For the third time this fiscal year (which only started July 1st, so we’re 4 1/2 months in), the state of Maryland has been forced to make budget cuts. This $360 million in budget actions brings the total to over $1 billion.
Doing his best to make lemonade out of the lemons he grew, Governor Martin O’Malley related, in part:
“These have not been easy decisions, but they have been necessary decisions to balance our State’s budget, and get our state through this recession more quickly and stronger than other states,” said Governor O’Malley. “Our citizens expect and deserve a government that works, and in spite of the most severe recession in a generation we’ve been working to reform our State government to make more efficient and effective.”
In the past three years, the O’Malley-Brown Administration has implemented $4.6 billion in budget cuts and spending reductions, including the elimination of more than 3,300 state positions.
Governor O’Malley once again held public education harmless in this round of budget cuts, noting Maryland’s nationally ranked number one public schools and the need to invest in our schools even in difficult times. General Fund support for K-12 education in FY2010 will exceed FY07 spending by almost $700 million.
Of the FY2010 budget actions, six of every ten dollars have come from reforming state agencies. Among today reductions were efforts to continue reforming our State government to make it more efficient and effective, including the suspension of non-essential vehicle purchases and reducing out-of-state travel for state employees. In addition, the State Highway Administration will reduce operating hours for five of 12 SHA-operated rest areas. An additional rest area will close during the winter months, and the rest area at US 219 at Keyser’s Ridge will close permanently.
Additionally, Governor O’Malley introduced $11 million in savings from efforts to ensure that only people who are eligible for Medicaid receive Medicaid services, and by scaling back unnecessary services; $500,000 in savings from negotiating lower prices with venders; and $3 million in savings from streamlining operations and consolidating functions across our government.
Can I add something here, Governor O’Malley? Unlike the federal budget which is created by Congress, YOU MAKE THE STATE BUDGET! So these cuts are in the budget because you overestimated the revenue you would get and/or didn’t have the will to look people in the eye and tell them “no”.
Just like Wicomico County’s budget, you left education as the sacred cow and contrived a number of ways to rob several existing funds (many of which seem to be slush funds for some pet purpose or another) or look to Uncle Sam (maybe I should say Uncle Barack) in order to bail you out. You place a lot of faith in Fedzilla to plug in the holes your cuts are creating.
Yet you have the audacity to smugly claim that your General Fund spending is now $500 million less than three years ago – and that you’ve made $4.6 billion in cuts over that timespan – but education spending is up $700 million. Well, perhaps if you’d get the budget right the first time we wouldn’t have these problems. It’s bad enough you jacked everyone’s taxes up yet still can’t figure this out on your third try.
Adding a voice of sanity is GOP challenger Larry Hogan:
Today, Martin O’Malley and the Board of Public Works cut $300 million more out of the State Budget. The cuts reduce millions in spending already committed for college financial aid, Medicaid funding, and state mental health programs. The cuts also may violate state law regarding the amount of appropriated funding that can be taken back by the state.
“Martin O’Malley continues his assault on the citizens of Maryland while exposing to all that he is unable to put Maryland’s fiscal house in order. Twice now, he has made significant cuts to the state’s Medicaid program after significantly increasing it less than a year ago. And once again he has chosen to put the burden of his overspending on state employees. This leadership does not work for Maryland citizens,” Hogan said.
Hogan continued, “Here’s what the citizens of Maryland have learned from Martin O’Malley over the last three years: he cannot be trusted to lead our state back to prosperity; his overspending and ‘tax everything’ policies have severely damaged our state’s economy and revenues; and he has no problem attacking the state’s most vulnerable.”
According to Maryland’s Department of Legislative Services, the fiscal year 2010 budget is currently $32.3 billion; the final budget of the Ehrlich administration was $29 billion – an increase of nearly $3.3 billion in new spending.
“Martin O’Malley has spent Maryland into a one billion dollar hole,” said Hogan. “And his fiscal policies have led to the highest unemployment rate in a generation by attacking the job creators of the state with more and more taxes. It’s time to change Maryland for the better by putting Martin O’Malley in the unemployment line in 2010. Only then can we put Maryland back on the right fiscal track.”
If O’Malley gets a second term and the economy somehow picks up, it’s a safe bet to assume that he’ll raise taxes in order to “make up” for all the spending cuts he’s had to provide. Or, all those items this budget transfers to the federal ledger will stay there until fiscal responsibility returns to Washington and transfer payments to states are reduced. Naturally, O’Malley would then blame Republicans for that occurrence because the prospects for fiscal sanity inside the Beltway over the next couple years are dim at best.
However, if Larry Hogan gets in that would provide the opportunity (although he would have to do so with lightning speed, starting the day after the election) to reevaluate every line-item in the state budget. It may take the first year to pare the budget down to a more appropriate level – if you assume a reasonable 3% per year growth from the FY07 figure provided, the FY12 budget would work out to $31.58 billion – but once that’s done, budget number two can work from a standpoint of reducing the tax burden on Maryland residents and employers. Of course, the dirty little secret Democrats won’t admit is that cutting taxes would increase revenue, so if you combine that with prudent spending habits Maryland can weather the next storm more easily.
It would be a vast improvement from the O’Malley crisis management method being employed now.
