ANNAPOLIS – The Maryland Senate approved the state’s operating budget Monday, sending the nearly $14 billion spending plan that includes large cuts in aid to local governments to Gov. Martin O’Malley.
Lawmakers who supported the budget said it contained prudent but painful cuts while preserving funding for the state’s most pressing needs, including freezing in-state college tuition for a fourth straight year.
The budget cuts $866 million in spending and relies on more than $1.5 billion in federal stimulus money to plug holes.
Republicans criticized the budget’s reliance on federal help, saying the state’s financial problems will only be worse when the stimulus money runs out in two years. The state is expected to be deep in the red for years to come.
“I think the forgotten man in this budget, the forgotten women in this budget is the folks who will have to pay for this budget two years from now, when we sit here and have to raise taxes,” said Senate Minority Leader Allan Kittleman, R-Howard County.
Asked by Republicans whether the budget was sustainable, Sen. Ulysses Currie, a Prince George’s County Democrat and chairman of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, said, “We hope so, but we don’t know given this economy.”
The cuts to funding for local governments mean Montgomery County is looking at a loss of about $42 million in state aid, including money for highway maintenance, holding prisoners and Montgomery College, according to Melanie Wenger, director of intergovernmental relations.
“It was a tough year,” she said.
The county’s elected officials have warned that large cuts in state aid probably will mean additional cuts in county services and possible furloughs for county employees. The county is facing a $520 million budget shortfall; County Executive Ike Leggett’s proposed budget already calls for substantial cuts in county services such as bus routes and the reduction of 400 county jobs.
The Maryland budget was not all bad news for the county: A proposal to shift part of the cost of teacher pensions to the county failed, as did a proposal to take $12 million in income tax revenues away from the county. Montgomery County’s elected officials had strongly opposed those measures.
In Annapolis:
• The Senate advanced a bill to ban people from sending text messages while driving to Gov. Martin O’Malley, who supports the ban.
The measure would allow people to read text messages that are sent to them, but not write or send text messages.
• The University System of Maryland’s board of regents approved raising room and board rates from 1 percent to 7 percent.
Under the new room and board rates, the typical annual dorm charge at College Park is expected to rise by nearly $150, to $5,500.
Meal plan prices will rise anywhere from 1.5 percent at Salisbury University to 7 percent at Frostburg State University. – AP
