More News

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. and House Speaker Michael E. Busch on Friday defended Maryland's fiscal footing in the floundering national economy, saying Gov. Martin O'Malley has trimmed the state budget by $4.3 billion and 3,000 jobs.

Don't believe the hype, House Minority Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell and Senate Minority Leader Allan H. Kittleman countered.

The legislative leaders, speaking back-to-back during the Maryland Chamber of Commerce Business Policy Conference in Cambridge staked their early positions in a budget debate that is likely to dominate the 2010 General Assembly session.

"We cut $4.3 billion because that's the amount we wanted to spend," Kittleman (R-Dist. 9) of West Friendship told the assembled business leaders.

O'Malley (D) cut more than $700 million from the current budget over the summer and is assembling a list of another $300 million in cuts that he will propose to the Board of Public Works next week. Legislators will face a $2 billion budget gap for fiscal 2011 when they return to Annapolis in January.

"These are going to be very difficult and very trying times, all without new revenue," Miller (D-Dist. 27) of Chesapeake Beach said.

That includes no new gasoline tax, something Miller and the chamber both support. Miller has introduced a gas tax bill in past years, but O'Malley and former Govs. Parris Glendening (D) and Robert Ehrlich Jr. (R) all "shied away because of politics," he said.

Asked if it is time to increase the tax, Miller said: "It is, but unfortunately the votes aren't there."

"We've got to increase the gas tax," he said. "It won't happen this year. But, in my opinion, we'll have Republican votes as well as Democratic votes. It's a bipartisan issue. We're going to pass taxes not [in 2010] but the following year."

The state should not raise the gas tax — or any taxes — next year, said O'Donnell (R-Dist. 29C) of Lusby.

The state's reliance on about $2 billion in federal stimulus aid that has been made available to Maryland so far is also a concern, O'Donnell said.

"The state's going to be back next year with a piece of legislation that's going to expand eligibility for unemployment insurance even further," he said. "And it's all in pursuit of a siren song — the federal bailout money."

O'Malley mentioned the bill in a speech to the conference on Thursday night.

Expanding eligibility would make Maryland qualified to receive a $126.8 million infusion of federal aid to the state's unemployment insurance trust fund.

"But we've got to take the strings that are attached, which expands the eligibility," O'Donnell said. "When you expand the eligibility and those federal funds dry up, just like [with] our state budget, you're going to go off a cliff. That is happening across the board in this budget."

Busch (D-Dist. 30) of Annapolis defended the cuts taken by the Board of Public Work, saying the panel, which comprises the governor, comptroller and treasurer, has worked "in a very judicious way" to make "appropriate cuts" that maintain the state's priorities of education, health care and public safety, as well as its financial standing in the eyes of lenders.

"I think our fundamentals and our structure are very good," Busch said. "The national recession that is taking place is not the fault of Maryland or any other state. It's a national recession."