Budget Process

In "O'Malley curiously passive on the budget and taxes" (Jan. 12) you hit on the reason why Maryland is in a rut of structural deficits. Maryland's budget rules, while designed to ensure fiscal restraint, have instead given cover to decades of profligacy. Consider the state's century-old "strong executive budget" process. Intended to curb legislative spending sprees by giving the governor control over the proposed budget, it merely conceals deal-brokering between the branches, such as 2002's costly Bridge to Excellence education mandate.

The Baltimore school board unanimously passed a $1.2 billion budget Monday that essentially remained intact since it was presented. The last budget of outgoing schools CEO Andrés Alonso includes cuts to per-pupil funding and high schools but retains spending power for principals and adds academic programs. The $793 million that would go to schools represents a 36 percent increase since 2008, when Alonso implemented the "Fair Student Funding" structure — which funds schools based on enrollment and gives principals autonomy over their budgets and hiring.

Anne Arundel department chiefs line up this week to make their budget requests for fiscal year 1992.But their wish lists will remain secret because County Executive Robert R. Neall intends to follow the pattern of his predecessor O. James Lighthizer.Preliminary agency budgets were released to the public until 1985, when Lighthizer declared that he wanted to eliminate and "inappropriate and unnecessary circus in the newspaper."Following the example of most local governments, he shut off public debate on the budget until the executive delivers his budget message in May to the County Council.

The average citizen could be forgiven for failing to understand the way taxpayer money gets spent at the state and county level. It's as complex as a spider web, and about as easy to get tangled in. As of this week, Harford County Executive David R. Craig was getting ready to put together a spending plan for the year that begins July 1 (not Jan. 1, as the year does for most of us). His initial citizens input meeting was supposed to have been Monday, but that was delayed because of the weather.

The Manchester budget process drew stinging public comment at last night's regular council meeting, and a candidate for the Town Council forced a delay in a public hearing so the proposed budget could be advertised.During the public comment period of an otherwise quiet meeting, Mayor Earl A. J. "Tim" Warehime and the council agreed to move the public hearing on tax rates and water and sewer rates from April 28 to May 11 after council candidate Kathryn Riley said the town's code requires the budget hearing to be advertised in a local newspaper two weeks in advance.

At least some of the school board members who endured last year's bitter money feud are looking for a smoother budget-making process this year and a far better relationship with new County Executive Janet S. Owens and a mostly new County Council.At this time last year, the board was angry and smarting from skirmishes with then-County Executive John G. Gary, who tried to wrest control of the board's budget-making powers. Compromises seemed out of the question.This year, the adversarial tone is gone, replaced by talk of working together and setting goals.

Carroll's commissioners have strongly criticized the county legislative delegation for a lack of understanding of the county's fiscal needs and for proposing a tax reduction that could create a $43 million deficit in five years. To illustrate the soundness of their long-range budgeting, the commissioners for the first time will open the budget development process to residents so that they "know what we do and why," said Commissioner Dean L. Minnich. "Our hands are being tied by our delegation in Annapolis, who don't even talk to us and who don't know what is going on in the county," Minnich said during a Cabinet meeting Thursday.

They had already been through the public testimony, the email campaigns and, they thought, the political wrangling. Severna Park High School was on track to receive a nearly $107 million to rebuild one of Anne Arundel County's highest-performing schools — but also one of its worst facilities. But some members of the County Council argued that for the same price, the school system could renovate six elementary schools that they said were just as needy. At what seemed to Severna Park advocates like the last minute, the council voted to delay funding for the project and use the money for the other schools.

RIGHT NOW, Anne Arundel County is hammering out a capital budget for fiscal year 1996-97, a process that impacts taxpayers more than any other. Not to be confused with the operating budget -- money used for salaries, office supplies and other materials needed to run the government day-to-day -- the capital budget is a list of big-ticket items: schools and other buildings, computer systems, major equipment, landfill cleanup.Every year, the county continues paying off projects already begun and commits itself to new ones, many of which are so expensive that they, too, require spreading the cost over a number of years and perhaps going into debt.

IN WHAT'S become a sad annual ritual, the federal government is entering a new fiscal year without a budget. Is this another example of Richard Nixon's revenge? Nearly 30 years ago, Congress responded to the excesses of the disgraced and deposed Nixon presidency by passing two major reforms. One involved campaign finance. It was replaced this year when reformers became convinced that it had become more of a problem than a solution. The other was budget reform -- designed to redress a perceived imbalance between Congress and the White House and impose a neater, reliable structure on what is inevitably a complex and messy process.

The state university system's Board of Regents approved a 3 percent tuition increase Wednesday for most in-state students, bringing a routine close to a budget process that was briefly thrown into chaos by the General Assembly's inability to agree on a spending plan. Though the university system received $5.3 million in cuts in Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposed $2 billion operating budget for 2013, the trims were not deep enough to force a change in the planned tuition increase. "It's a small enough number that I think the campuses will be able to absorb it without any significant impact to student services or to academic quality," said Chancellor William E. Kirwan of the cut. System workers will not face furloughs, Kirwan said, though most salaries will remain frozen aside from a 2 percent cost-of-living increase scheduled to begin Jan. 1. The presidents of each campus will decide how to implement the cuts.

It is imperative that people of faith speak up in support of a federal budget process that is true to the best moral traditions of our country. The federal budget is a document that reflects the values that we hold to be most important. Continuation of funding for programs that strengthen and enrich lives, support the most vulnerable among us, and serve the common good should be the foundation for decisions made in prioritizing budget choices. These are challenging financial times for our nation as Congress makes the difficult choices necessary to balance the concerns for reduction of a mounting debt with the financial commitment that a moral country must make to preserve the dignity and welfare of all people served by that government.

Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold appointed veteran county budget officer John R. Hammond as chief administrative officer Wednesday. Hammond will take the position formerly held by Dennis M. Callahan, who died Feb. 8 of a heart attack. Hammond has worked for the county government for 18 years, joining the county's finance office in 1993 and later becoming budget officer. Leopold said he briefly considered other candidates within county government but selected Hammond, whom he called the "obvious and logical choice," because of his experience.

The following is the 2012 Legislative Address of Harford County Council President Billy Boniface, delivered during the Feb. 21 county council legislative session. Due to the long agenda ahead of us this evening I'm not going to dwell on the accomplishments of the year we leave behind but instead concentrate on what 2012 has in store for the Council. Currently we have before us the Master Plan, an accumulation of a year long process that has produced a road map to guide the County for the foreseeable future.

Anne Arundel County residents attending hearings this week lauded school Superintendent Kevin Maxwell's recommended $986.2 million operating budget and encouraged the school board to adopt it and the County Council to help fund it. Maxwell presented his recommendations at two public hearings. The proposed budget comes at a time when concerns over maintaining the quality of education amid a stagnant economy are high and the school system and County Executive John Leopold are at odds over per-pupil funding.

Baltimore officials are bracing for the potential of another round of deep budget cuts, as they draw up early spending plans to address a "significant" shortfall next year. City agency heads confirmed Thursday they were instructed to pare 5 percent of their spending as they craft preliminary budget proposals for the fiscal year beginning July 1. The mayor's press secretary stressed that the administration was in the "very early stages of the budget process," and said agencies would be asked to draft proposals for other financial scenarios as well.

The state university system's Board of Regents approved a 3 percent tuition increase Wednesday for most in-state students, bringing a routine close to a budget process that was briefly thrown into chaos by the General Assembly's inability to agree on a spending plan. Though the university system received $5.3 million in cuts in Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposed $2 billion operating budget for 2013, the trims were not deep enough to force a change in the planned tuition increase. "It's a small enough number that I think the campuses will be able to absorb it without any significant impact to student services or to academic quality," said Chancellor William E. Kirwan of the cut. System workers will not face furloughs, Kirwan said, though most salaries will remain frozen aside from a 2 percent cost-of-living increase scheduled to begin Jan. 1. The presidents of each campus will decide how to implement the cuts.

County Councilman David Boschert plans to introduce legislation Monday night giving the County Council unprecedented power to make changes to the county budget.Boschert, D-Crownsville, will introduce amendments to the Budget Enabling Act proposed by County Executive Robert R. Neall. The council will conduct a hearing on the bill Monday night.Neall's bill would reopen the county budget process to strike a new budget for the remainder of the fiscal year. The bill also gives Neall power to lay off and furlough employees and cut wages.

With Baltimore County attempting to cut 200 positions in hopes of saving $15 million for next budget year, city officials say they're also eyeing a dire budget year. Ryan O'Doherty, spokesman for Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, said city budget analysts are predicting a "significant" shortfall this budget cycle – which will cause the mayor to make "difficult reductions" to city government when the budget process begins next spring. "We expect to have budget projections that show a significant shortfall," he said.

They had already been through the public testimony, the email campaigns and, they thought, the political wrangling. Severna Park High School was on track to receive a nearly $107 million to rebuild one of Anne Arundel County's highest-performing schools — but also one of its worst facilities. But some members of the County Council argued that for the same price, the school system could renovate six elementary schools that they said were just as needy. At what seemed to Severna Park advocates like the last minute, the council voted to delay funding for the project and use the money for the other schools.