ANNAPOLIS — The Maryland General Assembly will hold an unprecedented joint hearing of the House and Senate budget committees Tuesday to propose changes to Gov. Martin O’Malley’s budget plan.
The meeting arose from partisan banter nearly two months ago, then eventually matured into a more serious effort to shrink the budget.
On Jan. 29, Democratic budget chairmen proposed the hearing to Republican leaders, asking for specific proposals to slash $2 billion from the budget.
Republican lawmakers in particular have been critical of O’Malley’s $12.7 billion budget proposal, in which he is counting on $1.4 billion accrued from federal stimulus money, revenue from slot machines that have not been set up, and transfers from a construction fund to help make up the $2 billion gap.
After Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. said he thought the invitation was politically motivated, Republican leaders in the Senate declined to participate.
But House Republicans have chosen to weigh in. What happens at the Tuesday morning hearing is sure to be a snapshot of the debate to come next month, when the Senate and House take their budget proposals to the floor.
In Maryland, the legislature has only the power to cut from the governor’s budget. As hearings continue over the next several weeks as a mid-March deadline approaches, the Senate’s Budget and Taxation Committee and the House of Delegates Appropriations Committee will decide how the budget should be cut.
The Senate Budget and Taxation Committee is scheduled to finalize its decisions by March 11, one day after new revenue estimates will become available. Debate will begin by March 17. The House will consider the Senate’s recommendations and mark up its own version of a budget. The House and Senate recommendations will then go to conference committee, where the final budget will be written up.
