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Committee recommends OPEB trust drawing to preserve Montgomery College request, places IT restoration on reconciliation list
Summary
The Education & Culture Committee on April 27 proposed reducing Montgomery College’s tax-supported appropriation by $4.6 million and authorizing a $4.6 million draw from the college’s OPEB trust to preserve the requested funds; a separate $3.625 million IT restoration item was placed on the reconciliation list.
Committee staff and Montgomery College representatives told the committee that the college seeks a $6.3 million increase above maintenance-of-effort, mostly to support compensation and IT needs.
The chair proposed and the committee agreed preliminarily to a dollar-for-dollar switch: reduce the college’s tax-supported appropriation by $4.6 million and authorize Montgomery College to draw $4.6 million from its OPEB (other post-employment benefits) trust so the college would have the same total funding level. The chair said the college’s OPEB trust is about 86% funded with roughly $101 million in assets and that the proposal would preserve employee compensation and avoid cuts to personnel.
For the remaining $1.7 million above MOE, the committee recommended not placing that amount on the reconciliation list; however, the committee did place a separate $3,625,000 IT restoration item on reconciliation as an above-base request that will need additional negotiation. College officials said the $6.3 million request represents a modest 1.3% increase and emphasized the goal of maintaining academic and student-support services.
