Close a Baltimore City psychiatric center. Defer a drug treatment initiative. Cancel a cost-of-living salary adjustment for state employees.
These proposals were among an itemized list of budget reductions lawmakers may consider to curb further spending growth and address a $1.5 billion structural deficit. In the third day of hearings during the General Assembly?s special session in Annapolis, members of the House Appropriations Committee pored over a $760 million strategy to limit baseline budget growth.
“I honestly think [Gov. Martin O?Malley] is looking for suggestions from us,” said committee Chairman Norman Conway, an Eastern Shore Democrat. “Our goal was to have ones that we could seriously consider.”
The list includes $320 million in cuts already proposed in O?Malley?s sweeping plan to solve the deficit, such as scaling back education funding to save about $190 million and reducing a property tax grant for electric companies.
Many proposed cuts maintain current funding levels for programs like the state?s arts council and community college grants, while others require local governments to share retirement costs for teachers, librarians and community college employees.
Maryland is one few states that fully fund the pensions of those local-level employees, said Del. John Donoghue, a Washington County Democrat sponsoring a bill that would require governments to contribute 50 percent of pension costs.
County education officials opposed the bill at a hearing Thursday.
“I can?t begin to tell you how devastating this would be to teachers and school employees all over the state if this bill were to pass,” said Clara Foyd of the Maryland State Teachers Association.
The proposal, however, appears to interest at least some lawmakers.
“We need to lay everything on the table and fix our deficit,” said Del. John Bohanan, a St. Mary?s County Democrat. “The state has made some tremendous sacrifices. I?m not sure we?ve seen that from every jurisdiction at the local level.”
