County Executive Marc Elrich said he has started reviewing the school board’s recently approved Capital Improvements Program.
“It’s obviously outside the realm of what we’ve historically had the resources for,” he said during a media briefing Tuesday.
Last week, the Montgomery County Board of Education voted to approve more than $2.7 billion in upgrades to school facilities under the superintendent’s CIP and budget. Following the board’s approval, the plan goes to the county executive and County Council for consideration.
Elrich previously said the county is spending less now on capital improvement projects for Montgomery County Public Schools than it did in 2009, when it spent about $300 million per year. Currently, MCPS is spending about $280 million a year.
“And one way to say this is, now the bill’s coming due,” Elrich said Tuesday. “The challenge is going to be to figure out how to finance it.”
According to Elrich, it is an increase of $160 million per year over six years.
He said “we’re looking at different ways to approach this,” like potentially getting more money from the state.
“We’re going to try to find a way to fund as much of this as possible, but we’re going to need cooperation from the council,” Elrich said. “All of us have to recognize it’s an extraordinary request, but it’s an extraordinary need and it does not fit in the current structure of our budget. So we’re going to have to think hard about how we actually accomplish this.”
