NJ mocks MD budget
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie took a swipe at Gov. Martin O’Malley’s budget in a recent address, saying that Maryland's $13 billion spending plan relies on “borrowing to cover current obligations” and “in doing so they are piling one problem on top of another, reducing the creditworthiness of their state, and creating a crisis that will be larger in the future.”
True Maryland is undergoing tough times. The state faces a $2 billion budget hole that O’Malley plugs using a combination of cuts and one-time accounting maneuvers. O’Malley borrows about $350 million from account that collects state income taxes to cover operating costs, a move that raised some eyebrows but did not impact the state's top credit rating.
Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown stressed that point when we asked his opinion. “Maryland has a triple- A bond rating,” he said. “We don’t take that for granted.” He also defended the state’s used of bonds, saying that debt is plowed back into the local economy. State-financed construction projects, he said, represent 16 percent of Maryland’s construction industry.
Some on the Senate Budget and Tax Committee are not so sure and are considering major cuts to O'Malley's budget. (Update: B&T cut about $120 million from O'Malley's plan, despite their tough talk.) Regardless of the in-state budget discussion, is Maryland even in the same league as New Jersey?
A call to Fitch revealed that NJ's GO bonds just got a AA- rating in December. Also that state now faces $10.7 billion hole in its $29 billion budget, according to Christie. “It is a massive deficit,” the NJ governor told his legislature. “The largest deficit of any state in America.”
They are closing Motor Vehicle offices one day a week, chopping nearly a $800 million from local school aid, increasing prescription drug co-pays for seniors and reducing tax rebates, according to the New Jersey Star Ledger's statehouse reporters who've compiled their budget related coverage here.
True Maryland is undergoing tough times. The state faces a $2 billion budget hole that O’Malley plugs using a combination of cuts and one-time accounting maneuvers. O’Malley borrows about $350 million from account that collects state income taxes to cover operating costs, a move that raised some eyebrows but did not impact the state's top credit rating.
Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown stressed that point when we asked his opinion. “Maryland has a triple- A bond rating,” he said. “We don’t take that for granted.” He also defended the state’s used of bonds, saying that debt is plowed back into the local economy. State-financed construction projects, he said, represent 16 percent of Maryland’s construction industry.
A call to Fitch revealed that NJ's GO bonds just got a AA- rating in December. Also that state now faces $10.7 billion hole in its $29 billion budget, according to Christie. “It is a massive deficit,” the NJ governor told his legislature. “The largest deficit of any state in America.”
They are closing Motor Vehicle offices one day a week, chopping nearly a $800 million from local school aid, increasing prescription drug co-pays for seniors and reducing tax rebates, according to the New Jersey Star Ledger's statehouse reporters who've compiled their budget related coverage here.
Comments
Maybe Gov Christie should get his own house in order before criticizing a state with a AAA bond rating, a smaller budget gap to close and stronger job growth than NJ. Md has its own set of problems, but there's no way that things are as bad here as in NJ.
Those in glass houses....
Posted by: kungpow12 | March 20, 2010 12:00 AM
Give me a break! Here you have a neophyte Governor ,who hasn't got his feet wet yet, from a state with one of the worse fiscal records in the 50 states hammering a Governor from a state with a long record of fiscal integrity. Maryland has had AAA rating for the last 60 years. They are in a rough patch like the other states now but they have had rough patches before. Maryland ,in the long run, will do what it takes to maintain there AAA rating.
New Jersey is a long way from attaining a AAA. Christie should stick to his own fiscal problems which are enough to keep him busy for a few years.
Posted by: Luthersomd | March 20, 2010 9:39 AM
Dixon had more fiscal integrity than O'Malley.
She only took an x-box, gift cards, and some fur coats.
Under O'Malley the City lost 100 million dollars in education funding. Vanished into thin air, and nobody knows where it went. And, guess what, nobody even brings it up. If Sheila was a white guy from one of the richest places in the world, Rockville, born with a silver spoon in her mouth things would have definitely worked out differently.
No doubt.
Posted by: Ballz Mahoney | March 20, 2010 3:04 PM
HaHa - Put this one in Wikipedia under "pot calls kettle black". NJ will never have a AAA bond rating. Their deficit is 10.7 Billion and growing and MD total state budget is 13 Billion and falling. In another year, the NJ deficit will be higher than the entire budget of MD.
Posted by: OldBay | March 20, 2010 4:18 PM
TALK ABOUT A GLASS HOUSE
The other jabroni posters shouldn't be laughing about Maryland's triple AAA rating.
300 young black men slaughtered in Baltimore City every year doesn't really matter, I guess, as long as these jabroni posters in Maryland can make a buck!!!
Is Maryland still a colony? The present is eerily similar to our past. Except the slave drivers wear white collars.
Posted by: Ballz Mahoney | March 21, 2010 11:44 PM
Ballz Mahoney says "300 young black men slaughtered in Baltimore City every year doesn't really matter, I guess, as long as these jabroni posters in Maryland can make a buck!!!
Is Maryland still a colony? The present is eerily similar to our past. Except the slave drivers wear white collars."
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What a neurotic over-the-top racist comment. The death toll off "young black men" is Baltimore City last year was 128. I doubt that more than 30% of those people killed were innocent bystanders. This state and many others is filled with greedy corrupt politicians. However to compare the current climate of this state to that of colonial times is crazy. How about you run for office and fix everything for us? FYI....I'd rather be wearing a white collar than and orange jumper.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 25, 2010 10:32 AM
The commenters here need a little perspective. What does NJ's finances have to do with the accuracy of Christie's statement? There's no question NJ is currently worse off than Maryland. I don't think Christie or anyone who isn't living in a hole would dispute that. However, he's actually doing something about it. It's certainly valid to dispute whether Maryland's actions are prudent going forward, and in that sense, Christie can be challenged. However, I would be willing to bet Maryland, like NY, like PA, like CT, like every other corrupt, pension filled nanny state is bloated and needs to stop whining about cuts and start making them.
Posted by: Marc | March 26, 2010 4:39 PM