Mar 27, 2009 6:48 am US/Eastern
House Approves Maryland Budget With $825M In Cuts
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) ―
The House of Delegates approved Maryland's battered budget Thursday, as Democrats said they did their best to preserve a safety net for vulnerable residents while Republicans contended the state relied too much on federal economic recovery help.
The House voted 116-21 for the $13.9 billion budget. Delegates also approved a companion budget reconciliation bill on 118-19 vote. Together, they contain about $825 million in budget reductions in fiscal year 2009 and 2010.
Democrats said the state's fiscal condition will be challenging for years to come with a large structural deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars, but they said they've balanced the budget in very tough times while causing as little harm as possible.
"We're not there where we need to be yet," said Delegate Norman Conway, D-Wicomico, who chairs the Appropriations Committee. "It's going to take a lot more effort in the next session and the one after that, depending on the economy."
But Delegate Warren Miller, R-Howard, said the state won't have federal economic recovery act after two years, when the money runs out.
"Much like the drug addict that starts a drug addiction, once you spend this money you won't be able to stop," Miller said.
Delegate Murray Levy, D-Charles, said the state lost $2.5 billion in revenues between March 2008 and March of this year. As a result, the state has cut $1.5 billion out of the budget and relied on $1 billion in federal help to address budget problems, Levy said. He also pointed out that the state's general fund spending is down, compared to fiscal year 2008 and 2007 -- after inflation.
He suggested that not taking the federal stimulus money amounts to doing nothing.
"That's what they did in 1929. They did nothing, and it became the Great Depression," Levy aid.
Some Republicans criticized Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, for leaving the tough budget cutting to the General Assembly, instead of submitting more cuts himself in January.
Delegate Christopher Shank, R-Washington, said residents have been discouraged from spending money in the state because of $1.4 billion in tax increases, which were pushed by O'Malley in 2007 and approved by the General Assembly in a special session.
"We need a governor to show vision to address these long-term structural problems, and I regretfully say that, although we were yearning for that vision, with the executive budget that we saw, we did not get that vision," Shank said.
But Delegate Mary-Dulany James, D-Harford, said the state is weathering record budget cuts and that a further reduction urged by some Republicans would amount to "the cut that hurts children and elderly, particularly the poor."
"So if you want to entertain such a thing, that's what you would be doing," James said.
Big budget cuts are being put on local governments. The House approved a $60 million cut to the "piggyback" tax local governments are allowed to take from the state's income tax.
Delegates also approved $102 million in cuts in state aid for road maintenance, snow removal and road paving.
The Senate still has to vote on its version of the budget bills. Then, the two sides will work out differences in a conference committee.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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