The Montgomery County school system could be forced to pay millions of dollars in penalties under an opinion Wednesday by Maryland's attorney general that its county government had "artificially" satisfied a state law that sets a minimum funding level for education.

The 21-page opinion issued by Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler could leave Montgomery County liable for $16 million to $64 million in penalties, county officials said. The state Board Of Education will decide whether to penalize the school systems.

Gansler said Prince George's County committed the same violation, but School Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said that, based on the formula used to calculate the penalty, he is unsure whether his school district will have to pay anything.

The central issue has been the ability of local governments to comply with Maryland's "maintenance of effort" law, which sets minimum spending on education. During the economic recession, Montgomery and Prince George's have had trouble meeting the spending requirement.

Montgomery and Prince George's county councils ordered their school systems to reimburse them for debt service on public school construction, an expense usually covered by the counties. The attorney general described that move as an "artificial" way of meeting the minimum requirement for education spending while actually decreasing the amount spent on education. In Montgomery, the reimbursement was $79.5 million. In Prince George's, it was $11.8 million.

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A coalition of groups led by the ACLU wants the Prince George's Hospital Authority to declare in writing that health-care management companies interested in taking over the county's hospital system will offer abortions and other reproductive health services.

Representatives for the groups recently addressed the seven-member authority, which has been charged by a new state law with finding new owners for the system, anchored by the Prince George's Hospital Center in Cheverly.

The ACLU request seems to have been prompted by negotiations conducted in the spring between Johnson and leaders of Ascension Health, a St. Louis-based Catholic hospital chain. It was never clear what reproductive services Ascension would offer if it won the right to buy the system from the county and take over day-to-day management from the nonprofit group Dimensions Health, the nonprofit group that runs currently running the system.

The issue became moot when state leaders opposed the Ascension deal and instead backed the creation of an authority to conduct an open-bidding process with potential new owners. An Ascension executive said months ago that the company would consider making an offer.

The authority now plans to release a formal request for proposals with details on what it is seeking from interested companies on Sept..22. That document will lay out what the authority is looking for in bidders.

Officials with the ACLU, along with Planned Parenthood and NARAL, wants the reproductive services issue addressed.

The Prince George's Hospital Center and other county health facilities have received $5.6.million in state and county money, the latest funding in a public effort to stave off the collapse of the long-troubled hospital system.

Dimensions Healthcare System, the nonprofit company that runs the center and the four other county health facilities, received the payment within the past week -- half from the county and half from the state.

The county and the state are scheduled to pay about $24 million each in quarterly installments over two years. A seven-member hospital authority has been appointed to review bids from new health-care companies interested in taking over management from Dimensions and ownership from the county.

Suzanne Almalel, a spokeswoman for Dimensions, said the funding arrived just in time, as dollars had been dwindling at Dimensions.

"We were running a little short, so this is perfect timing," she said. "It will prevent us from losing a beat."

The company has been losing money for years and has survived on , surviving with regular infusions of public cash.

Dueling news conferences are scheduled Thursday by groups interested in keeping the doors of the financially-struggling Prince George's Hospital Center open.

First, at 9:30 a.m., a group of local ministers and community leaders will gather at the hospital to push Gov. Martin O'Malley, state legislators, County Executive Jack B Johnson and the County Council to "move swiftly to preserve the county's hospital system," according to a release about the event.

It will be led by Greater Mt. Nebo AME Church Pastor Jonathan L. Weaver, First Baptist Church of Glenarden Pastor John K. Jenkins Sr. and First Baptist Church of North Brentwood Pastor Perry Smith. The release indicates the pastors present will represent 250,000 worshippers. Their decision to publicly enter the fray over how to save the system could be a critical turning point. Ministers have substantial political and moral influence in Prince George's.

It's unclear what, exactly, the ministers will advocate, other than "a swift, amiable resolution" and "the necessary funding to sustain and provide qualitative healthcare systems throughout the county."

Then, at 9:45 a.m., SEIU 1199, the union representing 1,700 nurses and other hospital workers at Prince George's Hospital Center and Dimensions' four other county facilities, will host an Annapolis news conference, joined by the Prince George's Chamber of Commerce and various legislators. The union is supporting HB1039, a bill to create an independent state-run authority to take over the hospital system. The bill will be heard by a House committee Thursday afternoon.

Two competing ideas have emerged in Annapolis to handle the county-owned system, now managed by a non-profit company called Dimensions Health. Under HB1039, a newly created authority would take over the system management from Dimensions and ownership of land and buildings from the county. It would stabilize the system through operating grants provided by both the state and county and then pump money into the system to improve facilities and lure more privately-insured patients -- key to the system's longterm survival. The authority could then negotiate with private hospital companies interested in taking over.

A health care advocacy group is criticizing the Prince George's County Council for its recent handling of negotiations with the state over the future of the county's hospital system. Progressive Maryland is also suggesting that the council has been misleading the public about Dimensions Healthcare System, the private company that runs the system, and the impact the state's offer would have on the county.

The advocates say the council "paints incorrect scenarios about the hospital and other county services" in a posting on the county's website designed to answer frequently asked questions about the
hospital system.

On the website, the County Council says it is a "misnomer" to say that Prince George's owns or operates a hospital system. Progressive Maryland issued a point-by-point rebuttal of the council's arguments on its own website this week.

But Sean Dobson, acting director of Progressive Maryland, counters that argument, saying that the county does own the hospitals. "In a legal agreement reached in 1983, the county is clearly the owner of the property
and facilities and Dimensions is merely the leaseholder and operator of these assets," Dobson writes.

He also notes that under the lease agreement the county maintains two seat on the Dimensions Board
of Directors.

The Council said paying $176 over eight years to restructure the hospital system, which is called for under the state's proposal, would negatively affect other county services. Dobson said that "scenario is false, noting that the county had nearly $300 million in its reserve fund, according to the fiscal year 2006 consolidated annual financial
audit. "There are plenty of funds available for the county to meet its commitment under the state's proposal without cuttng essential services," he said.

"The Prince George's County government needs to face up to its responsibility to its residents," Dobson said. "Band-aids and playing loose with the facts are not what the county needs."

The council rejected an eight-year, $329 million deal offered by the state on the final day of the legislative session last month. County Executive Jack B. Johnson announced last week that the county would pay "tens of millions" to keep the hospital open for the next 15 months -- a stop gap measure to give the county time to reach a long-term deal with the state over the county's future.

Dobson called the failure to reach an agreement during this year's 90-day legislative session a "gross dereliction of duty" and said that the council is not reaching out to the O'Malley administration to try to come to some type of an agreement. "It's crazy."

The council did not respond to requests for comment.