Md. Senate to debate operating budget
The Maryland Senate plans this week to debate its version of the state's operating budget that takes back excess profits from Medicaid contractors and trims education funding for local school boards. Both moves put the chamber at odds with the House of Delegates, which approved its version of the budget last week. A conference committee must reconcile the two approaches to balancing the budget in the face of huge shortfalls. Other points of contention likely will be the funding of various programs and local aid. Under the budget forwarded late last week by the Budget and Taxation Committee, senators cut $50 million from a K-12 education formula that provides additional money to school systems where the cost of education is highest. Gov. Martin O'Malley had pledged to fully fund education, but some lawmakers point out that school systems are getting an extra $193 million in federal funding from the economic stimulus package. The committee also decided to take back $23.5 million from Amerigroup Corp. and other managed care organizations that oversee health plans under Medicaid, the government program for the poor, and exceeded a regulatory profit limit of 2 percent over the past two years. Amerigroup lobbyist Steven B. Larsen objected, saying that by statute the state health department - not the budget committees - adjusts the company's profitability through rate setting. The Senate leaves a $142 million cash balance that could be tapped if the economy worsens, or nearly three times the amount in the House's version. The Senate does not take $60 million in local "piggyback" income tax revenue, as the House does. Instead, senators decided to further reduce the local share of highway user funds by that amount.
