Howard County schools project $8 million FY26 gap after proposed state changes; county ask rises to $76 million

The Howard County Board of Education's finance team warned Thursday that proposals in the governor's budget and other state-level changes could widen the school system's FY26 budget gap by roughly $8 million.

"What I'm going to share here is all based on the proposed budgets at the state. None of this has been passed into law or has been finalized yet," Brian Hall, Howard County Public Schools chief financial officer, told the board during a virtual work session on Feb. 6. He said the figures presented were staff projections.

Hall said one component of the governor's proposal would delay implementation of a "collaborative time" foundation payment until FY30. That reduction equates to about $163 per student in foundation funding and an initial estimate of roughly $4 million less in foundation revenue for HCPSS. Because several other state funding streams are indexed to the foundation amount, Hall said those streams would also fall.

The district had previously estimated a $6 million hit from the state changes; Hall said a revision that holds special education funding harmless reduced the estimate to $5.5 million in lost state revenue. At the same time the state proposal would shift about $2.5 million in nonpublic tuition costs to local governments in FY26 (rising in FY27), increasing local expenditures. "So the total impact, will increase our gap by about $8,000,000," Hall said.

Hall also said the superintendent's originally requested above-maintenance-of-effort (MOE) ask from Howard County was $67.1 million; under the new state proposals that ask would rise to about $76 million if other factors remain constant. He added the county's own budget picture is constrained: county staff had shared an updated revenue projection that matched the district's $76 million ask but also indicated the county faced roughly $61 million in total requests beyond available revenue.

At the meeting outset the board approved the agenda by motion. The agenda approval motion was made by Mr. Abasiolu, seconded by Dr. Chen, and the board recorded the motion as carrying 8-0.

The district stressed that these numbers are preliminary. Hall said staff will continue to update the board as state and county proposals evolve and as legislation moves through the session.