ANNAPOLIS – Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley lauded his investments in education, renewable energy and biotech startups as a path for the state to “win the future,” in his State of the State address Thursday. “Moving forward is not just about today’s budget math, it’s about tomorrow’s better Maryland,” O’Malley told the packed state House chamber. “Everything has a cost. We cannot kid ourselves into thinking that by failing to invest in our future, that we’re somehow saving resources — that we’re being clever and somehow saving money.” O’Malley made four direct references to President Obama throughout his 27-minute speech. He also borrowed some rhetoric from Obama’s State of the Union address last week, most notably in challenging Maryland to “win the future.”
O’Malley elicited applause from both sides of the aisle when he attacked big utilities for extended power outages.
“Moms and dads deserve better than to sit for days in freezing homes because the power hasn’t been restored,” he said, tapping into residents’ outrage after last week’s snow-related outages.
“How long do you want to wait in the cold and dark for a deregulated market to solve these problems?” he said, calling attention to his legislation that would impose reliability standards.
| Budgeting the New York way |
| Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has proposed a slash-and-burn budget that puts public education and public-sector unions on the chopping block with everything else. |
| Cuomo’s $135 billion budget slashes state education aid by $1.5 billion and forces state agencies to cut spending by 10 percent or face 10,000 worker layoffs. |
| He also is cutting Medicaid spending by nearly $1 billion and appointing a commission to find $3 billion more in Medicaid savings. |
| Cuomo’s budget cuts spending by 2.7 percent without taxes or borrowing.- Hayley Peterson |
O’Malley also prided himself on keeping the K-12 education budget the same as last fiscal year in his fiscal 2012 budget proposal, which closes a $1.4 billion budget gap. His budget slashes $950 million in services and plugs the rest by borrowing and shifting money between bank accounts.
Republican Sen. E.J. Pipkin, the new minority whip from the Eastern Shore, said the governor’s rhetoric was misleading.
“When you match up the rhetoric with the actual proposals, there’s a big gap,” Pipkin said. O’Malley shied away from robust changes to the state pension system and failed to trim education funding, he said.
O’Malley’s proposed reforms to the pension system — which is $33 billion underfunded — would increase employer and employee contributions, among other changes. His plan would return the system to an 80 percent funding level, up from the current 64 percent funding level, two years ahead of schedule in 2023.
Senate Minority Leader Nancy Jacobs said the state should switch new employees to a 401(k) plan.
“We could have gotten ahead on the structural deficit had we gone that route,” said Jacobs, R-Cecil and Harford counties, following the speech. “But he’s afraid of upsetting state workers.”
Jacobs also criticized O’Malley for using accounting maneuvers to help close the budget gap.
“He is mortgaging the future of our children when he talks about moving funds back and forth — robbing Peter to pay Paul and then he plugs it with bonds,” she said.
