Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley directed state agencies Thursday to trim hundreds of millions of dollars from their current budgets, the morning after Montgomery County Democrats rejected his push to use slots to help with future budget problems.
O’Malley told department directors to identify cuts representing up to 5 percent of their current year budgets, saying he will bring the proposed reductions before the Board of Public Works on Oct. 15. Earlier this month, the Maryland Board of Revenue Estimates projected 2009 revenues will fall more than $400 million short of estimates.
“The budget has a lot of line items, and the governor has asked the state agencies to go through every one of them,” O’Malley spokesman Shaun Adamec said.
Many local governments worry O’Malley administration leaders will decide to slice aid to counties, sticking jurisdictions with hefty bills previously paid by the state.
“The specifics remain to be seen, but he has made clear that everything is on the table and needs to be. Everyone needs to feel some ownership in this,” Adamec said.
Meanwhile, Montgomery representatives of O’Malley’s own party spurned the governor’s goal of installing 15,000 slot machines at five Maryland racetracks. Precinct captains and Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee members alike overwhelmingly voted to oppose a November referendum on slots in the sample ballot they’ll disseminate this fall.
Though Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett, the area’s top Democrat, last week dropped 15 years of opposition to join the governor in supporting slots, other local Democrats refused to follow the high-ranking leader. Leggett did not speak at the Wednesday night vote, but sources said he urged some members to support slots at a Tuesday morning breakfast meeting.
Montgomery Democratic precinct captains voted 97-17 to oppose slots, as did 16 of 17 Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee members.
“The only booing of the night was when it was suggested that the county party should support or stay neutral on the referendum so as not to embarrass Governor Martin O’Malley,” liberal blogger Eric Luedtke said on his Free State Politics site.
“Some people said having a different stance than the county executive and governor puts us in a funny position,” committee spokesman Milt Minneman said Thursday. “But we’re not rebels against county or state government leaders, we just didn’t agree with them.”
