Revenue Estimates

The Baltimore County Council grilled the county's top school officials yesterday about why they need $6.1 million more than they originally requested to run the schools this year.Superintendent Anthony G. Marchione said that the deficit -- discovered in December -- is largely the result of excessive costs for personnel and special education.But council members peppered Marchione with questions during a work session yesterday about why he didn't alert them sooner than January about the deficit, whether administrative cuts would cover it and who is responsible for the shortfall.

Baltimore County hopes to begin cashing in next fall on motorists who run red lights.With the county set to install video cameras at 35 intersections to capture red-light runners on tape, officials estimate that police will collect $4.8 million more in fines issued to motorists in the coming year.The cameras will be installed by next fall, and the budget estimate is based on a fine of $70 per ticket, said Baltimore County budget director Fred Homan, after a County Council briefing on the proposed $1.7 billion county budget.

State revenues are pouring in at such a robust pace that Marylanders will likely enjoy a new round of tax cuts this year, key lawmakers said yesterday.Adopting a distinctly partisan tone on what could be the No. 1 pocketbook issue in this year's election, Gov. Parris N. Glendening and legislative leaders said they were working on a Democratic tax relief package to be enacted before the General Assembly adjourns April 13.While no consensus has emerged, lawmakers said a tax plan would likely accelerate the five-year, 10 percent income tax cut passed last year and include new tax relief for the working poor.

Just as stock owners have found they are not the geniuses they supposed, so too are government financiers fixing for comeuppance.Flush treasuries have prompted high-fives and hot pockets in capitals across the land.President Clinton heralded the federal budget surplus for fiscal 1998 as the breaking of "the spell that had gripped America" for three decades.In Maryland, the brimming till prompts more tax-cut talk and glimmers of new programs.But, before the money is spent, it's worth bending down to see which pipes it's coming from and how full the tanks are at the other end. Maybe not that full.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening all but abandoned yesterday a proposal he floated in the last days of his re-election campaign to use the state's budget surplus to accelerate a 10 percent income tax cut for Maryland residents.The governor refused to make any commitments yesterday, even as he was presented with new revenue estimates projecting a surplus of $195 million -- higher than the $173 million that had been projected when he made the suggestion in October.He indicated other issues are a higher priority than speeding up the tax cut."

An article in The Sun yesterday overstated one of the responsibilities of the Maryland comptroller's office. The comptroller is responsible for overseeing all tax revenue taken into the state treasury. The remaining 30 percent of the state's revenue is handled directly by the Maryland treasurer's office.The Sun regrets the error.Louis L. Goldstein made being comptroller of Maryland's treasury look easy.The reality is that the comptroller's office is a complex and powerful department, a huge operation -- 1,150 employees and a $93.7 million annual budget -- that oversees all the money that comes into and goes out of the state treasury.

HERE'S ONE problem Gov. Parris N. Glendening doesn't mind grappling with. After three lean years, in which the governor scrambled to hold down spending, Maryland's chief executive finds himself in Fat City. Now his problem is dealing with all the supplicants seeking some of the state's $260 million estimated surplus.lTC The Board of Revenue Estimates confirmed on Monday what economists had been proclaiming: Maryland is finally a full participant in the nation's economic surge. Stock market profits, solid job growth and tight labor markets contributed to a projected 6.2 percent growth rate in income-tax collections for the year ending next June 30. That's $204.

Key lawmakers yesterday ruled out a cut in state income taxes this legislative term after the release of gloomy revenue estimates that were dragged down by the federal budget stalemate and the region's harsh winter weather.The Board of Revenue Estimates yesterday dropped its projection of state revenue by $55 million for the current fiscal year and $77 million for the budget year beginning in July -- reductions that make a tax cut impractical, legislators said."I think they [the projections]

GIVEN MARYLAND'S precarious economy and the continuing deadlock in Washington over the size of budget cuts affecting the states, it's hard to make a solid case for a major income-tax cut in Annapolis. Gov. Parris Glendening is going to have enough troubles presenting a balanced budget on Wednesday without having to cope with the loss of a quarter-billion dollars needed to lower state income tax rates.Thus, it was not surprising that Mr. Glendening said he would wait until March before deciding if the state can afford a tax cut this year.

MARYLAND'S Board of Revenue Estimates has sent a mixed message to Gov. Parris N. Glendening. The state's economy is slowly strengthening, the board concluded last week, but don't expect the pace to quicken. Look for "steady, but unspectacular" increases in jobs and in tax revenue from now through the year 2001.This state is inching ahead on the economic front at less than half the rate of high-growth years. New jobs are being added at about 1.4 percent a year -- a pittance compared with a decade ago. Tax revenues over the next two years will rise only about 3.3 percent.

Maryland faces a projected budget shortfall of nearly $2 billion next year, far more than expected, the state Board of Revenue Estimates reported Thursday. The gap means that the cycle of wrenching cutbacks will continue. Budget Secretary T. Eloise Foster said the widening gap became clear when updated projections showed a $920 million drop from previous revenue estimates, on top of the expected shortfall of more than $1 billion. The numbers form the foundation of the spending plan that Gov. Martin O'Malley will release in January, which by law must be balanced.

As the Baltimore County Council debates the details of a bill to implement speed cameras, two things should be clear to everyone. First, anyone who drives more than 11 mph over the posted speed limit in a school zone deserves a speeding ticket. Second, whenever the government tells us that speed cameras "are not about the money," it's time for us to hide our wallets. Baltimore County's speed camera program is designed to change driving behavior by issuing tens of thousands of tickets, resulting in the collection of millions of dollars in fines.

Gov. Martin O'Malley warned yesterday of a fresh round of budget cuts to account for tumbling state revenue forecasts that are far lower than just three months ago, leaving a roughly $515 million shortfall next year. In an interview, the Democratic governor said a tax revenue estimate set for release today is "in essence sending us back to the drawing board" to craft a balanced budget. O'Malley said "it is my hope" to avoid state worker layoffs, and pledged to "do my best to defend" a continued tuition freeze at public universities.

Gov. Martin O'Malley warned yesterday of a fresh round of budget cuts to account for tumbling state revenue forecasts that are far lower than just three months ago, leaving a roughly $515 million shortfall next year. In an interview, the Democratic governor said a tax revenue estimate set for release today is "in essence sending us back to the drawing board" to craft a balanced budget. O'Malley said "it is my hope" to avoid state worker layoffs, and pledged to "do my best to defend" a continued tuition freeze at public universities.

Maryland voters listening to the debate over legalizing slot-machine gambling in the state might be feeling a bit of deja vu - from the 2000 presidential race. Back then, George W. Bush and Al Gore frequently lobbed accusations of "fuzzy math" when attacking each other's proposals for health care, taxes and Social Security. Now, as voters prepare to head to the polls for the November slots referendum, the pro- and anti-slots camps are having a similar dispute over the amount of money slot machines would generate.

A state Senate committee approved more than $300 million in preliminary reductions to Gov. Martin O'Malley's budget yesterday, and some lawmakers said the weakening economy will force the General Assembly to cut hundreds of millions more. While legislators worried about sagging tax revenues, a plan to rescind the $200 million-a-year computer-services tax that they approved in November's special General Assembly session appeared to be gaining momentum. The idea of replacing the levy with a temporary income tax surcharge on the wealthy is in its early stages, but Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, who had previously rejected overturning the computer tax, hinted that it might succeed.

Maryland's tax collections are coming in on target this year, according to newly released state figures, but Board of Revenue Estimates members cautioned that the economic picture remains uncertain. The latest estimates are in line with those that state lawmakers used as the basis for tax increases and recommended cuts in future spending they enacted during last month's special session, meaning that barring an economic slowdown or huge new spending programs, the state will not likely return to the days of projected deficits anytime soon.

Maryland's Board of Revenue Estimates said yesterday that tax collections will be about $50 million less than expected in the current fiscal year and the next, a further sign that softening in the economy will exacerbate the state's budget problems in the next few years. Some fiscal leaders in Annapolis had worried that the revenue drop-off would be much worse, forcing Gov. Martin O'Malley and the General Assembly to make immediate, deep reductions to the current budget and the one now being debated in the legislature.

New state revenue estimates show an uptick in tax collections in January, good news for Maryland officials who had feared that lackluster receipts would force them to deeply cut this year's budget and rethink the spending plan now under debate in Annapolis. Estimates of income, sales and other taxes released by the Bureau of Revenue Estimates this week show state revenues are up by about 2.9 percent for the period running from July through January. The growth rate for July through December had been a percentage point lower, a trend that would have blown a $100 million hole in the current budget if it had kept up for the rest of the fiscal year.

Impeachment measure rejected The House Judiciary Committee has rejected a proposal to impeach a Baltimore judge who sided with 19 gays and lesbians and ruled that Maryland's marriage law discriminates against same-sex couples. The committee voted 20-3 late Thursday night that a proposal from Del. Donald H. Dwyer, an Anne Arundel County Republican, had no merit. Voting with Dwyer were Del. Tanya Thornton Shewell, who represents Baltimore and Carroll counties, and Del. Christopher B. Shank of Washington County.