How bad will the state budget get?
As if designed to illustrate Laura Smitherman’s front page story in the Baltimore Sun, the comptroller’s office today released March revenue figures that show the state continues to be on shaky financial footing.
While March income tax receipts were 2.2 percent higher than a year ago, the year-to-date growth is in the negative range – down 1.5 percent.
General fund sales tax collections fell 9.6 percent in March, and revenues from the lottery were down 2.6 percent, even though sales grew.
“Collections remain depressed relative to last year, consistent with current economic conditions and on par with expectations,” said Comptroller Peter Franchot. “I remain concerned, however, about the risks of a more rapid deterioration in revenues than currently expected.”
Comments
April 15th deadline + week or two for Comptroller to garner revenue numbers will be real telling. Remember the last 4 meetings of the Spending Affordability Committee have seen lowered revenue each time. The current state budget is balanced under the idea that the next meeting will have equal or greater revenue--something most analysts consider a vast shirking of responsibility.
Posted by: Believe | April 13, 2009 2:59 PM
The boy gov is holding his breath for Obama to save his ass again in 2 years.
O'Malley is a FAILURE for this state.
He PROMISED to fix the "structural deficit" THIS year.
Posted by: Fed Up | April 13, 2009 3:45 PM
It was nice to see the Governor took 30 minutes this afternoon to do a conference call with Maryland Democratic Party activists. Callers were even encouraged to call into MPT tonight and give the Governor some good (read: softball) questions.
Thank you for your leadership Gov. O'Malley that doesn't work sort of like the technical problems on the conference call.
Posted by: Leadership (that doesnt work) | April 13, 2009 4:38 PM