As introduced, the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act (BRFA) of 2012 includes a provision to relieve the school boards from the requirement to pay pension costs for federally funded teachers.  This was intended to be an offset to the partial transfer of teacher pensions costs to the counties.  However, this provision relieved the school boards of the requirement and provided no offsetting funding relief to county governments who would be picking up these costs.

The Administration raised this issue as a part of its testimony and offered an amendment to instead transfer this $37 million in payments to the county. From the Administration’s testimony:

As Amended, Redirects Local School System Retirement Payments for federally funded positions from the State to the counties. FY 2013 – $37 million in relief to local governments.

MACo expressed its concern with this provision in its testimony before the Senate and House Budget Committees.