It’s peanuts, said Mikulski Tuesday afternoon, as the fiery U.S. Senator promised she would leave no stone unturned to get St. Mary’s County its due share from the Impact Aid.
“You are right on target,” said a joyous Commissioner Tom Mattingly (D. Leonardtown), who appears careworn that a looming budget deficit at Annapolis might force the state to pass on some of its funding obligations to the counties.
At the conference room of Eagan McAllister Associates on Eagan McAllister Lane, Mikulski met with two St. Mary’s County Commissioners, leaders of the Southern Maryland Navy Alliance and the Patuxent Partnership to discuss priorities for the county and how Maryland’s federal delegation can help provide necessary resources to the region.
Commissioners Dan Raley (D. Great Mills), Kenny Dement (R. Piney Point) and Larry Jarboe (R. Golden Beach) were conspicuous by their absence Tuesday.
Impact Aid is federal funding for school communities that are impacted by military installations. According to Mikulski, currently the region is receiving only $5.6 million in Impact Aid. “It’s too skimpy,” Mikulski said.
Many military families are exempt from paying local taxes because they live on federal land, even while they send their children to public schools. Impact Aid is an in-lieu-of-tax program – in other words, it is the federal government paying its “tax bill” to local school districts as a result of the presence of a military installation.
Impact Aid is the only federal education program where the funds are sent directly to the school district. The funds go directly into the school district’s general fund for operations such as purchase of textbooks, computers, utilities, and payment of staff salaries.
Mikulski promised “Team Maryland” would get the “Free State” its fair share from the federal cake.
Mikulski, who recently secured an annual, multi-year, $2 million in federal funding for a crucial broadband initiative, likened that endeavor to eating “a pineapple, though it’s a terrible metaphor.”
“I see this (broadband) as my No. 1 priority,” Mikulski flanked by Todd Morgan, president of the Southern Maryland Navy Alliance, told a select gathering that included former Sen. J. Frank Raley, Delegate John Wood, and Commissioner President Jack Russell (D. St. George Island).
During her talk, Mikulski focused greatly upon the broadband initiative, which she believes has national security implications.
Mikulski described the capital region as a very sensitive, high threat region, and said many ideas of the past, such as smart growth, has to be re-evaluated following the new realities that emerged after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Torre Meringolo, vice president for development at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, succinctly captured the mood of the gathering. “Encroachments on the base are a growing issue here,” he said. “This part of the county has been very fragile,” he said of Lexington Park. Meringolo pointed to the converging “Troika of Interests”: historic preservation, environmental protection, and economic well-being that hinges on the base.
For his part Commissioner President Russell cited school funding and maintaining the health of the Chesapeake Bay, along with the encroachments at the base, as some of his major concerns.
Morgan told Mikulski he looke