ANNAPOLIS – Maryland lawmakers are preparing to chop state programs to shore up a $2 billion budget shortfall before federal stimulus funds dry up in the next several months.
Gov. Martin O’Malley set the tone for the 2010 legislative session that began Wednesday with an announcement that he expects tuition to rise at the University of Maryland system.
Speaking on a Baltimore radio show hours before the legislature convened, O’Malley said tuition could rise 3 percent after four years of tuition freezes, though the University System of Maryland’s board of regents will decide the exact increase.
At the state Capitol later, O’Malley stressed bipartisanship and job creation.
“We have weathered this recession, so far, better than any other state in the union,” he told a crowd of state senators and county executives. “And to come out strong, we need to create jobs, jobs, jobs.”
Maryland’s health through the recession has been helped by a $4.1 billion stimulus check from the federal government. But, in the last year, the state has used up most of its stimulus funds on a number of ongoing initiatives including a $1.6 billion expansion of Medicaid and $628 million in transportation projects. To keep those programs going, “We’re going to need some kind of infusion of cash,” said Del. Roger Manno, D-Sliver Spring. “You can’t grow your way out of that kind of money.”
But many lawmakers have pledged not to raise taxes in an election year, so cuts will have to make up for most of the $2 billion shortfall.
“There is no more fat in this budget,” said Sen. Brian Frosh, D-Bethesda. “We’ve cut so much over the past couple years that we are way past the obvious cuts and we’re into stuff that’s gonna hurt.”
O’Malley has said little about the budget proposal he will submit to the legislature next week.
“There will be very little — if any — new spending,” guessed Del. Ben Kramer, D-Gaithersburg.
“It takes extraordinary power to level the budget in an emergency situation — which we are, in no doubt, in an emergency situation,” Manno said. “There will be a lot of cuts. The question is whether they are done with a hatchet or with a scalpel.”
Senate President Mike Miller Jr. asked his fellow lawmakers on Wednesday for “cooperation — that’s all we need to get through.”
Sen. Allan H. Kittleman, R-Howard County, answered the Democrats’ calls for bipartisanship by saying, “On behalf of the Republicans, we do want to cooperate and we want to be part of the solution, not the problem.”
