Budget Crisis

As the public discussion plays out over Annapolis’ budget woes, including a record deficit that has forced layoffs of city employees, some aldermen have expressed concerns over how the city’s network of nonprofits will fare with less funding. Mayor Josh Cohen, in his proposed budget last week, cut funding to nonprofits by half over the previous year, setting aside $205,000 for grants to nonprofit groups. “It’s no doubt that it will be a hardship for some nonprofits,” Cohen said during his budget address.

Varsity Elliott's 3 sends John Carroll boys to win Rodney Elliott sank a 3-pointer from the right corner to lift No. 5 John Carroll over visiting Glenelg Country School, 55-54, in a tightly contested Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference boys basketball game Sunday. After the first three quarters ended in a tie, the Patriots trailed 54-52 with 24 seconds left when a missed layup turned into a fast break for John Carroll and a catch-and-shoot by Elliott to win the game.

Annapolis laid off 33 city employees Friday to address what Mayor Josh Cohen called the city's "unprecedented budget crisis," and he warned that more layoffs loom without union concessions. Seventeen of the 33 are contract workers and 16 are civil service employees. In addition, the city has eliminated 52 vacant positions, bringing the total number of job reductions in the city's work force to 85. Cohen had announced in February that layoffs and furloughs were likely as the city faces a deficit of at least $2.6 million in the current fiscal year and a projected shortfall of at least $8 million for fiscal year 2011.

Perhaps the best that can be said for 2010 is that it was better than 2009. The recession lingered far longer than most expected, but Maryland finally started adding jobs again, if not at the pace it needs to. Baltimore's mayor resigned in disgrace, but City Hall got a fresh start. It was a banner year for blue crabs in the Chesapeake, and the Orioles, after a dismal start, finished strong — though still in last place. The last few years have been anything but predictable (who, for example, would have guessed a year ago that Gov. Martin O'Malley would beat former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. by nearly 15 points?

Gov. William Donald Schaefer, after taking a pounding for trying to face up to the state's fiscal budget crisis, has succeeded in forcing General Assembly leaders to begin confronting their own responsibilities. This is a major step forward.Top lawmakers still shy away from the need for new tax revenues or other long-term solutions to recession-induced difficulties. But by agreeing to come up with short-term alternatives by Wednesday to the painful remedies proposed by the governor, they will find out soon enough that there are no easy answers.

Our elected leaders are working on the federal budget again. As you recall, the last time they did this, we had a Big Budget Crisis that resulted in -- prepare for a scary concept -- the shutting down of the federal government. This was of course a terrible hardship for the millions upon millions of Americans who work for the federal government. It also inconvenienced some civilians, because the government briefly closed a number of national parks, which meant shutting down Old Faithful, furloughing the federal bears, etc.But finally, thank goodness, they worked out a budget, and the total, including gratuities, came to around $1.3 trillion.

You can almost hear the auctioneer's singsong patter: "Next up, ladies and gents, we have a beautifully located, 3,200-acre parcel, with plenty of parking, more traffic volume than you could hope for, and an owner who's absolutely desperate to sell. Now, what am I bid for the Baltimore-Washington International Airport?"It hasn't come to that. Yet. But Maryland's woeful economy and the state's worsening budget crisis may provide once-in-a-lifetime business opportunities for those with the money to play.

State officials are signaling that Gov. Martin O'Malley's hallmark tuition freeze at public universities could end soon as Maryland grapples with a budget crisis that shows few signs of easing. "I think the time has come to look at moderate tuition increases," said state Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp at a Wednesday meeting of the State Board of Public Works, where $281.5 million in midyear cuts to higher education and other agencies were approved. O'Malley, a Democrat who sits on the spending panel, told her that many agree.

Lawmakers from Anne Arundel's District 31 and a group of Republican legislators will sponsor a series of separate public forums for people who want to offer advice on dealing with the state budget crisis."

Hold the champagne. Put those party hats away, and don't bother buying confetti. Economically speaking, the new year doesn't promise to be any happier than the old one for Anne Arundel government.After a year of budget cuts, wage concessions and layoff threats, "it's still not over," said Louise Hayman, press secretary for County Executive Robert R. Neall.In 1991, the county budget was the biggest story of the year, dominating headlines since last winter, when Neall persuaded county employees to give up their cost-of-living raises.

The city of Annapolis has cut its overtime spending by nearly half in the first month of the new fiscal year, city officials announced. Overtime spending in July was 48 percent under budget. Of the $149,340 budgeted for overtime in July, city departments spent $77,050. Mayor Joshua J. Cohen pointed to the spending decrease as evidence of his management skills. Facing an unprecedented budget crisis, Cohen created a task force earlier this year to reduce overtime expenditures.

The protesters gathered at City Hall are indeed justified in fearing that the plan of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to merge the Commission on Aging and Retirement Education, a charter commission of volunteer members, into the Health Department will reduce services, especially to active seniors, as well as to frail and disabled persons, of this major city. As one who not only advocated for senior citizens as a Republican member of the General Assembly in the 1950s and as a member of CARE for approximately 14 years (a substantial portion of which as its chairman)

A Baltimore city councilman is calling for greater accountability in the Recreation and Parks Department amid complaints about the agency's use of capital funds. Councilman Carl Stokes plans a news conference at the Ambrose Kennedy playground in his East Baltimore district Friday morning to call for an audit of the department's spending. "We don't know what the [department's] economic situation is," Stokes said. "We don't know if there is a budget crisis or not." A 150-member volunteer transition team appointed by Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake reported a lack of transparency in the department's spending.

The Maryland Senate gave preliminary approval Tuesday night to a plan that would balance future state budgets by shifting hundreds of millions of dollars in teacher pension payments to local governments. The shift would occur in the fiscal year that starts in July 2011. Proponents say the move is fiscally responsible, but critics contend that it marks a disturbing new era in which state education funding is threatened. "This is a sad day," said Sen. Paul G. Pinsky, a Prince George's County Democrat.

As the public discussion plays out over Annapolis’ budget woes, including a record deficit that has forced layoffs of city employees, some aldermen have expressed concerns over how the city’s network of nonprofits will fare with less funding. Mayor Josh Cohen, in his proposed budget last week, cut funding to nonprofits by half over the previous year, setting aside $205,000 for grants to nonprofit groups. “It’s no doubt that it will be a hardship for some nonprofits,” Cohen said during his budget address.

Hoping to increase the number of local businesses with an overseas reach, Gov. Martin O'Malley said Thursday that the state will restart a program that gave $5,000 export-assistance grants to firms but had its funding frozen this fiscal year because of the budget crisis. The planned July 1 revival of the Export MD program is part of his newly announced Maryland Export Initiative, which O'Malley hopes will create jobs by connecting more firms to foreign markets. Just 3 percent of Maryland companies currently export overseas, he said.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Elementary School in Baltimore stands like a fortress opposite the McCullough Homes housing project. Its locked steel doors insulate the 550 blue-and-gold uniformed students from the problems outside.Once inside School 122, youngsters get a daily dose of self-esteem from Principal Deborah Wortham. Her morning message, broadcast to students and teachers over the intercom: "You are sensational.""When you walk into this building, you feel you're in a country club. That's the mind-set; that's the feeling," says Wortham, displaying a button that reads, "Sensational Staff -- #122."