With the 2026 Legislative Session approaching, MACo continues to highlight significant issues likely to dominate budget and policy discussions in Annapolis. Among them, school construction stands out as a growing pressure point, with rising capital needs outstripping available funding.
The Department of Legislative Services flags this tension clearly in the 2026 Issue Papers.
Debt affordability limits, slowing revenue growth, and competing capital priorities constrain the State’s ability to keep pace with school construction demand.
At the same time, the phaseout of temporary funding sources such as Built to Learn removes a fundamental pressure valve that has helped move projects forward in recent years. The result leaves counties and school systems navigating a widening gap between what schools need and what capital funding can support.
A Growing Backlog Meets Tighter Capital Limits
Maryland’s public schools face mounting facility challenges. Aging buildings require major system replacements. Safety and security upgrades continue to expand in scope. Modern instructional standards demand different layouts, technology, and infrastructure than older schools can support.
Construction costs compound the challenge. Labor shortages, volatile material prices, and longer project timelines drive higher bids and push cost estimates upward year after year. Even projects that secure State approval often wait years for complete funding alignment.
DLS highlights that capital planning now operates under tighter constraints. Debt affordability limits restrict growth in general obligation bonds. Statewide capital needs crowd out limited capacity. Without additional tools or sustained investment, the pipeline struggles to keep up with documented need.
Counties Front Costs While Waiting for Participation
When school facilities reach critical points, counties cannot wait indefinitely for funding alignment.
Counties advance projects to address failing roofs, outdated mechanical systems, safety concerns, and overcrowded classrooms. They issue local debt, commit cash, and move construction forward while awaiting State participation. That forward funding strains local debt capacity and limits flexibility for other capital priorities.
This approach also shifts risk. Cost escalations that occur after initial approvals land locally. Delays in State funding complicate cash flow and sequencing. Counties absorb uncertainty first while trying to keep projects on schedule.
Planning Becomes Harder as Uncertainty Grows
Unpredictable timing complicates long-term capital planning. Counties build multi-year capital improvement programs based on assumptions about cost, participation rates, and schedules. When those assumptions shift, projects crowd out one another and force difficult tradeoffs.
School systems feel the impact directly. Delays extend construction timelines. Escalating costs reduce project scope. Planning staff manage more uncertainty with fewer tools to control outcomes.
Why School Construction Remains a County Priority
These pressures sit squarely behind MACo’s 2026 Legislative Initiative on school construction. Counties remain committed partners in delivering safe, modern schools, but the balance between responsibility and funding continues to slip.
Project approvals increasingly outpace available capital. Built to Learn provided temporary relief, but those dollars wind down as construction costs remain elevated and backlogs grow. Counties respond by advancing projects to address safety issues, aging facilities, and instructional needs, often before State funding aligns.
That approach strains local debt capacity and complicates long-term capital planning. Counties do not control construction costs, market conditions, or the pace of State participation, yet they absorb the financial risk when projects cannot wait.
The initiative calls for restoring balance through predictable, shared investment that reflects modern construction realities. Counties seek clearer alignment between project approvals and funding commitments, greater certainty in capital participation, and a framework that allows responsible planning without forcing local governments to front costs indefinitely.
Absent that balance, counties will continue to carry increasing risk at a time when fiscal constraints tighten across all levels of government. School construction will remain a central test of how Maryland matches statewide priorities with local capacity.
The Bottom Line
School construction remains one of the most significant and least flexible pressures in county capital budgets. Counties plan years ahead, manage debt limits carefully, and move projects forward when safety, capacity, or facility conditions require action.
As capital constraints tighten and temporary programs sunset, the gap between approved projects and available funding grows harder to manage. How Maryland addresses that gap in the 2026 session will shape not only school construction timelines but also county debt capacity, long-term capital planning, and the ability to meet other local infrastructure needs.
