Who Really Cut the $6.1 Million for Aging Schools?

As I mentioned on yesterday’s episode of The Air Raid, the Maryland State Teachers Association and Maryland’s Pinocchio-in-Chief State Senator Rich Madaleno are haranguing Governor Larry Hogan for what they seem to think is Governor Hogan’s refusal to spend $6.1 million on the Aging Schools Program.

The facts of course show something entirely different.

As it always does, the State Budget was sent to a conference committee. The conference committee consisted of four Democrats and one Republican from both the House and the Senate. On page 4 of the conference committee report, you clearly see the $6.1 million for the Aging Schools Program deleted from the Governor’s allowance and moved into the restricted category.

This was done by the Democrats. This was not done by Larry Hogan.

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The Conference Committee report had to be voted on by both Houses in order for the budget to be approved. While many of the Republicans voted for it in the House, every single Republican State Senator except for George Edwards voted against the conference committee report that moving the funding from the Aging Schools Program into the restricted category.

Every single Democrat in both chambers voted for the conference report. Which means that ultimately State Senator Rich Madaleno supported the funding cut from the Aging Schools Program that he is now blaming on Governor Larry Hogan.

Of course this is how cynical these Democrats like Madaleno are. After cutting the money from Governor Hogan’s proposed budget and tossing it in the fenced off pot they put in the 90 Day Report (see the * footnote for Aging Schools Program line item in Exhibit A-3.4) “Funding in the fiscal 2017 budget was provided by the General Assembly for these programs; however, spending the funds provided is at the discretion of the Governor.”

So to recap Democrats, like Rich Madaleno, decided to remove funds for the Aging Schools Program that Governor Hogan himself included in his budget and fenced it off as part of a political stunt. Had the Democrats not started playing games with education funding to distract from the fact that Governor Hogan has spent more on K-12 education than any other Governor in state history the Aging Schools Program would be fully funded right now.

As it turns out, the real thugs are the ones that are stealing money from public schools in an effort to score points against a wildly popular Governor on behalf of a failing political party.