Governor wants $200M cut in 30 days

O'Malley begins push to fill $1.5B hole by seeking spending efficiencies

"We'll do everything we can to hold people harmless, but with the magnitude of coming up with $200 million in savings, there will no doubt be some layoffs," O'Malley (D) told reporters.

Budget Secretary T. Eloise Foster will give each department a reduction target.

Several of the public safety agencies, including the state police and juvenile services and corrections departments, will be spared, O'Malley said. They will be asked instead to roll back overtime allowances.

Closing the Maryland House of Corrections in Jessup has already yielded savings of up to $5 million a year, but O'Malley indicated that future cuts are likely to follow. "We have to do all we can to bring down our deficit right now," he said.

Legislators acknowledged the difficulty of making state government leaner at a time when demand for more spending is great.

"These are going to be tough cuts, but these are tough times," said Senate Budget and Taxation Chairman Ulysses Currie (D-Dist. 25) of Forestville. "Revenues are down, the housing market is in a major slump and the cost of energy is going up, so it's costing more to do less."

But Republicans and tax watchdog groups say the governor has done little to assuage fears of higher taxes.

"It's woefully inadequate ... unless you're planning on massive tax increases," said House Minority Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell (R-Dist. 29C) of Lusby. "It's not going to close the gap, it's not going to close the problem. It appears to be window-dressing."

"It appears to be a little sugar to make the pill go down easier," said Richard Falknor, executive vice president of the Maryland Taxpayers Association. "The governor should be commended for any sensible cut, but unless he makes systemic changes, it's not going to change a thing and we're going to be hit with a tax tsunami."

Even House Speaker Michael E. Busch is skeptical about how much fat O'Malley can wring from state government. "I'm not as enthusiastic suggesting that we're going to find those inefficiencies in state government," he said. "We did a pretty good job of scrubbing the budget during the first year of the Ehrlich administration."

And O'Malley must be careful not to make deep cuts that will cripple agencies, said Busch (D-Dist. 30) of Annapolis. "You've got to find out what those cuts mean ... and what it does to agencies."

O'Malley said he told Cabinet members not to cut just for the sake of cutting. "Don't engage in malicious obedience," he said.

Even so, House Economic Matters Chairman Dereck E. Davis (D-Dist. 25) of Upper Marlboro said the magnitude of the deficit means Marylanders will suffer to some extent.

"The deficit's just too large to think this can just be a painless process," he said.