The budget problems also have fueled the debate over whether voters should legalize slot machines in a November referendum, again pitting O'Malley against Franchot. Both are Democrats.
O'Malley said during a radio appearance yesterday that the worsening economic picture underscores the need for voters to approve revenue-generating slot machines and that he would likely cut spending in the coming months on top of hundreds of millions of dollars already trimmed from the budget since he came to office last year.
Franchot, a slots foe who has been critical of the budget-balancing plan approved by the General Assembly during the special session, stepped up his rhetoric yesterday. At a meeting of community and business leaders in Montgomery County, he said the governor and lawmakers rushed to approve the ill-conceived plan and he dubbed the slots proposal a "fiscal fairy tale." He also called for a panel to overhaul state spending practices.
O'Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said the state would be facing a $2.5 billion shortfall next year had the governor not acted.
"Aside from giving speeches, to date, Comptroller Franchot has not provided any real solutions to our state's budgetary problems," he said.
If the constitutional amendment is ratified and 15,000 slot machines are installed at five locations in Maryland, the state could begin collecting an estimated $600 million yearly in a few years.
With two months left for both sides to campaign on slots, support for expanded gambling appears to have dipped.
According to a new poll by Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies, an independent pollster based in Annapolis, 49 percent of Marylanders say they support the slots proposal, down from 54 percent in January. Forty-three percent are opposed.
The shift suggests that anti-slots efforts "are having some impact," pollster Patrick Gonzales said.
The same survey found that 42 percent of Marylanders say the economy is the most important issue facing the state, up from 23 percent earlier this year.
The state's finances are closely tied to the waning economy, which has undercut nearly every source of tax revenue, including income and sales taxes. Last week, a report showed that tax and fee collections fell $73.5 million short of expectations last fiscal year. The state sales tax rate was increased from 5 percent to 6 percent as part of last year's budget-balancing plan.
