Debt Service

Counter-cyclical stimulus spending makes sense during business cycle recessions, which is not the kind of recession we're currently in. We're recovering from a single event - the 2008 collapse of America's debt-based economic model after a spending binge that was, admittedly, quite fun while it lasted. Once consumers get their debt loads down to manageable levels, they'll begin spending again, which is projected to happen in 2015 - unless, of course, 2015 comes and the governments owe so much money that taxes have to be significantly raised to pay back years and years of "stimulus.

The Sun investigation into the Homestead tax credit and its impact on the city ("Distorted discount," Dec. 18) perpetuates the fiction that the Baltimore property tax rate (2.268 percent) is "at least double that of any other jurisdiction in Maryland. " I am looking at my current Howard County property tax bill and I am obliged to pay a total of 1.230 percent for county tax, fire protection, and ad valorem (debt service on county bonds and operation of the county water and sewer system)

Baltimore officials plan to introduce legislation Monday seeking City Council approval to issue up to $305 million in revenue bonds for a convention headquarters hotel that would be developed and owned by the city. In a lengthy briefing with council members yesterday, a phalanx of city development, tourism and finance officials as well as financial advisers and consultants defended the plan to publicly finance the proposed 752-room Hilton, which they said was essential to boost the Baltimore Convention Center's sagging bookings amid stiff national competition.

The Baltimore County Revenue Authority is reopening negotiations on its agreement with developers of Towson Circle III and plans to talk with the new county administration about its commitment to the project after a financial analyst raised questions about the deal. On Thursday, the authority postponed a vote on a pact covering its role in financing an underground parking garage for the movie theater, store, restaurant and office complex along East Joppa Road. Instead, the authority held a 15-minute closed-door session to consider new proposals from the developers, Heritage Properties Inc. and the Cordish Cos. Donald P. Hutchinson, chairman of the authority, which runs parking garages, public golf courses and an indoor recreation center, would not discuss details of the developers' proposals.

This is an excerpt of a New York Times editorial published Friday.LAST YEAR, when Uganda became the first country to get some relief of its external debt under a new program of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, it used the money it saved largely to eliminate fees charged for primary school. The impact was dramatic.While two years ago 54 percent of Uganda's children attended primary school, this year 90 percent do. In contrast, neighboring Zambia, which spends five times more each year on debt service than on primary education, had to raise school fees.

The April 20 Sun editorial regarding the maintenance of effort law ("Leopold's accounting trick") requires a response. As a member of the House of Delegates 25 years ago, I sponsored legislation, which was enacted, that strengthened the maintenance of effort law, and I have long been aware of the spirit of the law that local government should use state dollars to supplement, not supplant, county funding. The law, however, runs headlong into the harsh reality in Anne Arundel County where over the past six years the Board of Education budget has increased 17 percent while all other county agencies' budgets, in the aggregate, have decreased 7 percent.

PROJECTIONS of federal budget surpluses continue to grow and so does the inexorable urge among politicians to cut taxes.Even though the surpluses have yet to materialize, Republicans are calling for as much as $1 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade, an imprudent strategy.Recently, the normally cautious Congressional Budget Office knuckled under to GOP pressure and raised its projected federal surplus in the coming decade to $1.55 trillion from $671 billion. After decades of staggering deficits, this reversal is most welcome.

Although tuition will stay the same, students at Maryland's public university campuses will pay up to 8 percent more for housing next year. The university system's Board of Regents approved charges for room, board, parking and other services at its meeting yesterday at the University of Baltimore. Charges for room and board will go up at all but one of the state campuses that offer housing. There will be no increase at Bowie State. The housing increases vary depending on the campus and the type of room.

The operators of Baltimore's city-owned Hilton gathered Thursday to defend the hotel's financial reputation, saying it has enough cash to cover its costs and emphasizing that city taxpayers are not on the hook for expenses or losses. Last year, the hotel lost $11.5 million. Most of that loss, about $9.6 million, can be attributed to accounting requirements, which do not represent cash losses, said M.J. "Jay" Brodie, who heads the Baltimore Hotel Corp., which oversees the Hilton's finances.

County department heads asked County Executive Charles I. Ecker lastweek for $277 million to fund a fiscal 1993 operating budget that includes no new programs or salary increases.The request is 2.5 percent more than the County Council approved last year and $14 million more than Ecker's financial advisory committee says the county can safely budget for the coming year. The fiscal year begins July 1.Ecker will hold a public hearing on the proposals at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.The $151.3 million requested by the Board of Education accounts for 55 percent of the budget.