A Prince George’s County Public School Board member opposed to a property tax hike to raise money for schools was ordered to cancel a town hall meeting where he would have heard from voters about the issue.
“I got an email from the board chair saying I could not host a town hall,” Ed Burroughs said.
Burroughs was not in attendance when the board voted to increase its budget and said he does not support the way the county is proposing it gets done.
"Our issue is managing the resources we do have, and throwing money at the problem is not going to fix it," he said.
County Executive Rushern Baker is asking the County Council to pass a 15.6 percent increase in property taxes yielding $104.9 million per year. All of that money would go to education.
It would cost owners of $200,000 homes $300 more per year in taxes.
School Board Chair Segun Eubanks said while he didn’t say Burroughs couldn’t host a town hall, he did say Burroughs couldn’t use school resources to do it since the board agreed to support its budget regardless of how it’s funded.
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"Any board member can speak as a board member about any issue they would like, but they are not allowed to use board resources to contradict the board on an official position," Eubanks said.
