The Maryland Board of Public Works unanimously approved $280 million in budget cuts Wednesday proposed by Gov. Martin O’Malley.
The state is facing a more than $700 million budget shortfall, and O’Malley has promised additional cuts by Labor Day.
The governor called the first round of cuts, which include about 60 state job cuts and reductions in state money for psychiatric hospitals, painful but necessary.
“Were it not for these decisions we made together, the choices we’d face today would be far more difficult and Marylanders would be facing many of the nightmare scenarios plaguing other states,” O’Malley said in a statement.
The three-member board is composed of O’Malley, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy Kopp. – Alan Suderman
