Gov. Martin O?Malley this week has been pretty cagey about how he wants to fill a $1.5 billion hole in next year?s state budget, but he has made clear what he doesn?t want to make the kind of drastic cuts in spending proposed Wednesday in a “doomsday” budget by legislative analysts.
In an hour-long WTOP radio call-in show Friday morning, O?Malley said he did not like the proposed reductions for colleges and universities and cuts incorrections officers, and he particularly didn?t like drastic reductions in aid to local schools and governments ? $646 million, a 44 percent whack.
Budget analysts have suggested the state stop paying the total contribution to teacher pensions, and have the counties pay half ? $324 million, filling a fifth of the deficit.
“If you see big cuts in terms of teacher pensions,” O?Malley said on WTOP, “then the counties will have to do things as well that impact your quality of life ? the roads, the playgrounds, the rec centers, as well as cuts to libraries.”
The proposed cuts to public universities might force tuition increases of 10 percent to 20 percent, and “that?s something we should be getting away from,” said O?Malley, who was able to freeze college tuitions again this year.
Yet O?Malley has reportedly asked the university system to cut $20 million from its budget this year, but he hasn?t revealed where the rest of the $200 million he asked agencies to cut will come from. Those budget cuts will be made at the Board of Public Works meeting July 11.
“I don?t have a consensus for additional revenues, nor do we have a consensus for any of these cuts,” O?Malley said. And until he does, he has no plans to call a special session of the legislature.
O?Malley is eyeing “a combination” of cuts and taxes, and twice expressed disdain for “what I thought was a bit of pandering ? 10 percent income tax cut [in 1997] which resulted in a billion-dollar hole” and which “no one was clammering for,” he said.
The cut was sponsored by more than 50 House Democrats including most members of the leadership and was backed by Gov. Parris Glendening. The sponsors included Dels. Michael Busch, now the speaker, and Peter Franchot, now the comptroller, as well as several committee chairs who will act on any plan he proposes.
