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Special Session – Governor’s Revenue Package/Budget Cuts
Dear Colleagues –As you are no doubt aware, Governor O’Malley has called a special session of the General Assembly to address the state’s $1.7 billion budget deficit. The session will begin on Monday, October 29, and run until a decision is made regarding potential new revenues and budget cuts.
To put it simply, the Governor has proposed a revenue package to allow Maryland to move forward that – while including some tax increases – would ultimately result in a smaller tax bill for most Marylanders. A summary of the Governor’s proposed package is online at http://www.gov.state.md.us/pressreleases/DeficitSolution.pdf and I encourage you to review it and make your own determination of what it would mean for you and your family.
This morning the Governor held a special cabinet meeting and a subsequent press conference outlining an alternative scenario – a “Cost of Delay” budget. The Governor made it clear that these cuts are “not his plan” or his preference. It is however a very bleak budget plan he will be forced to submit next January if a consensus on the revenue package is not reached.
This alternative -- the details of which are available at http://www.gov.state.md.us/pressreleases/CostOfDelay.pdf -- outlines more than $1.7 billion in cuts that will have to be made to balance the Fiscal Year 2009 budget if the General Assembly is unable to reach a consensus on new revenues during the special session. This alternative budget includes more than $850 million in cuts that impact local jurisdictions and an additional $800 million in cuts to state agencies and programs.
For our agency the impacts will be considerable and as proposed would include: Closure of eight state parks, and diversion to the General Fund of all Transfer Tax funds, including local funds and the entire stateside share of Program Open Space (POS) funds in FY ’09. Additionally, the proposal includes a 10% reduction in staff for all state agencies, except Public Safety and Higher Education agency workforces. For DNR this would be 135 permanent full time employees in addition to staffing losses associated with the loss of POS funds. The POS loss will by no means be insignificant, as that program currently funds a substantial number of DNR employees. Further, these reductions will apply to all funding sources.
While I’m sorry that I don’t have more specific information to share with you at this time, I wanted to notify you of what’s pending before you read it in tomorrow’s newspaper. For the rest of the week we will be working to provide more detail about the possible impacts of these cuts to services and programs to share with you and our stakeholders. In the meantime, I ask each of you to do your best to keep focused on your work and our mission. If you have any questions or comments please pass them up the line so we can do our best to respond. And please remember that we are all in this together.
I leave you with part of the Governor’s message from today -- in his own words:
“We believe we have a responsibility to be straight with Maryland families by honestly presenting the choices we face. So today we are releasing the outline of our FY 2009 budget – closing the $1.7 deficit we’ve inherited entirely through cuts – if we are unable to reach consensus during the upcoming special session. This is not an academic exercise. This is the Cost of Delay Budget. Over the last four years, the people of Maryland saw very clearly how easy it is for their government to bicker and accomplish nothing. But now is the time for us to come together in Annapolis, solve this structural deficit for the people we serve, and move our State forward.”
John
October 23, 2007