Politics & Government
Prince George's County Secures Nearly $1 Billion in State Funding
Prince George's legislators walked away with more than $900 million in state funding from Annapolis this session. Here's a quick round up of the county's wins and losses for funding.
Another legislative session came to a close earlier this week in Annapolis, and Prince George’s County leaders managed to pull off some last-minute wins in securing funding for county government and schools, according to news reports. In all, a total of about $958 million in funding for Prince George’s County was secured.
County Executive Rushern Baker (D), told The Gazette that securing the funding was due to good old-fashioned hard work.
"When you work hard, there's a saying, the more luck you seem to get," he said. "We worked together. But we were strategic about what we wanted. We didn't come in with a laundry list."
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Here’s a quick round up of the wins and losses for Prince George’s County, as reported in The Washington Post and The Gazette:
Winners
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- The county school system won back about $14 million of a $20 million cut proposed by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D). Some $35 million was secured for new construction.
- Due to an increase in alcohol tax, the county got more than $958 million in state aid from the recent General Assembly session, according to The Gazette.
- The county received $3 million to help keep Rosecroft Raceway in Fort Washington afloat while it emerges from bankruptcy protection. The racetrack closed its doors last summer after legislators failed to secure last-minute funding.
- About $10 million was secured by the county to fund road improvements around Konterra, a multi-billion dollar mixed-use development proposed along Interstate 95 in Laurel.
- Prince George’s Hospital Center is slated to get $4 million for facility improvements and $15 million to help keep it operating while officials look for a long-term solution to its financial problems, according to The Post.
Losers
- Anyone who likes to drink alcohol will have to pay more. Legislators agreed to raise the state's sales tax on alcoholic drinks from 6 percent up to 9 percent.
- County schools will have to pay $2.3 million in administrative fees for teacher pensions and the county will pay $4.5 million for the state property tax assessor’s office.
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