So you thought the recent special legislative session solved all of Maryland?s budget problems?
Think again, representatives of hundreds of nonprofit groups who partially depend on state funds were told Monday. Their leaders are concerned that the social programs for the poor, sick and elderly they manage will continue to suffer, despite a well-meaning governor.
“The special session did not fix everything or resolve everything,” Neil Bergenson, of the Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute, told the groups. Next year?s budget will be “tight,” and $240 million more must be reduced in Gov. Martin O?Malley?s budget, which will be released Jan. 16. Those cuts will need to come from education, health or human services ? the areas in which many of the nonprofits work.
“Our senators and delegates are facing fiscal fatigue,” Bergenson said. “Don?t expect other significant spending growth.”
Comptroller Peter Franchot told the groups, “When push comes to shove, you know your programs get pushed aside.”
Short-funded programs already have produced a waiting list of 16,000 for services for the developmentally disabled, a number that doubled over the last five years, said Henry Bogdam, policy director for the nonprofits.
“We have fantastic aging programs that are being cut and not fully funded,” said Kim Burton, director of older programs for the state Mental Health Association. In one example, there is a waiting list of 10,000for a program authorized to serve 7,000 but only funded for 3,500.
“We have a foster care system that?s gone to hell in a handbasket,” with the loss of many foster homes, particularly in Baltimore City, said James McComb, director of the Maryland Association of Resources for Family and Youth. O?Malley?s secretary of the troubled Human Resources Department, Brenda Donald, “has a great vision, but she doesn?t have the money to do it,” McComb added.
“It?s very difficult for the public to understand what?s at stake” in the state budget, said Peter Berns, longtime head of the Maryland Nonprofits association.
The group will again back legislation to “try to make the budget process more open and transparent,” Berns said. This would require departments to spell out changes in levels of services ? something seldom done when cuts or reductions in spending growth are made.
Berns said the group also wants to have a commission set up to study the level of unmet needs and adequate funding levels for those needs. The association also wants a nonprofit sector development program to encourage what amounts to 11 percent of the private sector employment, he said.
