Maryland House Bill HB1436

Maryland 2025 Regular Session

• Introduced: 2/7/25
• Refer: 2/7/25

Caption

Office of the Attorney General - Federal- and State-Assisted Housing Programs - Grievance Process

Summary

HB1436 would require the Interagency Commission for School Construction to include an inflationary adjustment, using a cost-of-construction inflation index, when preparing its projections of school construction and capital improvement needs. Those projections are used in the State’s debt-affordability process, and the bill also requires the Commission to provide the projections directly to the Governor so they can be considered when setting the annual capital budget allocation for school construction. The bill takes effect July 1, 2025. The bill also clarifies legislative intent regarding public school construction funding. It amends the 2022 school construction funding language to state that the General Assembly’s annual $450 million school construction goal should be recalculated with an inflation adjustment, and that the recalculation should occur before funding the Public School Facilities Priority Fund. It further confirms that this goal does not include funding provided through the Built to Learn Program. By doing so, the bill seeks to make school construction funding targets more responsive to rising construction costs.

Impact

HB1436 would change how Maryland projects and plans for public school construction funding by embedding inflation into the Commission’s needs estimates and by directing those estimates to both the Capital Debt Affordability Committee and the Governor. It would not create a new funding program, but it would affect how existing school construction and capital budget decisions are informed, potentially increasing the projected need for school construction dollars and influencing annual debt and capital allocations. The bill also amends prior session law to reinforce that the State’s school construction funding target should be inflation-adjusted and separate from Built to Learn funding.

Sentiment

Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee testimony or votes in the provided materials, the bill appears to be framed as a technical and policy adjustment intended to keep school construction funding aligned with real-world costs. The stated purpose suggests support for maintaining stable project funding levels despite inflation, and the measure is presented in a straightforward, budget-planning context rather than as a controversial policy shift.

Contention

The main point of potential contention is fiscal: requiring inflation-adjusted projections could increase the apparent need for school construction funding and place upward pressure on the State’s debt affordability calculations and capital budget allocations. Supporters are likely to favor the change as a way to preserve purchasing power and avoid erosion of the school construction program, while opponents or budget hawks may be concerned about higher projected commitments, reduced flexibility in the capital budget, or the effect on overall debt capacity. No specific opposition or amendments are reflected in the provided committee record.