Gov. Martin O'Malley will propose $213 million in spending cuts next week, including many designed to reduce administrative costs or make government more efficient, but also some that would affect programs in health, education and law enforcement.
According to a copy of the proposal obtained by The Sun, the cuts hit nearly every part of state government.
Positions would be held vacant in the state police; Medicaid reimbursements for doctors would be cut by $4.1 million; the university system would face $12 million in cuts; signing bonuses for high-quality teachers would be cut by $850,000; 12 law clerks would be cut from the Office of the Public Defender; and the state's budget for attracting tourists would be cut by nearly $700,000.
In all, about 150 state jobs would be eliminated, though many of those positions are now vacant.
The governor presented his plans to Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp, who serve with him on the Board of Public Works, in a 90-minute, closed-door meeting yesterday. His office released no details of the proposal afterward, which he plans to make public Tuesday.
O'Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said the governor told his Cabinet secretaries to try to flatten their bureaucracies and find as many cost savings as possible without drastically affecting services. The $213 million in cuts represents a "first step" in closing the state's expected $1.5 billion budget shortfall, Abbruzzese said.
"While these are the first cuts, they certainly may not be the last as we work with the General Assembly to balance the budget and make critical investments in Maryland's future," Abbruzzese said.
Even if the Board of Public Works approves all of the cuts at its meeting next week, O'Malley will be left with a projected gap of about $1.3 billion between revenues and expenditures in the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2008.
Under O'Malley's plan, about $60 million would be cut from the fiscal year that ended June 30, though $34 million of those cuts had already been identified by the administration before O'Malley charged his Cabinet secretaries in May with finding spending reductions.
The remainder of the cuts - about $153 million - come from the current fiscal year.
Franchot was noncommittal after the meeting, saying he would need time to analyze the proposal.
"We're going to digest it," he said.
But Kopp said it appeared that the 12 pages of proposed cuts were mostly moves to streamline government.
