Budget Package

Maryland's Senate took a philosophical turn to the left Wednesday night and approved a new "millionaire's tax" for anyone earning over $500,000 as they gave their initial nod to the state spending plan. The Senate is set to come back for final approval Thursday, as key House committees finalize their version of the budget. The two chambers will have agree on a spending plan. The last minute change to the Senate plan adds $30 million in new revenue to the state coffers. The funds are divvied for aging schools and municipalities.

The budget package proposed by Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz this week includes $5.6 million to finish a Perry Hall park that officials say has languished for years. Improvements to Gough Park, a 17-acre site at the intersection of the intersection of Honeygo Boulevard and East Joppa Road, will include a new gymnasium. The county bought the land in 2000, but "the land has sat idle," said County Councilman David Marks, a Republican who lives in Perry Hall. With continuing development in Perry Hall, Marks said the site will provide residents with a "green space in a growing community.

WASHINGTON -- House leaders and conservative Democrats reached a compromise early this morning on spending curbs for automatic benefit programs that is expected to assure President Clinton a narrow but crucial victory for his economic recovery program.The agreement, which requires the president and Congress to take action if so-called entitlement spending exceeds budget estimates, was described by Rep. Charles W. Stenholm, a Texas Democrat, as "a major, major, significant change" in the budget process.

Much of the coverage of the need for a special budget session of the Maryland legislature has focused on the political machinations of its leaders. That's understandable. But we should not ignore the impact on ordinary people if the legislature fails to finalize a budget. Major victims will be thousands of middle-income college students from every community in Maryland. The budget package proposed by Gov.Martin O'Malleyand endorsed by both houses of the legislature caps tuition hikes at 3 percent for this fall at all the public four-year campuses.

WASHINGTON -- Congress endorsed the most sweeping deficit reduction bill in U.S. history yesterday, bringing to an end the budget crisis that had convulsed the political landscape for the past five months.By a 54-45 vote, the Senate followed the lead of the House, which approved the budget legislation earlier yesterday on a 228-200 vote after a 21-hour session that culminated in a bleary-eyed 7 a.m. roll call."They say Congress wouldn't pass a bill like this in 100 years," said Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan.

WASHINGTON -- A majority of Maryland's congressional delegation voted in favor of the budget package last night, despite strong opposition from many constituents.Of the eight House members from Maryland, Roy P. Dyson, D-1st, Helen Delich Bentley, R-2nd, and Kweisi Mfume, D-7th, voted against the package.Although they are political opposites, Mrs. Bentley and Mr. Mfume voted together in opposing the budget compromise -- as did many other liberals and conservatives. Mr. Mfume said earlier in the week that he was concerned that the package placed too heavy a burden on the elderly, the poor and the middle class.

The budget package proposed by Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz this week includes $5.6 million to finish a Perry Hall park that officials say has languished for years. Improvements to Gough Park, a 17-acre site at the intersection of the intersection of Honeygo Boulevard and East Joppa Road, will include a new gymnasium. The county bought the land in 2000, but "the land has sat idle," said County Councilman David Marks, a Republican who lives in Perry Hall. With continuing development in Perry Hall, Marks said the site will provide residents with a "green space in a growing community.

The Herculean labors of the budget negotiators are over now, but President Bush's labors are just beginning. Whether the historic agreement on budget reduction reached yesterday between White House and Congressional leaders can now be put into effect depends on whether President Bush can now deliver his own party's support when that negotiated package comes to vote in Congress.And an ominous sign it was that Rep. Newt Gingrich of Georgia, the second-ranking House Republican leader and a member of the negotiating team, was so dissatisfied with the package of tax increases and spending cuts that he refused to appear on the same platform with President Bush in announcing the accord.

Much of the coverage of the need for a special budget session of the Maryland legislature has focused on the political machinations of its leaders. That's understandable. But we should not ignore the impact on ordinary people if the legislature fails to finalize a budget. Major victims will be thousands of middle-income college students from every community in Maryland. The budget package proposed by Gov.Martin O'Malleyand endorsed by both houses of the legislature caps tuition hikes at 3 percent for this fall at all the public four-year campuses.

House Speaker Michael E. Busch said Friday morning that negotiations between the House and Senate are "in good shape" and that the General Assembly should have no trouble wrapping uo work on a balanced budget before its schedulked adjournment Monday. In a brief interview, Busch said the House-Senate conference committees on the budget package will resume work after Friday morning's floor session and that the two sides are getting within range of a settlement after a Senate proposal Thursday night that split the difference between the chambers on how to raise taxes.

Instead of the confetti, balloons and good will that typically mark the end of the General Assembly's 90-day session, the legislature adjourned Monday with a toxic mixture of anger and disbelief that the Democratic-controlled body gridlocked and was forced to enact a fallback budget that cuts deeply into Democratic spending priorities. The blame game started immediately. One top Democrat called for Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, Jr. to step aside. Political pundits — and the Republican Party — pointed fingers at Gov. Martin O'Malley, saying he's been too busy preparing a presidential run and has neglected his duties in Annapolis.

House Speaker Michael E. Busch said Friday morning that negotiations between the House and Senate are "in good shape" and that the General Assembly should have no trouble wrapping uo work on a balanced budget before its schedulked adjournment Monday. In a brief interview, Busch said the House-Senate conference committees on the budget package will resume work after Friday morning's floor session and that the two sides are getting within range of a settlement after a Senate proposal Thursday night that split the difference between the chambers on how to raise taxes.

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.

Negotiators for the Maryland Senate and House remain at an impasse over the state budget with only four full days remaining before the scheduled end of the General Assembly's 90-day session, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said Thursday. "We remain still at loggerheads between the House and Senate conferees," said Miller, a  Calvert County Democrat. He said Gov. Martin O'Malley is attempting to act as mediator between the two sides. The conference committees on the three unresolved bills that make up the budget package have met only sporadically since the negotiations began Monday, when talks stalled on the key measure raising income taxes.  Until that matter is resolved, budget negotiators won't know how much money is available to spend.

House and Senate negotiators squared off Monday over the issue of taxes -- and the question wasn't whether to raise them but who should pay. The five senators and five delegates on the revenue bill conference gathered in the afternoon at the Legislative Services Building next to the State House. It was part of a complicated series of negotiations that began Monday on the various bill that make up this year's budget package -- including the budget bill itself, a companion measure needed to achieve balance and the tax measure.

While Carroll County's unemployment rate remains low and there are signs of modest economic recovery, the county's budget office said this week it could not present the Board of County Commissioners with a balanced operating budget for fiscal year 2013 without hard decisions by the commissioners. County Management and Budget Director Ted Zaleski told the commissioners March 21 that policy decisions will need to be made to balance this coming year's budget plan, as well as the longer-range FY 2013-18 plan.

WASHINGTON -- Despite widespread congressional criticism that the budget package falls too heavily on poor and middle-income taxpayers, fiscal experts said yesterday that the agreement placed only a slightly disproportionate burden on those groups.One authority, Isabel Sawhill, senior fellow at the Urban Institute, estimated that the sacrifice imposed by the package on the poor and upper-income groups could be equalized by a transfer of only $75 from the top earners to those with lowest incomes.

NEW YORK -- Stocks closed lower yesterday amid concern about today's release of the July employment report and the pending budget vote in Washington."The economy is sluggish, and there is no reason to think this trend is going to change any time soon," said Dick Adler, who heads the investment committee at Eagle Asset Management, which oversees $5.5 billion in equities.The Dow Jones industrial average lost 3.08 points, to 3,548.97. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 0.41, to 448.13. Declining common stocks on the New York Stock Exchange exceeded advancing issues by a margin of about 8-to-7.

The House of Delegates gave its approval to Gov.Martin O'Malley's proposed state budget last year, along with its version of his decision to shift part of the responsibility for teacher pension costs to county governments, an increase in income taxes and a mandate that counties keep up a minimum level of spending on education. The vote on the budget was 95-43. The tally was mostly along party lines, with Baltimore County Democrats Michael H. Weir Jr. and Joseph J.  "Sonny" Minnick voting against and Garrett County Republican Wendell Beitzel voting for it. The budget reconcililiation act, which included the pension shift, passed 88-50 as a handful of liberal Democrats joined Republicans in opposing the measure.

Maryland's Senate took a philosophical turn to the left Wednesday night and approved a new "millionaire's tax" for anyone earning over $500,000 as they gave their initial nod to the state spending plan. The Senate is set to come back for final approval Thursday, as key House committees finalize their version of the budget. The two chambers will have agree on a spending plan. The last minute change to the Senate plan adds $30 million in new revenue to the state coffers. The funds are divvied for aging schools and municipalities.