Revenue

Maryland Cabinet secretaries will soon get orders to identify up to $300 million in cuts to absorb a revenue shortfall in the state's $6.4 billion general fund budget.The cuts are likely to be deep -- and could include employee layoffs. They will also be hard to make because there are few budget reserve funds to fall back upon, according to Fred Puddester, Gov. William Donald Schaefer's deputy budget chief.So far, the state has avoided massive layoffs. Asked about the issue yesterday, Schaefer said his intention is to "keep people working."

A national economic meltdown has sucker-punched Maryland, according to state revenue numbers released yesterday portending major budget cuts in previously protected areas such as public safety, education and health care. A grim-faced Gov. Martin O'Malley issued an executive order requiring about 67,000 state workers to take up to five days of unpaid leave, and he said a projected $1.9 billion revenue gap in next year's budget could require state worker layoffs.

Baseball owners got together in Chicago this past week to discuss the economic state of the game and explore ways -- short of collusion -- to bridge the widening gap between the big-revenue and small-revenue teams.They did not reach any hard-and-fast conclusions, and they certainly did not publicly propose another all-out war with the Major League Baseball Players Association over cost control, but they did make it clear that the competitive crisis that they predicted in the early 1990s has come to pass.

Micros Systems Inc., the Columbia company that makes technology for the hospitality industry, reported yesterday that its earnings rose 46 percent in the fiscal third quarter as revenue hit a record. The company reported net income of $5.4 million, or 31 cents per diluted share, for the quarter that ended March 31. That compares with a net income of $3.7 million, or 21 cents per diluted share, in the third quarter last year. The earnings beat analysts' expectations by a penny, according to consensus estimates.

Maryland lawmakers have agreed to plug the state's projected revenue deficit by cutting up to $125 million from various agency budgets and emergency funds.Gov. William Donald Schaefer joined House and Senate leaders and other state officials yesterday in calling the proposed cuts "regrettable" but necessary to balance the budget before the current fiscal year ends June 30.The agreement taps into a wide spectrum of state programs, but does not include layoffs or furloughs of state employees.

Political advertising that could reach record levels is expected to boost revenue this year for Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., the company said yesterday. Sinclair, which owns and operates television stations in 35 markets, said net broadcast revenue from continuing operations will likely grow to between $160.2 million and $162.5 million in the first three months of 2008, compared with net revenue of $148.3 million in the first quarter of 2007. The projected increase for the broadcaster, which owns affiliates of FOX, MyTV, ABC, CW, CBS and NBC, assumes a jump in political advertising as well as an estimated $5 million in revenue from advertising during the Super Bowl.

USinternetworking Inc. said yesterday that its second-quarter net loss nearly doubled, while revenue surged 292 percent. The Annapolis-based company, which leases packaged business management software over the Internet to such clients as US West and Hershey Foods Corp., said for the quarter that ended June 30 it booked a $42.0 million net loss, or 43 cents a share, on revenue of $26.2 million. Analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research, a ratings service, had expected a loss of 44 cents per share in the quarter.

Wall Street hammered shares of United Therapeutics Corp. yesterday, pushing them down 62 percent after the company announced revenue projections analysts considered anemic and said two key executives would depart. The sell-off came amid another day of bad news for biotechnology stocks, with the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index falling 40.54 points to close at 1,046.93. Shares of United Therapeutics lost $29.69 to finish at $17.94 in the first day of trading since the Silver Spring company announced Friday that it expected revenue of $10 million to $20 million next year, far below what had been projected by analysts.

After a dismal start last summer, the Maryland Lottery closed out its fiscal year with a record $392.5 million in revenue, officials of the state-run numbers game said yesterday.That total exceeds last year's $390.5 million, also a record, despite a dip in sales, which fell to $1 billion from last year's $1.1 billion.The fiscal 1997 revenue includes $361 million for the state's general fund and $31.5 million reserved for stadium projects.The final total slightly exceed the most optimistic forecasts of Buddy Roogow, the lottery director, when he testified June 3 before the Senate Finance Committee.

SafeNet Inc., which provides security to companies that do business over the Internet, said yesterday that its fourth-quarter earnings and revenue broke company records. The Baltimore County company reported net income of $2.7 million, or 36 cents per diluted share, for the quarter that ended Dec. 31, compared with a net loss of $643,000, or 11 cents per diluted share, for the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year. SafeNet's revenue for the quarter was nearly double that of the 1999 quarter, rising from $4.5 million to $8.9 million.