The recession is forcing Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley to slash $300 million from the state budget by Wednesday, a move that is expected to include layoffs of state employees as public workers around the region worry about being pink-slipped.
Maryland will have to cut $700 million overall to address its midyear budget shortfall as the “state budget is once again being overwhelmed by the deteriorating economy,” said Warren Deschenaux, the state legislature’s chief fiscal analyst.
The governor has been mum on the details of his proposed cuts and whether they will include job cuts. But he has made it clear that trimming the state’s payroll is a possibility.
“It becomes increasingly difficult to avoid anything,” said O’Malley spokesman Shaun Adamec, adding that the cuts will be “extremely painful É but obviously necessary.”
O’Malley isn’t the only local leader forced to have to continually close substantial budget gaps in the face of lower-than-expected revenue. The leaders of Virginia and the District also are cutting, which will lead to more than $1 billion in cuts in the Washington area.
D.C. leaders, facing an additional $190 million deficit this year and a projected $150 million shortfall in fiscal 2010, plan to slash and burn the city’s $5.4 billion budget over the course of two weeks.
The city’s solution to its budget woes, Mayor Adrian Fenty said, will involve job cuts — 250 on top of the 1,600 that the D.C. Council cut in the approved fiscal 2010 spending plan.
Seventy percent of the eliminated positions are filled, Fenty said last week, meaning more pink slips for government employees.
Virginia, which ended the fiscal year with a $300 million hole in its budget, is in the midst of a protracted period of belt tightening that will force cuts across state agencies.
The agency’s directors are due this week to deliver their latest set of suggested reductions to their bottom lines. Meanwhile, a sharp drop-off in transportation revenue has forced hundreds of layoffs at the Virginia Department of Transportation, which also is closing 19 rest stops, scaling back mowing and curtailing other services.
O’Malley is set to present this Wednesday his first round of proposed cuts to the state’s budget to the Board of Public Works, which includes him, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy Kopp, who told WTOP that she thought there would be “some” layoffs.
The Board of Public Works has the authority to cut the budget when the General Assembly is not in session.
In January, the governor’s proposed budget to the General Assembly included layoffs of 700 state employee. But stimulus funding from the federal government allowed the state to avoid those cuts.
Franchot released new revenue figures last week that showed tax revenue in June was down 12 percent from a year ago. Every revenue source except money from lotteries was down in June compared with last year, state data shows.
State employees union officials warned O’Malley that state agencies have been stretched thin, and there’s no room left to cut. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Director Patrick Moran said state government was at “the bone,” and the flesh and fat have already been cut away, echoing a metaphor that has been used frequently by top state officials in recent days.
But not everyone thinks Maryland’s state government is lean. Republican state Sen. Alex Mooney of Frederick said the state had plenty of redundant and wasteful state agencies as well as programs that aren’t needed and can stand to be cut.
“If you’re a liberal who thinks government should provide unlimited welfare, then I guess you would have trouble cutting the budget,” Mooney said.
Staff Writers Michael Neibauer and William C. Flook contributed to this article.
