Late last night, the House Appropriations Committee voted to reject the Senate’s recommendation to shift a portion of teacher pensions to counties.  As reported in MarylandReporter

The House budget committee roundly rejected a Senate proposal to hand off half of the state’s responsibility for teacher pensions within five years, one of a series of decisions that will lead to difficult negotiations between the two chambers.

The committee rejected the pension shift without discussion, but Del. John Bohanan, D-Charles, later said members had discussed the change after the Senate action.

“I think there’s a strong sentiment that it’s hard to do that with a short amount of time here and not a lot of notice to the counties,” he said. “If we’re going to do something like that, we have to do it comprehensively.”

Stay tuned to the MACo blog for information on the pension shift and budget decisions.