Governor proposes lean operating budget

"Given the environment we're in now, we're certainly happy that the governor kept his promise," said Daniel Kaufman, spokesman for the Maryland State Teachers Association. "We have a lot of unmet needs in school construction and classroom needs, and we are going to keep pushing throughout this session to get whatever funding possible."

O'Malley also emphasized public safety initiatives, including $5.2 million for a case management system that would track offenders through parole and probation and $3 million to expand HIV screening and treatment of inmates. He said the state does a poor job of sharing information on repeat offenders that might be used to keep them behind bars.

The governor also would direct $800,000 to a new reintegration program to help members of the National Guard returning from overseas deployments, and $3.5 million to establish a new program for behavioral health services for veterans in rural areas.

O'Malley, who is crafting a broader energy policy to address the possibility of rolling blackouts by 2011, said he would provide funding for energy efficiency and conservation programs to help move the state toward his goal of reducing consumption by 15 percent by 2015.

"There will be no significant new power generation that will come up half as quickly as what we can do together by reducing our consumption," O'Malley said.

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