State budget cuts aid to counties

Tuition at most state colleges still frozen

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

With hours to spare before adjourning on Monday, the Senate voted 39 to 8 in favor of what many lawmakers described as a bare-bones spending plan that was greatly affected by the foundering economy.

"There's not much good news to share in the economy," deadpanned Del. Murray D. Levy (D-Charles).

Counties were among the biggest losers in the budget. Legislators slashed by $162 million a fund that pays for local road projects and trimmed additional dollars slated for community colleges and local libraries. Local governments will also have to pay back in the coming years a roughly $380 million local income tax reserve fund that lawmakers raided to help balance the budget.

The budget also removed a provision to have the counties pay about $20 million to run state offices of the Department of Assessments and Taxation. And lawmakers deleted a plan to have counties spend $3 million for law clerks.

Charles County was hardest hit among the three Southern Maryland counties, losing nearly $4 million in state aid from the current fiscal year. St. Mary's County will take a $3.6 million hit, while Calvert got off light with only a $410,000 reduction.

All three counties received more money for schools — $2.5 million more for Calvert, $1.8 million more for Charles and $527,000 for St. Mary's.

The fiscal 2010 budget has a $96 million cash reserve that can be tapped if the economy worsens before the legislature reconvenes next January. The three-member Board of Public Works can cut the budget when the legislature is not in session.

The latest revenue estimates don't offer much hope that the economy might turn around. Sales tax revenues fell 9.6 percent in March from a year ago, while lottery collections dropped 2.6 percent.

Still, Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) cast an optimistic tone about a budget that boosts funding for schools, maintains the freeze on tuition and still provides more than $15 million for stem cell research."I'm very proud of what we were able to maintain in this budget," he told reporters Monday night as the session drew to a close. "I'm also proud of the fact that we never forgot our priorities and the priorities of the people in our state."

As a result, O'Malley said Maryland is well positioned to emerge from the recession stronger than other states.

"If you protect the things that made you a strong state to begin with, like education, like affordable college, like the ability of people to get to and from work and the health of our environment — if you protect those things in tough times, you're going to sail through the other end of this recession more quickly than other states," he said.

Republican leaders, however, criticized O'Malley for relying on federal aid to plug budget gaps and for not addressing long-term fiscal challenges.

"This governor will not make the tough decisions, he will not lead and he's all about image," said House Minority Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell (R-Calvert, St. Mary's).

abrody@somdnews.com