MANDATE RELIEF - CURING SELF-INFLICTED BUDGET WOUNDS

Ten years ago, mandate reform was a major issue in state policy deliberations throughout the country.  State legislators sought relief from a multitude of federal mandates that required ever-increasing funding from state coffers.

Unfortunately, a decade later Maryland legislators face a different arena of budget mandates.  To paraphrase the cartoonist Walt Kelly's Pogo, legislators now say, "We have met the enemy  .  .  .  and he is us!" (Pogo website)

The General Assembly has passed numerous bills that require spending mandates and entitlements that must be included in each year's budget.  Certain mandates includes formulas that require annual increases in spending through an "automatic inflation adjusters."

Mandates and entitlements reduce the flexibility of budget committees in considering priorities for state funding each year.  Approximately 79% of the state-sourced portion of the budget consists of appropriations with a mandated amount or purpose. 

These self-inflicted mandates drive budget growth each year.  Over the past seven years, the Bridge to Excellence Act (a bill commonly known as "Thornton" that created a spending mandate with an automatic inflator which was passed by the General Assembly without a funding source) has fueled over $1.3 billion in ongoing increases to education spending in the state budget.

The Thornton funding has been such an onerous mandate that Governor O'Malley himself reduced education funding by freezing the automatic inflator through the Administration's Budget Reconciliation Act (Senate Bill 1) legislation passed during the 2007 Special Session.

Republican Senators are urging that long-term mandate reform be addressed this session.  It is also critical that federal stimulus funds not be used to support existing mandates and entitlements or else the existing state budget will be unsustainable when the federal funds expire in two years.

To view the Department of Legislative Services report "Update on Mandates and Mandate Reform" click here