The Maryland Senate approved a $30 billion state budget Wednesday after easily overcoming Republican attempts to pare the spending by $529 million in order to avoid tax increases next year.
The Senate made only minor changes in the state budget passed by the House of Delegates last week, and both versions cut Gov. Martin O?Malley?s request by little more than $100 million. Most of the cuts have already been reshuffled into supplemental budgets.
Sen. Lowell Stoltzfus, R-Somerset, who proposed the GOP amendment, said the proposal “simply restrains growth” in spending this year.
“I believe it is essential to take action now,” Stoltzfus said. “Waiting till next year almost certainly means increases in taxes.” There will be an estimated $1.5 billion budget shortfallnext year based on mandated spending growth.
Democratic Senate President Thomas Mike Miller has urged O?Malley to act this session to increase revenues by approving slot machine gambling and raising the gasoline tax, among other tax proposals. But the new governor has asked for time to find efficiencies in government programs before he asked taxpayers for more money.
The Republican proposal cut the increased funding to county schools known as Thornton aid by $248 million, although it would still go up 8 percent, Stoltzfus said. There was also $73 million reduction for higher education, a trim that would likely result in higher tuition. The plan also asked O?Malley to find another $113 million in cuts across the board.
The Senate reductions in the growth in spending were less drastic than a similar attempt by House Republicans last week to reduce O?Malley?s proposed budget. That was possible partly because they swallowed Miller?s slots proposal, raising more $300 million each year.
The slots proposals “causes heartburn” for the Republicans, Majority Leader David Brinkley said. “But it has been the stated policy of this body.”
Sen. Ulysses Currie, D-Prince George?s, chairman of the Budget and Taxation Committee, said, “It?s important that we continue to work with this governor” to solve the problem next year.
Sen. Patrick Hogan, D-Montgomery, the budget vice chair, said the committee had rejected dozens of bills that would have raised spending by hundreds of millions. Sen. Edward Kasemeyer, a subcommittee chair and majority leader, distributed a list showing that “the counties are hurt significantly” by the Republican cuts, and jurisdictions would be forced to increase local taxes.
