ANNAPOLIS – Maryland lawmakers will meet again in Annapolis next week to avoid a so-called “doomsday” budget by passing a new budget plan that would raise income taxes and increase spending cuts, Gov. Martin O’Malley announced Wednesday.
Income taxes would rise for all Marylanders earning more than $100,000, to rates as high as 5.75 percent for those earning more than $500,000 annually.
Tax exemptions would be reduced for Marylanders earning more than $100,000. Residents earning more than $200,000 would see their exemptions eliminated entirely.
Roughly 16 percent of Maryland residents would be targeted by the tax hikes in the roughly $35.5 billion budget, O’Malley said.
The revenue package agreed to by the House and Senate is similar to the deal in place at the eleventh hour of the 90-day legislative session, when lawmakers failed to pass a complete budget plan and more than $500 million in “doomsday” spending cuts — a plan lawmakers never intended to take effect — went into place.
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert and Prince George’s, and House Speaker Michael Busch, D-Anne Arundel, each said they have enough votes in their respective chambers to pass the deal as is.
“Unfortunately, we fell a little short on the final day of session. But I don’t think we can let those inactions go unaddressed,” Busch said. “It’s incumbent for us to come back here.”
