and has deemed the system's finances an "absolute disaster". In January 2019, he released a budget that focused mostly on education funding, above what current state formulas require. In May 2018, Hogan signed a bill appropriating $15 million in need-based scholarships for low- and middle-income students, allowing them to attend community college tuition-free, and appropriating an additional $2 million over a five-year period for older "near-completer" college students who are close to earning degrees at community colleges or four-year colleges. In August 2019, Hogan said that he would veto any proposed tax increase to pay for the Blueprint for Maryland's Future, a proposed multi-billion dollar plan that aimed to implement a series of education reforms recommended by the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education. In May 2020, Hogan vetoed the Blueprint for Maryland's Future, citing the massive hit on Maryland's economy from the COVID-19 pandemic. This veto also blocked the implementation of the Build to Learn Act, a bill that would have provided $2.2 billion in extra funding for school construction which contained a provision preventing it from going into effect until the Kirwan bill became law. On February 12, 2021, the Maryland General Assembly voted to override Hogan's veto of the Kirwan bill. Leaders of the Maryland General Assembly also introduced a separate bill to adjust the implementation timeline of the Blueprint to account for Hogan's veto, which passed and became law without Hogan's signature. Environment In February 2015, Hogan announced proposed regulatory changes on phosphorus nutrient pollution in the Chesapeake Bay and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The water was being polluted as a result of agricultural runoff of chicken manure, which farmers use as fertilizer and is cheap and plentiful in Maryland. Hogan proposed extending the time for about 80% of farmers to fully comply with regulations to 2022, while at the same time imposing a ban on additional phosphorus use by the largest farmers and providing for indefinite delays if there was no other use for the manure. In March 2015, Hogan reached a compromise with Democrats in the General Assembly under which a hard date of 2022 was established, subject to a delay to 2024 if no alternative uses for the manure can be found. The compromise "received tentative praise from both the agricultural community and environmentalists." In 2016, Hogan signed legislation to reauthorize greenhouse gas reduction targets and mandate a 40% reduction in