State lawmakers Tuesday evening gave Gov.-elect Martin O?Malley a limit of 7.9 percent growth in the budget he must prepare ? one of the highest growth rates in spending allowed in the last 15 years, but one that still permits little room for funding any of his proposed new programs.
The Spending Affordability Committee, made up of all the General Assembly?s fiscal leaders, each year recommends a limit on state spending that the legislature usually forces governors to live with.
Sen. Edward Kasemeyer, D.-Baltimore-Howard, co-chairman of the committee, noted the amount still represents a $1.4 billion increase in the general fund budget ? up to $19 billion. But it still is not as big as the $1.6 billion hike last year, a 9.6 percent jump which was the largest increase in state spending since 1992.
It is “a number that allows a little room for growth,” Kasemeyer said, perhaps a couple hundred million, after mandatory increases in education and Medicaid funding are taken off the top.
“It?s a worrisome thing,” said Kasemeyer, the new majority leader, adding that he had not discussed the numbers with O?Malley or his staff. “We can?t keep doing this without increases in some revenues.”
“The outgoing administration campaigned on full funding of Thornton,” the formula for state aid to K-12 schools, said Sen. Patrick Hogan, chairman of the Montgomery County delegation and vice chair of the budget committee. “The incoming administration campaigned on full funding of Thornton.”
Hogan noted that spending on a “thorough and efficient” public education system is a mandate in the Maryland Constitution.
“Gov. [Robert] Ehrlich was very convincing to the average voter that all the budget problems had been solved,” said Sen. Thomas Mac Middleton, D.-Charles County, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. But “the structural problem is still there.”
Middleton said legislators should “have that discussion with the people” about what they want and what they?re willing to pay.
“Then you go with the will of the people,” he said.
