Planning commission accepts St. Mary’s County FY2026 capital improvement request; schools, parks and preservation highlighted

The St. Mary’s County Planning Commission voted to accept the county’s FY2026 capital improvement budget request and the FY2027–2031 plan at its March 10 meeting.

Vanetta Van Cleave, identified in the meeting as the county finance director, presented the plan and said the total for FY2026 is $75,402,517. She told the commission the plan lowers near-term projected spending compared with earlier estimates, in part because the county pushed the sheriff’s headquarters project into FY2028 and accelerated funding for Chopticon High School.

The budget’s immediate significance: it sets project timing and funding assumptions for schools, parks, bridges and land-preservation programs. Van Cleave said the plan would keep the county’s outstanding-debt ratio “well below the 1.8 limit,” citing projected outstanding-debt percentages of 1.37 and 1.42 for the two near years shown in the presentation. She also noted bond-funding ratios of roughly 63% in FY2025 and about 58% and 57% in the next two years under the proposed plan.

School funding and Chopticon High School: Kim Howell, representing St. Mary’s County Public Schools, said the state is “really behind us this year.” Howell told the commission the Interagency Commission on School Construction (IAC) used a conservative estimate of the governor’s budget to make a recommendation and that the school system is on track to receive $9.2 million in the first year of the Chopticon High School…