WASHINGTON -- Maryland stands to lose more than $100 million in federal funds if President Clinton's economic stimulus package is killed by the Republican filibuster in the Senate.
As Senate debate on the stimulus package was beginning late last month, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., said the House-passed $16.3 billion package included $182.3 million for the state.
Trying to salvage his package, Mr. Clinton proposed a 25 percent cut only to have the offer spurned by Senate Republicans.
There is little hope the Democratic leadership will be able to win enough Republican defectors to gain the 60 votes needed to break the filibuster today.
A $6 billion Republican substitute that was defeated late yesterday contained only a few elements of the president's original plan.
Much of the money earmarked for Maryland in the president's $16.3 billion plan would be used for hundreds of construction and renovation projects.
The Clinton package includes $20.5 million in Environmental Protection Agency funds for sewer plant construction that would be administered through a state revolving fund and $38 million in federal Community Development Block Grant money for a wide range of housing and community programs.
In Baltimore County, for example, most of its $3.2 million in block grant funds would be used for affordable housing and rehabilitation projects, according to Frank Welsh, the county's director of community development.
Baltimore city would get the largest share of the block grant funds, $18 million under the Clinton proposal.
For Maryland, the most urgent element of the Clinton package is the only one that seems assured of adoption -- extension of unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless.
Page Boinest, Governor Schaefer's press secretary, said the weekly unemployment benefits for 23,000 Marylanders will run out this week unless Congress acts.
Beyond that, she said, the most urgent item is money for summer youth jobs. Maryland stands to pick up an extra $16.4 million under the Clinton plan to finance about 11,000 summer jobs for disadvantaged youth.
Without any extra money, the state will be left with only $9.8 million in federal funds for nearly 7,000 jobs, Ms. Boinest said. The Republican proposal defeated yesterday included $450 million for summer jobs this year, compared with the $1 billion Mr. Clinton proposed for two years.
