Budget Year

Baltimore County is bracing for another tough budget year, delaying new construction and improvements to infrastructure while looking for other ways to save. But County Council members and County Executive Kevin Kamenetz's administration say they don't plan to raise taxes to bring in more revenue. The county has not raised property taxes for 23 years, said Kamenetz's chief of staff, Don Mohler. Its income taxes haven't risen for 19. Kamenetz hopes to continue that run, Mohler said.

Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker III wasted no time in telling attendees of his third and final fiscal year 2014 budget hearing that it will be a "very difficult budget year across the county. " With a $152.2 million deficit projected for 2014, Baker told community members at Laurel High School Tuesday night that he will need to have "tough discussions" and make some "hard decisions" in the coming weeks. A fiscal year 2014 budget forecast from December 2012 estimates the county will have slightly more than $2.8 billion in expenditures and receive about $2.65 billion in revenue.

At last state governments are crawling out of that giganti budget hole created by the recession. While blue skies aren't yet on the fiscal horizon, the dark storm clouds of recent years are dissipating, providing states with enough economic good news to balance their budgets without too much belt-tightening this year."

Comptroller Peter Franchot urged Thursday that the state bank about $229 million in unexpected money with which it closed out the books on its last budget year, contending that Maryland's economy remains "exceedingly fragile. " The comptroller, whose office released the final numbers for the budget year that ended June 30, recommended that the General Assembly add remaining fund balance to the state's Rainy Day Fund. The figures the comptroller released were in line with a report in The Sun Thursday that reported the state had ended fiscal 2012 with roughly $225 million more than had been expected.  The additional funds will give Gov. Martin O'Malley additional flexibility as his administration prepares next year's budget, which will go to the legislature next January.

Comptroller Peter Franchot urged Thursday that the state bank about $229 million in unexpected money with which it closed out the books on its last budget year, contending that Maryland's economy remains "exceedingly fragile. " The comptroller, whose office released the final numbers for the budget year that ended June 30, recommended that the General Assembly add remaining fund balance to the state's Rainy Day Fund. The figures the comptroller released were in line with a report in The Sun Thursday that reported the state had ended fiscal 2012 with roughly $225 million more than had been expected.  The additional funds will give Gov. Martin O'Malley additional flexibility as his administration prepares next year's budget, which will go to the legislature next January.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. offered a glowing account of Maryland's finances during his State of the State address yesterday, saying the state would end the current budget year in June with a $680 million surplus. Since he took office, the governor boasted, "we have resolved a $4 billion - four, with a b, billion dollars - in shortfalls." But the numbers Ehrlich plucked for his speech offer only a partial - and somewhat misleading - view of Maryland's fiscal outlook, lawmakers and legislative analysts said.

ANNAPOLIS -- Maryland ended fiscal year 1991 with enough money left over to finance the operations of state government for 2 1/2 minutes, Comptroller Louis L. Goldstein reported yesterday.The unappropriated surplus remaining once the books were officially closed on the budget year that ended June 30 was a measly $55,350 -- "smallest in memory," Mr. Goldstein said.The surplus is not even equal to half of Gov. William Donald Schaefer's annual $120,000 salary.According to Mr. Goldstein's spokesman, Marvin Bond, state government spends at a rate of $31.8 million a day, or $1.3 million an hour, $22,110 a minute, or $368 a second.

Harford County Executive Eileen M. Rehrmann, on her first full day on the job, said she was ordering a freeze on hiring and other belt-tightening measures to make sure the county is in the black at the end of this budget year.Rehrmann, citing declining revenue projections, said she was scrapping a proposal by the previous executive, Habern W. Freeman Jr., to build a new $15 million county administration building in Bel Air. Outlining the county's budget situation yesterday, she also said she was asking county agencies to look for other ways to save money before the fiscal year ends July 1."

Although a windfall insurance refund is helping Baltimore close a $31 million gap in its current budget year, the city's budget director is warning that the financial picture for the 1997 budget year, which begins July 1, has not improved.In a memo Friday, Budget Director Edward J. Gallagher told heads of city agencies that they should continue to plan to meet budget targets that include reductions ranging from several hundred thousand to several million dollars."Nothing has changed regarding budget actions to be taken by agencies," Mr. Gallagher said.

It's almost "deja vu all over again" for Carroll budget officials, as estimates of the state's growing shortfall bring the promise of another summer of spending cuts on the county level.And although neither the state nor the county has made any decision on how to deal with what looks like a $240 million deficit for the budget year that began two weeks ago, the cut to Carroll could total as much as $5 million."That's certainly our worst-case scenario, but it is possible," said Steven D. Powell, the county's budget director.

Baltimore County is bracing for another tough budget year, delaying new construction and improvements to infrastructure while looking for other ways to save. But County Council members and County Executive Kevin Kamenetz's administration say they don't plan to raise taxes to bring in more revenue. The county has not raised property taxes for 23 years, said Kamenetz's chief of staff, Don Mohler. Its income taxes haven't risen for 19. Kamenetz hopes to continue that run, Mohler said.

Baltimore County will likely pull from its reserves to balance the budget and stay within guidelines proposed this week by the county Spending Affordability Committee. With the county facing a $38.5 million revenue shortfall as it goes into budget deliberations, the committee recommended capping next year's spending plan at $1.63 billion in a report released Tuesday. The committee's guidelines would allow an increase of approximately $36 million over this year's budget, funds that could come from about $147 million in surplus money.

In Annapolis, few words in the English language are as abused as the term "budget surplus. " Case in point: the noises being made in recent days by some public employee unions that a slight improvement in tax revenues ought to end up in the pockets of state workers. Their target is the fund balance — the alleged surplus — left over in the fiscal 2010 budget that ended June 30. It takes time for the state to close out its books, but it appears Maryland will end up $300 million in the black, which is as much as $150 million greater than expected.

Thursday begins the 2011 budget year for Baltimore County. This is an opportune moment to assess where the local economy is headed and whether a course correction is needed. When the housing bubble burst in 2008, the damage was widespread. In order to prevent a complete collapse of the financial system, the federal government lowered interest rates to near zero, bought billions of dollars worth of bad mortgages, bailed out big banks and insurance companies with loans or equity investments and increased its debt burden by over 22 percent to $7.8 trillion in 2009.

A spending committee in the House of Delegates has rejected a proposal that would have eventually transferred about $337 million in annual teacher pension costs from the state to local governments, stalling a Senate-approved plan to help balance Maryland's budget. The House Appropriations Committee recommended on Friday a study of the implications of the cost shift, instead of beginning the effort next year. "A step of that magnitude could only be done after a comprehensive study," said Del. Norman Conway, and Eastern Shore Democrat and head of the spending committee.

Budget analysts for the General Assembly are urging legislators to divert almost $60 million a year that had been intended for the state's Transportation Trust Fund to general use starting in 2013 - a move opposed by the state Department of Transportation. The Department of Legislative Services said the move would "relieve funding pressure on the general fund." The recommendation came at a budget briefing held Wednesday before the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, where lawmakers questioned state Transportation Secretary Beverley K. Swaim-Staley on her department's plans and priorities at a time of slumping transportation revenue.

Carroll County's budget deficit nearly doubled last week to $5.3 million, spurring immediate budget cutbacks, reduced work forces and, for the first time, talk of a possibility of layoffs."

ANNAPOLIS -- The Schaefer administration and the Maryland Association of Counties formally threw their support yesterday behind the House speaker's budget-balancing plan.The move could begin to break the General Assembly's deadlock on budget and tax issues.The plan put together by House Speaker R. Clayton Mitchell Jr., D-Kent, attempts to address a current budget year deficit estimated as high as $270 million. Its two most controversial provisions call for another $88.5 million reduction in state aid to Baltimore and the 23 counties, plus a temporary shift of $80 million from the state's Transportation Trust Fund to the general treasury.

As the Maryland Transportation Authority's revenues have declined this year, its costs for construction of the Intercounty Connector have risen to the point where the project now accounts for 53 percent of the agency's budget - forcing delays in other road maintenance projects and making a substantial increase in tolls at some facilities a near certainty after the 2010 gubernatorial election. According to the state Department of Legislative Services, the independent toll authority is facing the same type of recession-related squeeze that has forced the Maryland Department of Transportation to defer about $2.2 billion in projects.

As the Maryland Transportation Authority's revenues have declined this year, its costs for construction of the Intercounty Connector have risen to the point where the project now accounts for 53 percent of the agency's budget - forcing delays in other road maintenance projects and making a substantial increase in tolls at some facilities a near certainty after the 2010 gubernatorial election. According to the state Department of Legislative Services, the independent toll authority is facing the same type of recession-related squeeze that has forced the Maryland Department of Transportation to defer about $2.2 billion in projects.