Cuts

More than 82 percent of callers to SUNDIAL say county governments should be forced to abide by signed teacher contracts. Only 17 percent agree with a ruling by state Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. that counties can slash teacher pay and make other reductions under a bill cutting $80 million in local aid. The count was 1,120 in favor of the contracts, 238 backing the local jurisdictions' right to make cuts, out of 1,358 callers."

There were 22 players, seven on scholarship, on the Towson University baseball roster when Mike Gottlieb took over as the coach at his alma mater in 1988. The Tigers won the East Coast Conference championship that season. There will be 35 players on the roster, 15 on scholarship, when Towson plays its next -- and presumably last -- season of baseball next spring. In hearing the news Tuesday that a program that has been a big part of his life since he came to Baltimore in the mid-1970s from Long Island will likely be cut as part of the athletic department's proposed reorganization, Gottlieb's emotions swirl in a mix of sadness and anger.

Northrop Grumman Corp.'s plan to eliminate as many as 800 jobs — the second steep reduction for the Linthicum-based Electronic Systems division this year — could presage cutbacks by other federal contractors and further blows to the state's economy. Federal deficits — and a budget-cutting mood in Washington — have left Maryland companies less and less able to rely on government work, analysts said Thursday. Defense giants such as Northrop Grumman are particularly vulnerable, they said.

A $670,000 budget shortfall caused by the dismal economic climate has prompted the Maryland Historical Society to cut hours at its Baltimore museum and library and to eliminate several staff positions, according to the president of its trustee board. In addition, Wednesday was director Robert Rogers' last day with the society, board president Alex G. Fisher said. Rogers' departure is unrelated to the 165-year-old organization's budget problems, according to Fisher. The board will name an interim director until it can conduct a search for a new leader.

Towson University president Maravene Loeschke's defense of cutting the men's soccer and baseball teams was less than honest ("Towson president says cutbacks of baseball, soccer painful but necessary," March 15). Not once did she mention football, a major expense for a university and the real reason for cutting other men's sports. Instead she did a great disservice to her gender by using the smoke screen of Title IX as a factor. Just to mention equality for women's sports implicates Title IX, but she is talking about pennies and this is wrong.

In what seemed like another year of frustration for Greg Fox, the Howard County Council again rejected all his suggested budget cuts but did slice $48,000 from its own budget to help the local Neighbor-Ride program and boost an emergency fund for people in crisis. County Executive Ken Ulman's $1.4 billion budget was adopted virtually intact by a 4-1 vote, with the majority rejecting Fox's attempts to cut $300,000 from the Healthy Howard program, $4.5 million worth of courthouse renovations and $150,000 from Ulman's executive budget (as Fox sought to highlight Ulman's use of two police officers as bodyguard/drivers)

Gov. Martin O'Malley plans to rely on a billion dollars in one-time accounting maneuvers to help balance next year's $13 billion state operating budget, avoiding deep cuts to services in an election year. The strategy drew immediate concern from critics, particularly Republicans, who say the Democratic governor is deferring tough decisions. O'Malley presented a broad outline Tuesday of how he plans to fill a $2 billion gap between projected revenues and expenditures in the spending plan he is required to submit to the General Assembly today.

Maryland shed 7,500 jobs in May, as the state posted one of the largest losses in the country for the second month in a row, the U.S. Department of Labor said Friday. Only North Carolina and Pennsylvania saw bigger cuts in May, according to the new estimates. Quirks of weather may have played a role in Maryland's poor showing, but experts warned that the state's economy appears to be weakening just as a potentially large pullback in federal spending threatens to bring more pain to a region flush with government contractors, agencies and research grants.

The Orioles have made three more cuts, optioning catcher Luis Exposito to Triple-A Norfolk and sending non-roster invitees Daniel Schlereth and Adam Russell to minor league camp. Exposito, who is on the 40-man roster, batted .381 with a .481 on-base percentage in 14 spring games. But the 26-year-old had struggled defensively, making two errors, including a catcher's interference that allowed the winning run to score when he scooped up a live ball with his catcher's mask. Exposito, who batted .056 in nine games with the Orioles last year, will compete for the starting job at Norfolk.