Maryland Education Budget Continues to Grow
Pax Leader
By Mallory Lengel
Delegate John Bohanan described Maryland’s 2014 budget as roughly equal to the $38 billion that flows through NAVAIR at NAS:PAX.
Speaking at a town meeting held in Lexington Park, Maryland, Delegate Bohanan presented an update of the Maryland budget to the community. The total budget for Maryland is $38.92 billion, a growth of 4.6 percent from last year.
Of that total, the general fund comprises $16.4 billion largely funded through sales, income and property taxes. This budget is the main focus of the Maryland General Assembly legislators and is spent primarily on education, health services, and public safety.
Of the $16.4 billion Maryland General Fund, more than $7 billion goes to education, of that, more than $6 billion funds K-12 public education. St. Mary’s County’s share works out to roughly 53% of the cost of education for each child in the public school system. School funding has “better than doubled” since the early 2000’s according to Delegate Bohanan.
Maryland continues as a national leader in holding down higher education costs with only a 3 percent increase last year following a four-year freeze on tuition. The Maryland General Fund provides approximately $1.2 billion to higher education, an industry with an overall budget of nearly $4.5 billion. The remaining budget comes from tuition, various fees and research grants from both the private and public sector.
Higher education has become a strong economic engine in the state as the Maryland budget continues to grow. Looking to leverage that catalyst in Southern Maryland, Delegate Bohanan leads the effort to build a research arm of the University of Maryland System at the Southern Maryland Higher Education Center in St. Mary’s County.
Of the $38 billion that flow through Pax River Naval Air Station, Delegate Bohanan said, roughly $4 billion stays in this community, mainly in the form of professional services. “Our challenge is to capture more of that,” he said.
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