The St. Mary’s County Board of Education has passed off to the county commissioners the decision on what to do about the system’s approximately $6 million budget shortfall due to health care costs. The school board at a special meeting Wednesday went along with School Superintendent Dr. Michael Martirano’s recommendation to present to the commissioners three options ranging from the school system absorbing the shortfall to the commissioners providing an upwards of $3.7 million bailout. The issue will be the subject of a commissioners’ budget workshop session next Monday.
Martirano detailed once again the culprits of the health care budget problems: increased insurance enrollment, increased prescription usage and more costly health care issues for employees. But the real culprit was admittedly the school board’s decision to switch to self-insuring its employees from a system in which the cost in any given year was determined by the actual costs in the previous year. It was hoped the new system would save money but it also left open the possibility of what happened this year. Martirano is recommending going back to the previous “modified retrospective” system.
That would require the addition of $6 million more in the budget for Fiscal Year 2015, more than making up the $4 million increase promised by the county commissioners. The school board will address its FY ’15 budget in a special work session starting at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, April 30.
“We tried something and it just isn’t working out,” said board member Cathy Allen about the change in insurance systems. She blamed Care First Blue Cross/Blue Shield for not giving the board correct estimates, although Martirano admitted there were variables involved beyond anyone’s control.
The decision to present the three options was supported by four board members, with Marilyn Crosby abstaining. She complained during board member comments that there were people in the community who knew about the budget crisis before the board was told about it. “I would like as a board member to be the first to know,” she said.
Board Vice President Brooke Matthews laid the blame on the inability of the board to provide adequate reserves for contingencies such as occurred with the health care costs. He said funding level issues “are the root of the problem,” and reiterating the oft-noted statistic that St. Mary’s ranks dead last in per-pupil funding for education.
“We made conscious, open decisions,” Martirano said. “I have been trying to tell for several years about the razor thin fund balance.”
Currently the board has a $2 million general fund balance and $1 million health cost reserve. One option would use all of that for the health care cost shor
