6 months ago
OCEAN CITY, Md. (AP) -- Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley said Saturday he plans to recommend cutting about $250 million in state aid to local governments as part of about $750 million in overall spending reductions this summer.
O'Malley, who made the announcement at the Maryland Association of Counties summer conference, said the reductions, recommended by his budget secretary, will affect local health departments, police aid, community colleges and money for roads.
"In many cases, we are going to be doing less with less," O'Malley said in his keynote speech at the convention. "That's the cold, hard truth."
O'Malley, a Democrat, has been searching for about $470 million in spending reductions to bring to the Board of Public Works on Aug. 26 for what will be the sixth time the board has made midyear budget cuts since O'Malley took office in 2007. The board already approved $280 million in reductions last month.
O'Malley, a former Baltimore mayor, made a point of protecting local governments from cuts in the early rounds of budget reductions at the beginning of his administration, but he hasn't been able to spare them as the recession continues to ravage state revenue.
Local officials at the convention took the news stoically, while also pointing out that the reductions will have an effect.
State aid to local highways already took a big hit in April, when the Legislature approved about $162 million in reductions to highway user money for counties.
Wilson Parran, president of the Calvert County Board of Commissioners and also president of the association sponsoring the convention, said that represented about half of the aid many counties receive from the state for roads -- with more cuts to come.
The cuts to local governments also are raising questions about potential tax increases at the local level. In addition to the property tax, Maryland allows local governments to impose a "piggyback" tax on the state income tax.
Parran said it will be difficult to raise taxes in an election year, but he said some counties could.
"If we're put in a position to raise taxes, some counties may raise taxes," Parran said. "But it's not something that we're looking at in Calvert County."
Republicans, meanwhile, criticized the governor for raising taxes by $1.4 billion in a 2007 special session and moving forward with spending plans early in his administration when he should have been reining in government spending.
"The policies of the O'Malley administration have led to the O'Malley deficit," said Sen. Allan Kittleman, R-Howard, the Senate's Republican leader.
Despite the gloomy news, O'Malley said Maryland is in much better shape than other states battling much larger budget problems because of the recession. For the first time in 30 years, the administration said, the state budget is smaller than it was three years before.
O'Malley also made a point of mentioning some encouraging economic signs. He said Maryland's home foreclosure rate went down 12 percent in the last reporting period. He also said the state's unemployment rate is lower than the nation's.
"Our problems are primarily cyclical," O'Malley said. "This is a storm. This storm will end, and we need to sail through it together."
The lean times were apparent at the association's convention, where attendance was lighter than in past years. O'Malley's administration sent memos to cabinet secretaries to limit attendance to essential staff only. The governor also canceled a reception at a local bar Friday night.
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