Tax And Budget

Baltimore City officials must feel like abandoned orphans in the State House these days. Everywhere they turn, someone else is sticking a knife in their backs. Even their friends aren't doing them any favors.Gov. William Donald Schaefer, a devout city-lover, tried to help Baltimore in his state of the state address by announcing his plan for a diversion of 10 percent of the local piggyback income tax levy to the subdivision where each taxpayer is employed. This reformulation for distributing tax revenues would aid Baltimore and counties with big employment centers.

WASHINGTON -- On Friday, the only Republican member of the Congressional Black Caucus had had enough.But by yesterday, apparently, he hadn't had enough. And so, Rep. Gary Franks of Connecticut announced that he had changed his mind about resigning from the caucus, saying he had been "inundated with phone calls" over the weekend after disclosing his resignation plans.The straw that broke the camel's back -- at least temporarily -- apparently came last Wednesday. Mr. Franks was tossed out of the meeting at which the black caucus decided not to go to the White House the following day for a session with President Clinton.

Call it the continued wooing of Bobby Neall.More than 300 supporters of Anne Arundel County Executive Robert R. Neall shelled out $250 apiece last night on behalf of the could-be, might-be Republican candidate for governor in 1994.Or perhaps Mr. Neall will merely use that money to run for re-election as county executive next year.The problem is, he says he still is months away from deciding what he's running for next year.At last night's event an Annapolis hotel, Mr. Neall was introduced by state Sen. John A. Cade, an Anne Arundel County Republican who announced tongue-in-cheek that Mr. Neall would "make a momentous announcement."

Baltimore County workers have little chance of a general pay raise next summer, but police officers and a few others could be exceptions.With state and federal tax and budget cuts looming, County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger III says, "At this point, I don't see that there will be a pay raise" -- despite the wishes of union leaders who backed his election last year."

ANNAPOLIS -- Surprised by the unexpected scope of a half-billion-dollar tax package passed by the House of Delegates, Senate leaders yesterday began reviewing the massive proposal in search of compromise.The two houses will have to agree on state spending and a tax package to finance it by Monday at midnight, a week before the 90-day session adjourns and the constitutional deadline for enactment of the budget."I don't think the tax package enacted by the House is acceptable to a majority of the Senate," said Sen. John A. Cade, R-Anne Arundel, an influential member of the Budget and Taxation Committee.

The Survivor: President Clinton and His Times By John F. Harris. Random House, 504 pages, $29.95 There he was, just last week, larger than life, smiling cheerfully on the tabloid rack above the checkout line at the local supermarket. The headline belied his apparent good humor: "CLINTON MARRIAGE EXPLODES" it said. Below was a smaller image of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, looking grim. Bill Clinton is the man many Americans still love to hate and others still love, warts and all. Seldom has public opinion been so sharply divided over the worth and abilities of a president.

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve Board has virtually ruled out further interest rate reductions this year, despite the economy's persistent sluggishness, according to senior Fed officials.Sources at the Fed said the board now doubts the ability of lower rates to fuel the economy, fears the resurgence of inflation next year and is wary of some potential long-term political ramifications of further interest rate reductions now.The decision is certain to disappoint the White House, which has been counting on the Fed to cut interest rates and bail the country -- and President Bush -- out of the lingering slump before the 1992 election campaign begins in earnest.

With the nation bracing for a fall campaign between George Bush and Bill Clinton, it can expect both presidential candidates to start moving toward the center where the votes are. That's also where both of these politicians belong instinctively. President Bush is a non-ideological pragmatist who is no longer under compelling pressures to cater to the Buchanan right. Governor Clinton's true mooring are reflected in his long association with the Democratic Leadership Council, an elite group dedicated to shedding its party of leftist liberalism.

A bill in both the House and Senate requesting a $500,000 state grant to help finance the expansion of the Carroll County General Hospital emergency room is all but dead.The Senate Budget and Taxation Committee canceled its hearing on the bond bill, which was sponsored by Carroll Republican Sen. Larry E. Haines. The committee then voted Thursday to kill it.The House Appropriations Committee had a hearing on the bill, buthas yet to act on it. Carroll Del. Richard N. Dixon, an Appropriations Committee member and the bill's sponsor in the House, said the bill won't pass.

WASHINGTON -- Cardinal William H. Keeler, the elected head of the nation's Roman Catholic bishops, called yesterday for an alliance of his church with Jews, Muslims and Protestants to return "basic moral teaching" to the public schools.The proposal was one of six on an interfaith agenda for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops that the cardinal said were in line with Pope John Paul II's vision for the United States, expressed during last month's visit to the New York area and Baltimore.