Raises for Harford County’s teachers will be smaller than expected after the County Council did not provide the additional $3.6 million school officials said they needed.

County officials approved a $210.9 million contribution to the schools’ 2009 operating budget last week, representing an $11.3 million increase over last year’s contribution. But the County Council did not add another $3.6 million that Superintendent Jacqueline Haas said was necessary if the schools were to give teachers a 3 percent cost-of-living increase, a 3 percent step increase and an additional merit raise still being negotiated with the teachers association.

“We’ll not have as much as we’d hoped for,” said school board member Mark Wolkow.

County Executive David Craig said the schools’ shortfall came on the state’s side of the funding, not the county’s.

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“This year, the county provided 78 cents of every new dollar. I think that’s pretty remarkable,” Craig said.

Harford schools got less than one-third of their $9 million request from the state, Assistant Superintendent for Operations Joseph Licata told The Examiner earlier this month. When combined with rising prices for fueling school vehicles and powering facilities, the budget outgrew the raises, Licata said.

But county officials felt the schools had been given enough to pay the bills and give teachers sufficient raises.

“The council felt the county executive had demonstrated he’d given enough for the raises, and the schools didn’t demonstrate their need,” Council President Billy Boniface said.

The board has yet to meet and make final adjustments to balance the schools’ budget request with what the council approved, said schools spokesman Don Morrison.

msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com