Funding

Claiming that Educational Alternatives Inc. receives preferential treatment from the city school system, critics denounced last night a proposal to boost funding for the company by $6.7 million.That criticism, coming at the first public hearing on Superintendent Walter G. Amprey's proposed $634 million 1994-1995 operating budget, opened what is likely to be a contentious debate on school priorities.City Council President Mary Pat Clarke and the Baltimore Teachers Union argued that giving EAI-run schools more money per pupil than almost all other city schools is unfair.

WASHINGTON -- Federal funding for military-related projects in Maryland could be reduced by cuts approved yesterday by the House of Representatives, which approved a measure that trimmed more than $3 billion from President Bush's request for funding associated with the base realignment and closure process. The legislation now goes to the Senate, where it may be approved under rules that prohibit changes. But Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, said there would be opportunities this year to obtain more funding.

Several Baltimore-area lawmakers, seeking to preserve funding for a downtown football stadium, are preparing legislation to maintain money already set aside for the project but free up future revenue for other purposes.The bill would retain the $24.3 million expected to be in the "football reserve fund" at the end of the fiscal year, but would allow future stadium lottery revenues of about $19 million a year not needed for debt service or operating expenses on Oriole Park to be diverted to non-recurring, capital projects.

The U.S. Senate has approved $41 million in federal transportation funds for the once-endangered Coast Guard yard Curtis Bay as well as authorization to hire 50 new full-time civilian ship-repair workers.The funding approval for fiscal 1992, announced yesterday by Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., a member of the transportation appropriations subcommittee, represents an increase of $7 million over current spending and $30 million more than the yard received in fiscal 1990.It includes $38.5 million to continue maintenance work at Curtis Bay backed by the Bush administration for numerous Coast Guard cutters built in the 1960s and $1.1 million for consolidation there of the Curtis Bay and Brooklyn, N.Y., supply centers.

Legislative leaders may revoke as much as $44 million in bond money earmarked for nonprofits and local capital projects as they work to craft a more austere budget than envisioned by Gov. Martin O'Malley. The at-risk bond funding has been authorized for projects around the state over the past quarter-century but has never been spent. House Speaker Michael E. Busch said yesterday that his chamber would likely seek to withdraw $14 million for several dozen projects that had been promised bond money dating to 1984.

WASHINGTON -- Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee have called for a $270 billion defense budget for next year, $14 billion above President Clinton's proposal.The extra money would forestall another decline in what the Republicans regard as an underfunded Pentagon budget that is harming military readiness and hampering weapons modernization.In a letter dated Wednesday to the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, New Mexico Republican Pete V. Domenici, the 11 Republicans on the Armed Services Committee said the increase was "the only prudent course" to counter the "woefully deficient" readiness of U.S. forces to enter combat.

While pleased that nearly all of their fiscal 2007 operating and capital budget requests were funded, Howard County schools officials are disappointed by the lack of funding for facility maintenance. Board of Education members are scheduled to adopt both budgets - $551.5 million for the operating budget and $88.4 million for capital spending - tomorrow, but Joshua Kaufman, the school board chairman, said he is concerned about the amount set aside for building maintenance. "The bottom line is, particularly with more aging buildings, cutting maintenance hurts," Kaufman said.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, bowing to pressure from arts patrons throughout the region, has rejected a proposal to phase out city support for Baltimore's art and cultural institutions.Mr. Schmoke and other city officials had received at least 1,500 letters and post cards asking that the city reject a proposal to cut off more than $10 million a year in funding for the museums and other cultural institutions in Baltimore.But Mr. Schmoke said that while the financially strapped city would continue to provide financial support for the arts, it may prove to be inadequate.

Baltimore CFLs owner Jim Speros says he no longer expects to receive state funds from Gov. William Donald Schaefer's administration for renovation costs at Memorial Stadium."

House Speaker Michael E. Busch joined critics of the state's plans for funding the $1.7 billion Intercounty Connector last night, charging that the Ehrlich administration is planning to tie up too great a share of the state's transportation resources in one project. Busch objected to the Transportation Department's plan to finance the Washington-area highway project largely with a form of bond backed by a pledge of future federal funds. "You're leveraging all future federal dollars that are supposedly available for projects throughout the state," the Annapolis Democrat said.