Friday, Sept. 28, 2007
Odds favor an early November start, lobbyists and lawmakers say, but they still are not sure if the legislature will meet in a special session to decide whether to raise taxes and bring slot machine gambling to Maryland.
‘‘Quite frankly, it would take four or five weeks to be ready, [but] it’s warranted — we might be up to $2 billion in terms of the deficit,” said Senate Budget and Taxation Committee Chairman Ulysses Currie (D-Dist. 25) of Forestville.
The state could be losing as much as $80 million a month without budget trimming that could be done in a special session, said Currie, who held briefings in his committee on state finances and implications of tax changes this week.
The only reason for a special session is that the Democrats are ‘‘hellbent on raising taxes” instead of getting better control of the budget, said Senate Minority Whip Allan H. Kittleman (R-Dist. 9) of West Friendship.
Some Democrats, too, are not convinced the session is needed at all, despite prodding from Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Dist. 27) of Chesapeake Beach.
‘‘I’m not sure why we need to do this — it confuses the public,” said Del. Doyle L. Niemann (D-Dist. 47) of Mount Rainier. ‘‘In three of the last five years, we have cut $1 billion out of the budget. There’s nothing new in what we face this year.”
And the public needs an opportunity to weigh in, said Ellen Valentino, Maryland lobbyist for the National Federation of Independent Business. ‘‘There’s a lot to digest in such a short period of time.”
If lawmakers leave time for public comment, a special session would not begin until just before the regular session anyway, said Senate Minority Leader David R. Brinkley. That begs the question of whether it is needed at all, he said.
The state’s retailers oppose O’Malley’s plan to increase the sales tax from 5 cents on the dollar to 6 cents, said Thomas S. Saquella, president of the Maryland Retailers Association.
‘‘You can’t just be Dr. No,” he said. ‘‘If we don’t want to increase the sales tax rate, we’ve got to come up with an alternative.”
The issue of expanding the sales tax to previously untaxed services is of particular concern to small businesses, Valentino added.
Saquella suggested that the legislature hike the income tax instead. The sales tax has been increased three times since its inception, he said. Raising the sales tax is ‘‘not a good way, not a good long-term solution” to closing the deficit. ‘‘It’s highly regressive,” he said.
Brinkley does not trust some of the figures he has heard bandied about and believes Miller’s real motivation is to introduce slots, he said.
Like Saquella, Brinkley (R-Dist. 4) of New Market worries that shoppers will take their business out of state or to the Internet if sales taxes go up.
The retailers association supports slots and casino gambling, Saquella said, because gambling is an ‘‘economic generator [that] brings people into Maryland and keeps them from leaving Maryland.”
The proposed tax hikes would be ‘‘the most controversial item” on the agenda if legislators go into special session, he said.
One huge difficulty is getting the House and the Senate on the same page for a special session, Niemann said. To do that, lawmakers are going to expect something in exchange.
For instance, Niemann said, he and some Prince George’s delegates say state action to save Prince George’s Hospital Center needs to be on the special session’s agenda.
‘‘That has to be resolved,” agreed Del. Tawanna P. Gaines (D-Dist. 22) of Berwyn Heights, a member of the Appropriations Committee.
‘‘Otherwise,” Niemann said, ‘‘the hospital will be closed” because it has barely enough money to stay open into January.
Delegates also will want the sort of investment in health care and the environment contained in bills the House passed this year, even if the payoff is not final until April, Niemann said. The bills would have expanded health insurance coverage and established a Green Fund to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.
Budget balancing measures offered by the governor, if there is a special session, are likely to come in several bills, forecast Currie, adding that the multiple bill strategy is what he would recommend rather than an omnibus bill.
How long would such a session take?
Likely more than two days, likely not the 30 days to which extraordinary sessions are limited by the state Constitution, Niemann said.
‘‘The president of the Senate seems to think he can control whatever happens,” he said, explaining why deliberations might not be quick. ‘‘...[House Speaker] Mike Busch doesn’t have supreme control — he has to build consensus.”
For now, lawmakers are keeping their options open.
‘‘They’ve told us to keep our calendars open for the first weeks of November, but right now, it’s still a 50-50 chance,” said Sen. Nancy J. King (D-Dist. 39) of Montgomery Village.
