The Maryland Senate has voted to shift of some of the cost of teacher pensions to Baltimore City and the state’s counties as part of an efforts to avoid more than $500 million in so-called Doomsday budget cuts originally scheduled to take effect on July 1.
The House voted 86-51 for the that will begin splitting teacher pension costs between the state and local jurisdictions over the next four years. In the Senate, the vote on the measure that included the teacher pension shift was 33-13.
AFT-Maryland and its affiliate, the Baltimore Teachers Union, have long opposed shifting the cost of pensions to local governments. Many local jurisdictions, such as the City of Baltimore, already suffer from budget deficits.