Local
Dividing the stimulus among D.C., Va., Md., Metro
Washington Examiner
January 29, 2009
As state officials crafted their budgets, those in Maryland bet on the promise of federal stimulus dollars, while Virginia leaders planned for the worst.
“It’s clear the governor of Maryland did not want to spread the pain,” said Donald Norris, professor and chairman of the Department of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “And it looks like the Virginia legislators don’t mind spreading the pain.”
The prime example, Norris said, was Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s willingness to factor as-yet uncertain federal stimulus money into his $14.4 billion fiscal 2010 budget, released last week. O’Malley’s $350 million assumption of stimulus funds was bumped up Tuesday to about $4 billion over two years.
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine’s administration, on the other hand, hasn’t accounted for a dime of stimulus money in its stark budget proposal now in front of the Virginia legislature.
And on Wednesday, Kaine said the expected $4 billion infusion of federal dollars wouldn’t reverse the cuts he’s already made in state spending. He also said the stimulus wouldn’t affect his proposed 30-cent-per-pack cigarette tax increase.
The Virginia General Assembly is now beginning to weigh a slew of painful cuts to combat an assumed $2.9 billion shortfall through 2010.
Kaine’s finance secretary, Richard Brown, told The Examiner “The plan all along has been that [stimulus funds] will be handled in the General Assembly once we get clearer information on what the final package will look like.”
District Mayor Adrian Fenty has not yet presented a budget for the next fiscal year, but he is already hoping to cushion the blow of an almost $260 million shortfall on President Obama’s proposed stimulus dollars. In a Jan. 7 letter to Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Fenty asked for hundreds of millions to “help offset the significant declines in tax and other revenues we are experiencing as a result of the economic downturn.”
O’Malley officials defended the Maryland governor’s relative optimism by saying the budget is a work in progress, and their numbers are informed by daily conversations with members of Congress.
Even with the assumed stimulus, O’Malley’s initial proposal was 1.3 percent less than the 2009 budget and included 700 layoffs of state employees.
“The Maryland Constitution says we’re required to introduce the budget on a specific day, and it has to be balanced,” O’Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said. “Hopefully, this is not the final budget we’ll vote on at the end of April.”
Examiner Staff Writer Michael Neibauer contributed to this story.
“It’s clear the governor of Maryland did not want to spread the pain,” said Donald Norris, professor and chairman of the Department of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “And it looks like the Virginia legislators don’t mind spreading the pain.”
The prime example, Norris said, was Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s willingness to factor as-yet uncertain federal stimulus money into his $14.4 billion fiscal 2010 budget, released last week. O’Malley’s $350 million assumption of stimulus funds was bumped up Tuesday to about $4 billion over two years.
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine’s administration, on the other hand, hasn’t accounted for a dime of stimulus money in its stark budget proposal now in front of the Virginia legislature.
And on Wednesday, Kaine said the expected $4 billion infusion of federal dollars wouldn’t reverse the cuts he’s already made in state spending. He also said the stimulus wouldn’t affect his proposed 30-cent-per-pack cigarette tax increase.
The Virginia General Assembly is now beginning to weigh a slew of painful cuts to combat an assumed $2.9 billion shortfall through 2010.
Kaine’s finance secretary, Richard Brown, told The Examiner “The plan all along has been that [stimulus funds] will be handled in the General Assembly once we get clearer information on what the final package will look like.”
District Mayor Adrian Fenty has not yet presented a budget for the next fiscal year, but he is already hoping to cushion the blow of an almost $260 million shortfall on President Obama’s proposed stimulus dollars. In a Jan. 7 letter to Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Fenty asked for hundreds of millions to “help offset the significant declines in tax and other revenues we are experiencing as a result of the economic downturn.”
O’Malley officials defended the Maryland governor’s relative optimism by saying the budget is a work in progress, and their numbers are informed by daily conversations with members of Congress.
Even with the assumed stimulus, O’Malley’s initial proposal was 1.3 percent less than the 2009 budget and included 700 layoffs of state employees.
“The Maryland Constitution says we’re required to introduce the budget on a specific day, and it has to be balanced,” O’Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said. “Hopefully, this is not the final budget we’ll vote on at the end of April.”
Examiner Staff Writer Michael Neibauer contributed to this story.
