State Revenues

State senators to begin debate on abortion banThe Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee approved a ban on so-called "partial-birth abortions" yesterday, sending the bill to what is expected to be an emotional battle on the Senate floor.Similar legislation passed the same committee last year, but was narrowly defeated in the full Senate. This year, after an election in which three moderate senators were ousted in part because of their votes against the abortion ban, the bill is expected to have a better chance of passage.

So how did Maryland manage to get itself into such a financial mess?Shifting employment trends, a tax system that does not address some economic changes and a nationwide economic recession all played a role in the continuing saga of the state's budget deficit.So has residents' support for certain programs, some of which the state agreed to pay for during the economic heyday of the 1980s.All together, those factors forced the governor and legislature to cut $660 million from the budget before July.

State workers, environmentalists and advocates for the disadvantaged called today for tax increases to avoid massive layoffs and deep program cuts proposed by Gov. William Donald Schaefer.Legislative leaders, however, say tax increases are unlikely and they agree with Schaefer that the $243 million deficit will force layoffs and deep program cuts."I think there will be layoffs," said Del. Charles J. Ryan, D-Prince George's, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. "I don't see how you can get an additional $250 million out of the budget without doing very substantial damage."

The new governor of California, Pete Wilson, is facing crippling budget problems that must make him wish he was still a senator back in Washington, talking instead of doing.Most governors, county executives and mayors would rather be someplace else these days than standing in the path of President Bush's newest offensive, ''Operation Deficit Storm.'Deficit Storm, the war going on at home, is based on an outdated bit of 1960s military theory that ended up being called the ''domino theory.'' America's leaders believed then that if one country, say Laos, went Communist, the one next door would inevitably fall, and then the next and the next and so on Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, India would all go Communist, all the way to San Diego, the city of which Wilson was mayor for a decade.

The beat goes on . . . the wheel of history continues to revolve . . . the state budget appears to continue to being faced with shortfalls.Well, what else is new? We've been hearing this same song since the summer of 1990.The governor has stated that he will cut "as much as the law allows" from local government to assist in meeting another $500 million in state budget reductions.Carroll County could be hard hit. Perhaps this time, Carroll County employees will have to take their furlough days -- just like their state counterparts have had to do during the past 12 months.

State layoffs on the horizon:Top state lawmakers said last week that they agree with the governor that layoffs are inevitable. But they could not say how many state workers would have to be laid off to solve the $243 million budget shortfall announced Thursday by state budget analysts.Gov. William Donald Schaefer said he favors laying off 1,800 state workers Jan. 1 to bridge the growing gap between state revenues and expenses.The governor outlined five plans to solve the deficit, including one that would throw 12,800 state employees out of work.

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.

NEW YORK -- At 6 o'clock most mornings I walk over to a candy store on 57th Street to buy an armload of newspapers. That is my addiction. To each his own.Usually I have to squeeze my $3 through a couple or a half-dozen men and women clustered around the colorful tickets and come-ons of the state's Lotto games. It's like ''Guys and Dolls'' without music around here. The scene triggers the puritan within me. My feelings are, I hope, more than the lingering fear that someone might have a good time.

Weary state legislators convene their annual, 90-day legislative session Wednesday hoping that their long budgetary nightmare -- $2 billion in spending cuts and the largest tax increase in state history -- is finally over.Groggy from a three-year-long financial ordeal, polarized by infighting and partisan fights over higher taxes, and emotionally drained by the politics of abortion and redistricting, General Assembly leaders believe they are about to awaken to calmer, better times."There's a feeling that we're starting fresh, starting all over again, rather than in the middle of a [four-year]

Legislative leaders, saddled with a new budget hole of $516 million and a deadline for balancing the budget, said yesterday that they might resort to additional furloughs for state workers and slashing aid to local governments that have largely been spared in previous rounds of spending cuts. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch laid out some budgetary options yesterday as the state's revenue forecasters officially reported that they now anticipate more than $1.1 billion less in tax revenue during the next 16 months.