Prince George's County Secures Nearly $1 Billion in State Funding

Another legislative session came to a close earlier this week in Annapolis, and Prince George’s County leaders managed to pull off some last-minute wins in securing funding for county government and schools, according to news reports. In all, a total of about $958 million in funding for Prince George’s County was secured.

County Executive Rushern Baker (D), told The Gazette that securing the funding was due to good old-fashioned hard work. 

"When you work hard, there's a saying, the more luck you seem to get," he said. "We worked together. But we were strategic about what we wanted. We didn't come in with a laundry list." 

Here’s a quick round up of the wins and losses for Prince George’s County, as reported in The Washington Post and The Gazette:

Winners

• The county school system won back about $14 million of a $20 million cut proposed by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D).  Some $35 million was secured for new construction.
• Due to an increase in alcohol tax, the county got more than $958 million in state aid from the recent General Assembly session, according to The Gazette.
•  The county received $3 million to help keep Rosecroft Raceway in Fort Washington afloat while it emerges from bankruptcy protection.  The racetrack closed its doors last summer after legislators failed to secure last-minute funding.
• About $10 million was secured by the county to fund road improvements around Konterra, a multi-billion dollar mixed-use development proposed along Interstate 95 in Laurel.
• Prince George’s Hospital Center is slated to get $4 million for facility improvements and $15 million to help keep it operating while officials look for a long-term solution to its financial problems, according to The Post.

Losers

• Anyone who likes to drink alcohol will have to pay more. Legislators agreed to raise the state's sales tax on alcoholic drinks from 6 percent up to 9 percent.
• County schools will have to pay $2.3 million in administrative fees for teacher pensions and the county will pay $4.5 million for the state property tax assessor’s office.