Cuts

Over the past six years, Maryland has taken a balanced approach when it comes to fiscal policy - making responsible cuts to spending while prioritizing investments in jobs, opportunity, and a stronger middle class. Because of this balanced approach, we're on the verge of eliminating Maryland's long-standing structural deficit, we have achieved the No. 1 public schools in the country for five years in a row, and since 2007, we've done more than any other state in the nation to hold down the cost of college tuition.

I applaud the Call of Duty Endowment for its funding of employment services for veterans ("Amvets awarded $250,000 grant to open veterans career centers," March 20). But private generosity alone won't close the 5 percentage point employment gap between young vets and their civilian peers. Yet as with so many other necessary functions of government, gridlock in Washington imperils services for veterans. Budget cuts mandated by the sequester will de-fund housing aid, job training and other services veterans require.

Towson University President Maravene S. Loeschke's decision to discontinue the men's soccer and baseball programs and add men's tennis blew my athletic socks off and bruised my heart and soul ("Towson criticized for cutting sports teams," March 21). As a graduate of what was then known as Towson State Teacher College (Class of 1942), my experiences as a student athlete there had a big effect on my later life. From athletic director Donald I. Minnegan, for example, I learned to eradicate the word "no" from my vocabulary.

Gov. Martin O'Malley today released a $222 million supplemental budget that creates a "Gun Center," strives to save a baseball program and sets aside another $10 million in case federal sequestration cuts take a toll on Maryland. The governor designated $300,000 for the Towson University baseball program , scheduled to be eliminated of funding problems, to survive another year while the school works on fundraising. Even though the governor already added $153 million to the state's rainy day fund  with an eye toward what he called the "hara-kiri Congress," O'Malley added extra money.

Optimism might seem out of place after the Waterkeeper Alliance's bitter loss in a recent lawsuit to hold Perdue Farms and its grower Alan Hudson responsible for polluting waterways with poultry manure. But it's possible to at least be hopeful of solutions, perhaps within the current decade, to this widespread bay pollution. Reasons for hope were less likely when the lawsuit was filed three years ago. Witness a survey recently presented by University of Maryland ag scientist Kenneth Staver.

Proclaiming that ours are "fiscally challenging times" has become a mantra of elected officials. Their solutions range from cutting services and furloughing employees to raising taxes. Yet little attention is paid to the fat in the budget. When Baltimore County Councilman David Marks and County Executive Kevin Kamenetz met with Perry Hall residents, they wondered how overcrowding in schools could be alleviated during this "fiscally challenging time. " This was the same David Marks who vowed in his campaign that he would not take a county vehicle - yet replaced his car after it died with a county-owned vehicle.

A month after across-the-board federal spending cuts began, there are signs that one of the most troubling potential consequences for Maryland — the furloughing of federal employees — might not be as widespread as initially feared. But the state has not gone unscathed by the $85 billion in cuts known as sequestration, and some of the first tangible changes in the Baltimore area are beginning to emerge as federal services are trimmed. Fort McHenry in Baltimore and the Hampton National Historic Site near Towson plan to cut hours this summer, limiting visits by tourists.

Senior faceoff specialist Mike Poppleton will be a game-time decision for No. 12 Johns Hopkins' showdown with No. 4 North Carolina on Saturday. Poppleton, who has won 70.9 percent (100 of 141) of his draws this season, left Saturday's 15-8 victory over No. 13 Virginia with an unspecified injury shortly after winning four of six  faceoffs and scoring once. Poppleton did not return, and coach Dave Pietramala said a decision on Poppleton won't be made until Saturday. “He's good,” Pietramala said.

In his South Carolina speech, Gov. Martin O'Malley said we have "cut state spending big time" ("O'Malley takes a tryout in S.C.," March 24). Since July 2007, Maryland's population has increased less than 1 percent a year and inflation has averaged slightly over 2 percent annually. Yet the governor's first budget in fiscal 2008 was less than $30 billion, while his most recent submission, for fiscal 2014, is over $37 billion - about a 4 percent annual increase over his tenure. Thus state government spending adjusted for inflation has actually increased on a per capita basis.

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.