Budget No Solution To Deficit

Governor O’Malley Introduces Budget That Fails to Achieve Solutions to State’s Deficit

For the third year in a row, Governor O’Malley introduced a budget plan that papers over Maryland’s budget deficit with one-year fixes of fund transfers and deferred spending. The Governor continues to plug the holes in the dam instead of providing the long-term structural repairs that are needed to solve the state’s gaping black hole of deficits.

This is in stark contrast to the promise made by Governor O’Malley just fourteen months ago when he assured a tax-shy legislators and the general public that the Special Session tax hikes would completely solve Maryland’s future deficits. See: http://www.gov.state.md.us/pressreleases/071015.html

While the Administration’s Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has consistently provided more optimistic budget projections than the legislature’s own Department of Legislative Services, even DBM’s out-year forecasts in this year’s budget highlights publication estimate that Maryland will be burdened by deficits in the range of $535 million to $713 million over the next four fiscal years.

After the raid on reserve funds that has occurred during the past three years, the state budget cupboard is bare. Governor O’Malley’s only hope at this point is for a humongous federal bailout to rescue the failed budget policy of his Administration.