MACo recently received a document from the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), describing how county payments of maintenance of effort (MOE) and additional pension payments will be calculated in state FY 2014.  The process will back out pension payments made in FY 2013 before calculating the new per-pupil MOE base.

MACo and individual counties had raised concerns that the phrasing of the MOE certification statement for FY 2013 suggested that the pension payments would become part of the MOE “base” for the subsequent year, leading to a potentially far greater cost mandate than had been envisioned by legislative staff or county governments. MSDE’s response clarifies its intent to avoid such double counting. From the MSDE document:

• To avoid double counting, the FY 13 BRFA §18 amount cannot flow to the per pupil calculation, therefore, for FY 14, on the second page of the form, MSDE will include the FY 13 additional MOE amount per BRFA Section 18 in the “Other Reconciling Items” portion of the page.
• Thus, this amount will be reduced from the overall highest local appropriation before the figure is carried to the front of the form for the per pupil calculation.

The complete document is available on Conduit Street.