Budget

Towson University baseball could live to fight another year after Gov. Martin O'Malley included an additional $300,000 in his 2014 budget to help the university sort through difficulties with its athletic funding. The baseball program had been slated for elimination after this season until O'Malley became interested in its fate. An O'Malley spokeswoman said Monday that the appropriation, still subject to General Assembly approval, resulted from a one-on-one meeting last week between the governor and Towson president Maravene Loeschke.

Eighteen months after Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake voted to approve the purchase of four new helicopters for the Police Department, her proposed budget called for grounding one of them in a cost-saving move. But within days, the administration reversed course and said Thursday it intends to keep all four choppers flying in the unit known as Foxtrot. Police likely will have to find the projected $1 million in savings elsewhere in their budget. It is unclear how the cut became part of the proposed budget, which was unveiled last week.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday released the closure dates for 149 air traffic control towers - including five in Maryland - affected by federal budget cuts. Martin State Airport in Baltimore County, Frederick Municipal Airport and Easton/Newnam Field in Easton will close on April 21. Hagerstown Regional Airport and Salisbury- Ocean City Wicomico Airport will close on May 5. In a memo to affected airports, the FAA outlined two options for the operator: Continue as a non-towered airport, relying on pilots to communicate takeoffs and landings on a common frequency, or provide and pay for tower services.

City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young plans to renew the contract of an independent budget analyst who last year helped to design an alternative proposal to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's budget. Young will ask the city's Board of Estimates Wednesday to approve $21,000 for city retiree Larry Shapiro, who will advise Young and other council members on fiscal issues. Lester Davis, a spokesman for Young, said Shapiro was instrumental in developing an alternative budget proposal, which sought to keep fire companies and recreation centers from closing last year.

Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is trying to craft a budget that will trim expenses and property taxes to encourage an increase to the population ("First step to a better Baltimore," March 21). Reducing excessive city employees is a good first step. The big payoff would come from reexamining things the city does that are not done by competing, lower-tax suburbs. The mayor should engage an expert like former county executives Jim Smith of Baltimore County or Doug Duncan of Montgomery County to analyze things the city started doing when it was the largest, wealthiest jurisdiction, many of which enhance suburbanites' quality of life, that are no longer essential or affordable, and use the potential savings to help the city approach suburban tax rates.

The budget fights in Washington, D.C., and Annapolis are looking predictably ugly this year and are shaping up along familiar lines: Do we raise taxes? Do we sink deeper in debt? Which programs do we cut — and how deep? How can we fund public priorities like transportation and higher education? Fueling these debates are automatic, across-the-board federal spending cuts that intentionally make no distinction between public priorities and wasteful spending, cutting both with equal abandon.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has proposed additional cuts to the Baltimore City Fire Department in her proposed budget ("'Tough choices' in city budget plan," March 21). The budget includes a proposed schedule change for the men and women who run into burning buildings that would increase their work hours along with reducing their hourly rate of pay while ultimately reducing the staffing of the department by as many as 300 positions. Those fire fighters already work on average two hours a week longer than other city employees without additional compensation.

The Federal Aviation Administration plans to close five air traffic control towers in Maryland — among 149 nationwide — to comply with across-the-board budget cuts mandated by Congress, a move that could clog operations at BWI Marshall Airport. Even though the tower at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport is not among the closings, the FAA decision to shut down one at Martin State Airport in Baltimore County could lead to more flights using the larger airport.

The Baltimore Police Department has already gone over its overtime budget for the fiscal year, which ends in June, but Police Commissioner Anthony Batts says he will rein in the agency's spending. "We will be in budget at the end of the fiscal year. Period," Batts said during an interview at police headquarters last week.  How, exactly, remains unclear. Pressed for details this week, Batts said he has a plan but needs approval from City Hall.  The Police Department's overall operating budget this year is $410 million, and there's been a $3.4 million spillover on overtime spending.

Comparing the House and Senate federal budget proposals should make the decision a no-brainer. Do we want a $7 billion surplus per the Republican budget or a $566 billion deficit per the Democratic budget? This would be simple except that the American government is literally controlled by the "no brain" administration of President Barack Obama, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Peggy Alley, Baltimore Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts