ANNAPOLIS – Maryland Republicans are crafting a plan to cut $2 billion from the state budget by eliminating more state positions, rolling back the expansion of Medicaid, maintaining education funding at current levels and cutting taxes, among other proposals.
Democrats asked Republicans for their ideas on budget cuts in a letter last week, setting a Feb. 23 deadline for their proposals. Now, Republicans are scrambling to gather the staff and research to “fix” the budget in the next month.
Del. Tony McConkey said Republicans will propose cutting state positions because only a quarter of the 202 state jobs that Gov. Martin O’Malley’s 2011 budget bill would eliminate are filled.
The Anne Arundel County Republican said the state’s expansion of Medicaid was a “real mistake” and puts Maryland at risk for higher deficits down the road. He also proposed cutting back state funding in the Chesapeake Bay Trust Fund, calling O’Malley’s increasing investments “extravagant” in light of funding commitments from the federal government.
He said Republicans may oppose the $83 million in emergency relief funds for businesses’ rising unemployment insurance costs that O’Malley pushed for in his State of the State address on Tuesday.
Overall, Republicans would like to do away with O’Malley’s reliance on federal funding, he said.
“The whole solution is cutting,” he said. “There is plenty of room to cut.”
Several Republican lawmakers said K-12 education funding should be capped for the next several years. Del. Susan Aumann, R-Baltimore County, said laws tying state funding to enrollment without regard to economic conditions have increased the cost per student in Maryland public schools to nearly the same cost families pay to put their children through private school.
Del. Don H. Dwyer, R-Anne Arundel, said he would support cuts across every state agency and program to make up the $2 billion deficit, in an effort to eliminate special interests.
“Every day bills are introduced to the legislation that continue to create state debt,” he said. “It blows my mind.”
