Gov. Martin O'Malley is expected to unveil a plan today that would quickly spend more than $350 million in federal money on Maryland transportation projects, a day after President Barack Obama signed a huge stimulus bill that will send a flood of money to the states.
In an announcement expected this morning, the Democratic governor will ask a state spending panel to approve the overhaul of a Laurel MARC station as a symbolic start to using the $3.8 billion windfall that is part of Maryland's estimated share of $787 billion in federal stimulus funds.
Even more money will go directly to residents, who are expected to receive as much as $1 billion in tax relief, and for federal spending in the state.
Over the next two years, more than $600 million in stimulus money will be available for the state's billion-dollar backlog of "system preservation" projects for roads, bridges and transit lines, said John D. Porcari, the state's transportation secretary.
During a visit to an Annapolis elementary school yesterday, O'Malley said he hoped the federal commitment would be enough to stave off hundreds of layoffs that he has proposed in his latest budget.
But he sounded less optimistic about being able to expand Medicaid access to low-income childless adults, as health advocates want.
"We have to go through the various sources of [stimulus] funds to figure out how much flexibility we have" in using the federal money to reverse cuts, O'Malley said. "At the top of my list ... is to make sure we don't contribute to our economic problems by laying off 700 state workers."
Next on his priority list is rolling back proposed trims in funding to public schools and colleges, the governor said.
The federal relief comes as Maryland grapples with new revenue numbers released yesterday that predict "no turnaround ... in sight" to a months-long decline in sales tax collections and "alarmingly weak" estimated income tax payments for the fourth quarter of 2008.In a letter to the governor and legislative leaders, Comptroller Peter Franchot said "extremely poor" fourth-quarter tax figures "point to a substantial downward revision" of operating budget revenues next month.
That could force O'Malley to trim millions of dollars more from his current spending plan because state law requires that he maintain a balanced budget. O'Malley's administration says it has reduced spending by more than $2 billion since he took office in 2007.
