Rainy Day

Already reviewing more than $2 million in suggested cuts and previously overlooked money sources that would balance next year's proposed $21.3 million budget without a tax increase, Westminster lawmakers are looking at further trims to give the city a cushion for the following year's spending plan. The Common Council's president said the time might have arrived to reduce the amount of money in the city's "rainy day" fund, and one of his colleagues said the city might be better off starting a line of credit.

Topics from pet droppings to dropping revenues occupied the Howard County Council at last night's monthly public hearing, the last gathering in the coun ty's 26-year-old Banneker hear ing room before renovations. Work will begin soon to raise the floor of the rounded, stadium-seating style chamber, to al low easier access for handi capped people. It should be complete by Sept. 16, when the council reopens after the hiatus next month. Meanwhile, the old room got one more dose of the kind of ev eryday issues that perhaps spawned the truism that "all politics are local."

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.

Gov. Martin O'Malley announced plans yesterday to freeze tuition at colleges and universities and nearly double funding for stem cell research, releasing an inaugural budget that would slow state spending growth but do little to prevent billions in shortfalls expected later in his term. Just one day after taking the oath of office, O'Malley presented his $30 billion plan for state spending, which relies on nearly $1 billion from the state's "rainy day" reserve account that had been boosted by former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. - but includes no tax increases.

Now what would vacation be without a few trinkets to remember the trip? There is a multitude of gimmicky t-shirts, cups and other pieces of beach memorabilia, but very few of the gimmicky trinkets allow for a personal touch. If you want that, grabbing telescope photos or "scopes" with your friends and family is the way to go. I know what you might be thinking. "Those things? The ones with the annoying people that run up to you on the beach and try to sell you pictures?" Yes, you might be right to a point, but stay with me. You are on vacation.

Washington. - After intruding on the breakfasts of innocent people for years, I happened, too late, upon a second-hand book titled ''How to Write Columns.'' I bought it, and stuck it on the shelf for a rainy day.Today's forecast includes afternoon showers, so:Olin E. Hinkle of the University of Texas and John M. Henry of the Des Moines Register and Tribune offered their advice to would-be columnists in 1952 via the Iowa State College Press, so it has a down-to-earth touch. They open with suggestions about column titles, for example ''Roamin' the Range,'' ''Farmer Peck's Wife,'' ''Rambling Roses and Flying Bricks'' and ''The Office Cat.''They have a chapter on ''Style -- and the Light Touch.

ANNAPOLIS -- Barely a month into the new fiscal year, a top Schaefer administration budget official warned yesterday that the state's only alternatives for reducing huge, new budget deficits this year and next are to increase taxes or to cut drastically the services offered by the state.Following a solid year of budget reductions that wiped out virtually every fund or significant pool of money that could be shifted to cover a shortfall, further cuts are likely to result in layoffs, possibly before the new fiscal year is out, said Frederick W. Puddester, deputy budget secretary to Gov. William Donald Schaefer.

Police sworn to protect us; we must reciprocateThese are prosperous economic times for the citizens of Howard County.With 2.3 percent unemployment, a resurgence in commercial and residential building, a rainy day fund in excess of $20 million and AAA bond ratings, we are frequently reminded of the accomplishments of our local officials.Howard continues to rank as one of the safest and wealthiest counties in the state and nation, attributes that continue to draw new residents to our planned communities and attractive surroundings.

MANCHESTER, England -- There is a story about Margaret Thatcher that is probably apocryphal but speaks volumes about the strength of Britain's first female prime minister, who died Monday at age 87. Following her election in 1979, the story goes that Mrs. Thatcher took her all-male cabinet out to dinner. The waiter asked what she would like. "I'll have the beef," she said. The waiter asked, "What about the vegetables?" "They'll have the same," Mrs. Thatcher replied. "Thatcher Saved Britain," read a headline in the Daily Telegraph.

Approaching Mother's Day on Sunday, Ticker presents today a few maternal and financial reminiscences:MOTHER & MONEY: My mother, Helen G. Westheimer, was a quiet, Victorian-type woman who often lectured me on money matters. Born on West Lexington Street in 1881 and daughter of Julius Gutman, a well-known local merchant, my mother grew up "to know the value of a dollar," as she put it. Some of her pet warnings: "Son, be sure to put away pennies for a rainy day . . . A penny saved is a penny earned . . . Julius, don't buy Boy's Life magazine for 20 cents when your father reads the Saturday Evening Post for a nickel . . . You don't need a car; I always walked from our home in the 1700 block of Eutaw Place across the North Avenue bridge to Goucher College every day, rain or shine, to save a nickel carfare."