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Lawmakers press MHEC on $194 million in unspent community college construction funds
Summary
During the Capital Budget Subcommittee hearing DLS cited about $194 million in unexpended community-college construction funds dating back to FY2022. MHEC said colleges manage projects and local-share requirements often delay state reimbursements; advocates urged sustained support and urged the committee to resist long-term funding cuts.
Delegates pressed the Maryland Higher Education Commission and DLS on why roughly $194 million in state-authorized community-college construction funds remain unexpended or unencumbered dating back to fiscal 2022.
DLS analyst David Propert told the subcommittee that despite roughly $736.4 million allocated to the construction grant program since 2017, about $194 million remains unspent in projects dating back to FY2022. "There remains about a $194,000,000 in unexpended funds dating back to at least fiscal 2022," Propert said during his presentation.
MHEC staff explained that community colleges manage individual construction projects and that state policy requires local shares to be spent before state reimbursement, which can create timing lags. "The way our program works, the colleges themselves manage each of the projects... the local shares always have to be spent before the state share comes in," MHEC staff (Shuster) told lawmakers.
Several delegates asked whether the unspent funds reflected project timing or management failures and whether the administration should consider changing the local-share-first requirement. MHEC acknowledged the law requires local shares be spent first and said it had not proposed legislation to change that requirement but agreed to explore administrative fixes and to provide more granular project-level information.
Community-college leaders pressed the panel for continued support. Jermaine F. Williams, president of Montgomery College, and Brad Phillips of the Maryland Association of Community Colleges urged the subcommittee to preserve funding levels and asked the committee to add Montgomery College's Theater Arts Building to the FY27 plan; Williams said the college has its county match in hand and is ready to proceed with design if state funds are approved.
DLS recommended the committee adopt narrative language requesting an annual project status report for the construction grant program showing stage-of-design and construction completeness for projects with outstanding unencumbered funds as of December 1.
What happens next: MHEC agreed to provide the requested report and to follow up with project-level details the committee requested; members said they would weigh whether steady annual funding targets should be restored if administrative delays continue to impede spending.
