Budget Bill

The Maryland House of Delegates today was to begin consideration of bills that would either raise $74 million in new taxes or leave in place steep cuts in local governments in the proposed fiscal 1992 budget.Last night, the House gave preliminary approval to the $11.5 billion budget. Final votes on the budget and tax bills are set for tomorrow.The tax measures under consideration would expand the state's 5 percent sales tax to cigarettes and other tobacco products and would reduce tax breaks for those who pay capital gains taxes.

State lawmakers pass budget The General Assembly gave its final approval Friday to a $36.9 billion state operating budget for next year that whittles down Maryland's long-term revenue shortfall without raising taxes. The House and Senate signed off on a compromise reached by a conference committee. Their approval of the budget bill, which does not require Gov. Martin O'Malley's signature, came with little drama — a stark contrast with last year's passage of a budget in the session's final hours.

In "The Agenda," Bob Woodward uses as his springboard a pledge that Bill Clinton made at the Democratic National Convention in 1992, namely, to use the presidency to re-energize America's economy.The tale that follows is an insider's glimpse into the remarkable angst of the Clinton White House as it lurched unsteadily toward production of a budget bill that the president and his loyalists have touted as one of their great accomplishments.Privately, they thought much less of their own budget package, Mr. Woodward reveals.

With only minor changes, the House of Delegates on Wednesday gave initial approval to Gov. Martin O'Malley's $37 billion budget, the governor's first spending plan in several years that doesn't propose significant cuts. While a final vote in the House is expected Friday, Wednesday's actions signaled the last cuts the chamber will make before the budget proposal moves to the Senate. Delegates cut about $80 million in state spending, scaling back one of O'Malley's initiatives to improve digital learning in classrooms and nixing another that would have created a $5 million fund for innovative ideas.

A project to repair decades of water damage at Fort McHenry is partly done, but $1.8 million needed to complete the restoration is in congressional limbo.A Senate Appropriations subcommittee approved the money in the budget bill that is making its way through Congress, and aides to Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, say they expect full Senate approval in a few weeks.The House of Representatives did not include the $1.8 million in its version of the budget bill, butthe Maryland delegation is cautiously optimistic that after a House-Senate conference committee meets to hammer out differences in the bills, the money will be included in the final version.

ANNAPOLIS -- The budget bill approved by the GeneralAssembly last Friday not only gives county governments the authority to cut education spending but also to decide exactly what gets axed from school budgets, according to Maryland's attorney general.In a six-page letter presented to Gov. William Donald Schaefer yesterday, Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. concludes that the controversial legislation is constitutional and will give jurisdictions the power to exercise a virtual line-item veto over their school budgets.

WASHINGTON -- Democratic congressional leaders announced yesterday they had struck enough bargains on President Clinton's economic program to secure its passage in the House and Senate later this week.Despite all the dickering in the joint House-Senate conference over the past three weeks, the budget deal outlined by legislative leaders is not much changed from the proposals approved by Congress in May and June. The agreement aims to cut the deficit by $496 billion over five years by raising about $243 billion in new taxes and restraining the growth of spending by about $253 billion.

CHESTERTOWN -- Moderate Republican Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest was targeted Wednesday by a national liberal lobbying campaign trying to sway his vote against a GOP-sponsored budget bill. About 20 people gathered by MoveOn.org Political Action rallied outside the Kennedyville Republican's Chestertown office, urging Gilchrest to vote against the bill in the House. The rally was held in concert with several others in Maryland and across the country. Similar rallies were held at Gilchrest's Bel Air office, in Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett's district and on Capitol Hill.

With an unusual display of bipartisanship, the House of Delegates overwhelmingly approved a $15.3 billion budget bill that shaves $85 million from Gov. Parris N. Glendening's spending plan and leaves room for the first stage of a 7 percent income tax cut."This is a budget that is both socially responsible and fiscally XTC prudent," said Del. Howard P. Rawlings, the Baltimore Democrat who chairs the Appropriations Committee, before the 128-10 vote.The bill, which envisions no new taxes, received the support of every Democrat who voted and three-fourths of the 41-member Republican caucus.

ANNAPOLIS -- It was the state's long-awaited counterattack, a $3 million public relations war against smoking and other behaviors that have helped give Maryland the worst cancer rate in the nation.Fighting cancer is one of Gov. William Donald Schaefer's top priorities. His administration fought the legislature and the tobacco lobby to get the money for the campaign and won. The state was ready to sign up an ad agency to begin the three-year media blitz.Then someone read the fine print on the budget bill.

During the winter, my husband sleeps in a fleece jacket and claims that his nose is dusted with frost in the mornings. When my daughter, Jessie, returned from college, she unpacked her window air conditioner first and installed it in her bedroom because, she complained, I kept the house too hot. That summer it was cold enough in her room to hang sides of beef, and she spent her nights snuggled deeply under a comforter. Still, I am the queen of the thermostat in my house, and my Baltimore Gas & Electric bills would regularly reflect that.

Everyone favors a balanced state budget. The people of Maryland expect the state to live within its means, and the state constitution requires the governor to submit a budget with revenues and spending in balance. But, as demonstrated in the recently completed special session of the General Assembly, how a budget is balanced makes all the difference. The process for enacting bills that balance the budget is in need of serious reform. Over the past 20 years, governors and General Assemblies have developed a bad habit of stuffing all sorts of loosely related spending and tax provisions into a catch-all bill called the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act, or BRFA.

There is a saying that "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. " That seems to sum up the Republican approach to all issues. The latest example is the GOP-controlled House, which just passed a budget bill that bans the use of military facilities for gay marriages. Gay discrimination in the military has ended. Gay marriage is legal is many states. Yet the Republicans have used a religious approach to everything and now have applied it the budget. There is medical condition in which fluid builds up in the wrist, causing swelling that looks like a small knot on the skin.

The powers that be in Annapolis are calling for a do-over on lawmakers' failure to enact key tax and budget bills before adjournment, but they face a growing chorus from Republican legislators and others who think the "doomsday" budget the state has in the meantime may just be a blessing in disguise. How terrible can it be, they ask, if the overall amount of state spending would go up next year by nearly $700 million? In what world does it make sense to complain about draconian cuts when the state is actually spending more money?

The Maryland General Assembly is taking its budget deliberations down to the wire as it moves toward the end of its 90-day session Monday night. The conference committees seeking to resolve differences between the Senate and House on the four bills in the state's budget package did not meet Friday despite early expectations they would. But a conference on the most critical bill, the one that would raise income taxes enough to blance the budget without spending cuts the majority Democrats find unpalatable, will meet at 8:30 a.m. If that committee reaches a deal, the panels negotiating the budget bill  and a companion measure are expected to quickly follow suit.

The Maryland Senate spent Wednesday afternoon plowing through the state budget bill and a companion measure shifting part of the cost of teacher pensions from the state to the counties, turning back Republican attempts to amend the legislation. Late in the afternoon, after giving preliminary approval to both measures, senators turned to the big fight of the week: consideration of a revenue bill that includes a $416 million increase in state income tax rates. If that measure and the budget companion bill don't pass, almost $750 million in contingent cuts in the budget bill would take effect.

Jan. 9 -- General Assembly convened; members were sworn in.Jan. 16 -- Inauguration of governor and lieutenant governor at noon.an. 16 -- Governor delivers State of the State address at noon. Final date for submission of executive orders reorganizing the executive branch of state government.Jan. 22 -- Chief Judge delivers the State of the Judiciary address.Jan. 28 -- Final date for governor to introduce the capital budget ++ bill -- 20th day.Feb. 17 -- "Green Bag" appointments submitted by governor (see lexicon)

During the winter, my husband sleeps in a fleece jacket and claims that his nose is dusted with frost in the mornings. When my daughter, Jessie, returned from college, she unpacked her window air conditioner first and installed it in her bedroom because, she complained, I kept the house too hot. That summer it was cold enough in her room to hang sides of beef, and she spent her nights snuggled deeply under a comforter. Still, I am the queen of the thermostat in my house, and my Baltimore Gas & Electric bills would regularly reflect that.

Maryland Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski said Wednesday she expects the Senate will pass a budget bill on Tuesday that will include $530 million to continue work toward launch of the Webb Space Telescope in 2018 "and secure America's place in astronomy for the next 50 years. " Speaking at a ribbon-cutting for a new Webb Telescope exhibit at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore, the Democratic senator added that she hopes to have the funding bill "on the president's desk to be signed into law by Thanksgiving.

The passing of the In-State Tuition bill for children of Illegal Immigrants was NOT the right thing to do and as a result in these hard economic times Marylanders were slapped in the face by the Democrats who continue to spend money like like it growing on trees when it fact it is coming out of the pockets of Marylanders who simply cannot afford to pay anymore of their hard earned money for something that will benefit the criminal element of society....