maryland’s future. We delayed almost all County Capital Improvement Projects for several years and looked at local tax increases to bridge the funding gap. When we were notified of pending staff layoffs by CCPS, we scheduled an emergency meeting where we provided additional funding to CCPS for a total of $164.7 million for FY25 from Calvert County’s fund balance and directed CCPS to use their fund balance to cover the remaining deficit. To balance our local budget, we were forced to increase local real property and income taxes.
We are pleased to report that negotiations are now complete and new PILOT agreements are in place for both facilities effective July 1, 2023. Cove Point LNG’s new agreement is in effect through June 30, 2039, and Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant’s new agreement is in effect through June 30, 2027.
We were also pleased to see that the State of Maryland realized a surplus from last fiscal year with approximately $479 million in uncommitted surplus.
We formally request the State use part of the uncommitted surplus to return the $22.5 million in funding to Calvert County Public Schools for FY25 now that the PILOT agreements have been restored. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Sincerely, BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS CALVERT COUNTY, MARYLAND
