The Maryland Senate passed a state budget Thursday that included a $24 million cut for Montgomery County’s roads and $15 million less for the county’s public schools, while forecasting even deeper cuts.
The Senate’s budget cuts $900 million from the state’s budget over the fiscal years 2009 and 2010 — about $75 million more than the House budget passed last week.
Lawmakers from both chambers will hammer out the differences in a conference committee in coming days before the General Assembly finalizes its budget. The legislative session is set to end April 13.
In crafting their budgets, both chambers sheared aid to local government, including less money for local schools, road maintenance and jails. In Montgomery County, the Senate’s bill would cut about $56 million in local aid; the House’s version would cut about $41 million.
The cuts in the budget reflect a $1.2 billion drop in projected revenues for the current fiscal year and the next. The state is expected to be deep in the red for many years to come.
Neither version includes shifting part of the cost of teacher pensions from the state to the county, a proposal that has been fiercely rejected by officials in Montgomery County, which has the highest overall teacher pension costs in the state. Maryland is one of a few states that picks up the tab on locally negotiated teacher pensions.
But some lawmakers said the only solution to the state’s long-term fiscal woes was to overhaul the state’s budget structure, a move that would mean less money for local governments and a possible shift in pension responsibilities.
“The message through this budget has to be to local governments: When you negotiate with your employees, your teachers or anybody, you cannot continue to count on state support as it has been,” said Sen. David Brinkley, R-Frederick, a proponent of shifting teacher pension cost to the counties.
Both versions of the budget also avoid laying off 700 state employees, an idea initially proposed by Gov. Martin O’Malley before an influx of federal stimulus money allowed the governor to shelve the idea.
Some Republican lawmakers said the stimulus money was a “curse” that allowed the state to put off making the necessary changes to its budget — changes that would be more painful in two years when the stimulus money was gone.
The Senate’s budget includes an amendment that would prohibit funding for a measure that would allow illegal immigrants to renew their Maryland driver’s licenses. The House version allows illegal immigrants who already have licenses to renew.
