A state Senate committee approved more than $300 million in preliminary reductions to Gov. Martin O'Malley's budget yesterday, and some lawmakers said the weakening economy will force the General Assembly to cut hundreds of millions more.
While legislators worried about sagging tax revenues, a plan to rescind the $200 million-a-year computer-services tax that they approved in November's special General Assembly session appeared to be gaining momentum.
The idea of replacing the levy with a temporary income tax surcharge on the wealthy is in its early stages, but Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, who had previously rejected overturning the computer tax, hinted that it might succeed.
"It's in play," he said.
The Senate Budget and Taxation Committee voted on spending reductions yesterday, a day after Comptroller Peter Franchot released revenue estimates predicting that the state will have $330 million less than O'Malley expected when he submitted his budget in January, news that forced deep cuts.
The panel voted to defer funding for many of the new programs legislators approved late last year, such as the Chesapeake Bay 2010 Trust Fund and medevac helicopter purchases. Health care, higher education, stem cell research, the Inter-County Connector and economic development also were cut.
Sen. Ulysses Currie, who chairs the committee, said lawmakers made the reductions "without hurting any of the [state] agencies."
Not everyone agreed.
"We are very disappointed," Kim Coble, Maryland director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said of the committee's move to put off until 2011 the $50 million that is to be dedicated to restoring the bay.
"The question in front of the state of Maryland is what it's going to take to restore the bay," Coble said. She noted a number of problems, including crab and oyster populations that are at historic lows.
House budget leaders are looking at a similar figure for cuts, although some hope to hold on to more funding for stem cell research, said Del. John L. Bohanan Jr., a St. Mary's County Democrat who is a member of the House Appropriations Committee.
Republicans and some Democrats said the General Assembly should reduce spending much more to guard against further economic slowdowns.
Del. Murray D. Levy, a Charles County Democrat who is one of the House's most respected voices on budget issues, said the General Assembly should cut about $570 million from O'Malley's $15.2 billion budget to make up for the unexpected revenue declines reported in December by the Board of Revenue Estimates.
