After a bruising special session to address Maryland's chronic deficits, Gov. Martin O'Malley proposed one of the leanest state budgets in the past two decades, relying on cuts in open space and road maintenance and a slowdown in an education spending initiative to place the state on sound financial footing.
The governor proposed a 4 percent increase in the state's operating budget - the lowest in five years and one of the lowest in the past 25 years. A 7.5 percent increase was approved by the General Assembly last year.
O'Malley, a Democrat in his second year in office, has been working to put his stamp on the state's government but has been constrained by a structural budget deficit, projected at $1.7 billion for the fiscal year that begins in July.
He called the General Assembly into session late last year, and lawmakers approved tax increases and proposed spending cuts to fill the gap.
"This is a fiscally responsible budget," O'Malley said. "It restrains spending, and it allows us to get back to the urgent work of making progress for the working people of our state."
Budget battles are likely to figure prominently in this legislative session and perhaps throughout O'Malley's term as the national economy is expected to slow and possibly slide into a recession.
The governor, who said he inherited the budget problems, complied with the legislature's request to trim the budget by $550 million, including eliminating 500 vacant state positions. He also trims the rate of growth in the Thornton education plan and in retiree health care expenses.
Local governments, which O'Malley had sought to hold harmless in his budget balancing, will have to swallow more than $120 million in cuts to road maintenance, parks and compensation for a property tax exemption given to power plants.
Other cuts are sprinkled throughout the state budget, affecting child support enforcement, Natural Resources Police, the Division of Unemployment Insurance and other services.
David Bliden, the executive director of the Maryland Association of Counties, said that while many local officials supported the special-session package despite an expected hit to their bottom lines, they are stretched too thin to withstand a further slashing of state funds.
"We hope that when looking at the state budget, state leaders give full credit to the counties for their contribution in the special session," he said.
