Two employees who didn’t check the math on a statewide property assessment have dealt a serious blow to this state’s budget — so why did it take nearly a year to discover the error?

The slip-up happened in November 2007, when two new workers in Maryland’s state assessments office were inputting the value of taxable real estate in Montgomery County. They mistakenly entered $179 billion, when the real number was closer to $163 billion.

But the error wasn’t unearthed until late summer of 2008, when workers in the state’s budget and treasurer offices figured out that Montgomery property taxes were more than $18 million below their projected level.

By then, the error had found its way through at least 18 counties and wreaked havoc on many budgets — including the State Department of Education. The Department uses a sophisticated formula which shifts money from school systems with more wealth to those that are less well off.

Because of the Montgomery Country overstatement, $4.5 billion in state education fund was misallocated among Maryland’s school systems.  Schools in Montgomery (which appeared to be flooded with property wealth) were denied funds, while schools in other districts were given too much money.

State officials claim the workers responsible for the error have been disciplined, but are calling for further audits of a system that would allow such an error to remain unnoticed for months.

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Tags: Department of Education, Maryland, Property wealth