‘‘Resolving the structural deficit and finding $400 million for the Transportation Trust Fund, that’s the only way you can define success,” Busch said.
With $250 million of the $400 million that O’Malley (D) calls for in his plan going toward maintenance, some lawmakers have said the legislature needs to set aside $600 million in order to make significant inroads in the $40 billion in unmet transportation project needs statewide.
The lack of a gasoline tax hike means that lawmakers will have to look elsewhere for the money.
‘‘I think in Montgomery County transportation funding is a huge issue, and the delegation will support in a very strong way anything to increase the transportation funding pot,” said Montgomery County House delegation Chairman Brian J. Feldman (D-Dist. 15) of Potomac.
School aid reformulated
The Senate Budget and Taxation Committee on Tuesday approved a Budget Reconciliation Act with significant changes in the way the state pays for education.
The committee voted to freeze the annual per-student amount spent on K-12 education, including a 1 percent supplemental increase in state aid for each school system.
It also voted that beginning in fiscal 2011 the state would factor inflation into the aid contribution using either the Consumer Price Index, a measure of consumer goods, or the Implicit Price Deflator, a measure of costs for state and local governments such as construction and salaries, whichever is less. The inflation increase could not exceed 5 percent.
‘‘I’m absolutely distressed,” said Bonnie Cullison, president of the Montgomery County teachers union. ‘‘I understand the fiscal constraints, but I don’t think they’re looking at all the options in getting revenue.”
Rumors swirled late Thursday that the formula could be tweaked yet again before final passage in the Senate.
In lieu of finding new revenue, school systems will have to rely on county funding or go without, Cullison said.
‘‘It’s absolutely a cut to the Thornton law,” she said. ‘‘If this passes both houses, it reduces the funding that we were promised.”
Buried in the bill
The Senate tax bill included a provision that would cap a ‘‘supersedeas bond” at $200 million for a tobacco company that lost a multibillion-dollar legal settlement.
Such bonds are issued when a defendant appeals a large judgment. And it prevents a company defaulting on a settlement in a bankruptcy. Forty-two other states have such a cap; Maryland’s would be the highest.
The measure raised eyebrows in the Senate.
‘‘I just don’t see the nexus between this and resolving this budget,” said Sen. Andrew P. Harris (R-Dist. 7) of Cockeysville.
Over in the House, the Judiciary Committee has voted down this measure for several years in a row.
The measure was a ‘‘blatant giveaway to Big Tobacco,” said House Minority Whip Christopher B. Shank (R-Dist. 2B) of Hagerstown.
‘‘It has no business being in special session and no business to be in a proposal to solve the structural deficit,” he said.
House Minority Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell called it a ‘‘shameless enriching of a special interest.”
‘‘What other snakes are hiding in the tall grass waiting to bite Marylanders?” asked O’Donnell (R-Dist. 29C) of Lusby.
Fighting for their share
As the Senate carves out the budget picture, lawmakers have been working behind the scenes to claim what they can for their home delegations.
One of the biggest local issues remains a potential bailout for the financially troubled Prince George’s Hospital Center. This week, the O’Malley administration rejected a plan that would have would have put $125 million over three years into the hospital system, which includes five sites managed by the Dimensions Healthcare Inc. Under the plan, Prince George’s County would have provided $50 million and the state $75 million.
The O’Malley administration called the plan unsustainable, said Prince George’s County House Chairwoman Barbara A. Frush (D-Dist. 21) of Beltsville. Now, Frush is asking her delegation not to show their position on votes as the session moves forward.
Prince George’s is not the only delegation trying to bring something home.
Baltimore city lawmakers are seeking a significant increase in the disparity grants the state provides poorer jurisdictions. The net result would be that Baltimore city’s state aid would rise by $30 million and Prince George’s County’s by $39 million.
‘‘Everybody is looking for gravy,” said Sen. Lisa A. Gladden (D-Dist. 41) of Baltimore, who has been working with the Legislative Black Caucus to push for the grants. ‘‘We don’t have the meat.”
Montgomery County lawmakers got what some saw as a concession in changes to the personal income tax structure, which would have most significantly affected Montgomery by taxing higher income levels.
O’Malley’s plan calls for a 6.5 percent rate for top earners and would raise $120.8 million in new revenue, after factoring in several proposed tax credits and exemptions.
The plan adopted by the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee this week would generate $187 million a year with a 5.5 percent rate for all incomes $500,000 or more a year. People earning $150,000 or more a year and joint filers earning $200,000 or more would be taxed at 5 percent. People earning less than $150,000 a year and joint filers with less than $200,000 would be taxed at the current 4.75 percent rate.
‘‘Coming down from 6 percent, I think is a big victory for us,” said Sen. Nancy J. King (D-Dist. 39) of Montgomery Village. ‘‘They wouldn’t have done it without Montgomery County complaining about it.”
The higher tax brackets harm not only Montgomery County, but the whole state because upper-income earners might flee to Virginia, taking their share of tax revenue with them, said Del. Benjamin F. Kramer.
‘‘We didn’t come here looking to close a budget deficit and start buying off other jurisdictions when we’re the ones most adversely affected by the income tax proposal,” said Kramer (D-Dist. 19) of Derwood.
O’Malley and Busch encouraged lawmakers to focus on the $1.5 billion deficit.
‘‘I think everybody’s got to concentrate on the problem that’s in front of them, not on their own parochial interests,” Busch said.
‘‘I know that in all of this everyone will naturally, and should ask, ‘How does this affect me?’” O’Malley said Wednesday. ‘‘I think also a question that we have to ask, of equal importance, is ‘How does all of this affect us?’”
An end in sight?
Republicans spent Wednesday and Thursday making their point that new taxes are unwanted.
Their discontent did not change as the debate over taxes dragged into Thursday evening.
‘‘It went from a poison pill to a poison bowling ball, and they’re asking the voters to swallow it,” said Senate Minority Leader David R. Brinkley (R-Dist. 4) of New Market.
On Wednesday, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. predicted the session could last another week.
‘‘I think we’ll be out of here by next Wednesday, I hope,” said Miller (D-Dist. 27) of Chesapeake Beach ‘‘If we aren’t able to get out of here by Wednesday, I’m ready to wave the white flag.”
Staff Writers Douglas Tallman and Alan Brody and Capital News Service reporter Andy Zieminksi contributed to this report.
