Howls of pain were coming from the state union employees reacting to $280 million in budget cuts Gov. Martin O?Malley proposed Tuesday, while hoots of derision were coming from Republican legislators.
“Save Our State Services” was hand-printed on lifesavers by AFSCME members at a news conference, even though only 17 state employees were actually being laid off, along with 35 contractual workers.
“We can?t cut our way” out of the structural deficit, AFSCME?s Sue Esty said. Increased workloads and caseloads were the principal concerns, not just layoffs.
State police helicopter pilot Pete Peterson said the medical evacuation choppers were almost 20 years old and the number of pilots was “dwindling through attrition.” State police payroll figures show heavy overtime use in the helicopter unit and Peterson said, “without overtime, the system wouldn?t run.”
The governor slashed $1.5 million from the state budget by holding positions vacant longer and cutting travel expenses.
“We think there are some revenue solutions,” Esty said. She said front-line state workers could help the governor come up with more efficiencies.
Del. Gail Bates, R-Howard, one of the GOP?s budget hawks on the Appropriations Committee, derided the O?Malley cuts as “chump change ? a pittance ? form over substance”
“It?s nothing more than a dance,” Bates said. “It?s the dance that you have to do to convince the public that they need to raise taxes.”
State Sen. E.J. Pipkin, R-Queen Anne?s County, called the cuts “fiscal magic at its clumsiest,” describing them as “window dressing” because they included actions such holding vacant positions open and replacing state funds with federal dollars. The proposed cuts amount to only 0.5 percent of the $30 billion budget and 10 percent of the looming $1.5 billion deficit, Pipkin said.
