Brinkley-Pipkin Bill Provides Road Map to Solve Structural Deficit

Under the rubric of “Yes We Can,” Senators David Brinkley (R – Frederick and Carroll) and EJ Pipkin (R-Upper Shore) have introduced a bill that forces systemic reductions in state spending to cure out-year structural deficits. At a joint hearing in Annapolis, they offered Senate Bill 1004 – The Budget Reconciliation and Balancing Act as a “good faith” effort to put everything on the table to prove that Maryland can solve the budget chaos of Governor Martin O’Malley’s proposals.

“The Governor’s budget relies on one-time actions that will not carry forward into fiscal 2012,” said Senator Brinkley. “Our plan addresses the long-term budget problem.”

Senator Pipkin stated, “The Administration has bought time, but not budget stability with this fund shifting and borrowing. Our budget plan says, ‘Yes We Can’ fix the Maryland budget without raising taxes.”

Both Senators described their process in crafting a budget plan as a “kitchen table” approach of scouring the budget for ways to reduce spending. Their alternate budget proposal has two key goals:

·         Make significant progress this year in addressing the underlying imbalance between State revenues and spending; and

·         Avoid the need for significant tax increases in future years by laying the groundwork to bring state spending in-line with the existing revenue stream over a multi-year period.

By taking significant steps to further reduce spending in fiscal 2011, the Brinkley-Pipkin plan buys additional time to constrain spending to the existing available revenues without the need to raise taxes.

A key feature of the plan is the elimination of built-in statutory increases in state programs. This feature and an additional $75 million in spending constraint over the next three years would allow current revenues to “catch-up” with spending, thereby bringing ongoing spending and revenues into balance.

This year’s O’Malley budget proposal has out-year deficits of $1.75 billion in FY12; $2.14 billion in FY13 and $2.13 billion in FY14. If adopted, the Brinkley-Pipkin plan would have fund balances instead of deficits over the next four years.

To review the full bill, click here.