How do you cut a budget that doesn't exist?
One of the key objections some lawmakers have raised to the current special session of the legislature has cropped up in this morning's debate over spending cuts, namely that it's tough to pass legislation to balance the budget when the governor has not yet actually submitted the budget. The spending plan that the state is under now is balanced through June 30 of next year, and all the debating going on right now is over ways to fix the budgets of next year and beyond. Spending and revenue projections show those will be seriously out of whack.
Make no mistake, Republicans are all for solving that problem by holding down spending. But they're a little wary of the budget cutting (or "cutting," if you prefer) that the Democrats are currently proposing on the House floor.
Del. Anthony J. O'Donnell, the minority leader from Southern Maryland, stood up on the House floor this morning to question what exactly legislators are being asked to vote for. The nearly $500 million in spending reductions the Appropriations Committee approved yesterday don't actually cut any current spending, he said, but instead amount to requests or suggestions for Gov. Martin O'Malley to slow spending growth when he actually introduces the budget in January.
"We can’t do anything to his budget," O’Donnell said. "He hasn’t presented it to us yet."
O'Donnell suggested instead that the legislature tell O'Malley an amount to cut, as the Senate did, but leave the details up to him.
Democrats countered that some of the cuts they identified really do amount to actual eliminations of programs, but they said they are also confident O'Malley will go along with the rest. (And if he doesn't, Del. Norman Conway, the appropriations chairman pointed out, the legislature can just cut the budget again.)
"I wish I shared your confidence in the governor," O'Donnell said.
"Your confidence will grow," Conway responded.
Comments
The whole things seems out of order. Nowhere have I been able to find any info on what is creating the deficit. There is no budget. The only people doing thier jobs are the taxpayers who are supposed to gleefully part with thier money as businesses leave. Before we tax local businesses more, let's close the loophole that allows large business to exempt profits in MD. Everything seems haywire. Also, the Sun seems to be protecting O'Malley. It is all suspect.
Posted by: Christian Dunn | November 13, 2007 1:18 PM
Ok, let's do some math.... $1.4 million in tax increases and $500 million in cuts (or more accurately, REDUCTION in INCREASED spending) equals $1.9million to fix an ESTIMATED $1.7million gap??? and that is NOT including any revenues created from the slots (when approved)... HUM, maybe we do need more educational spending. Obviously our legislators cannot do simple math!
Posted by: Bruce keener | November 13, 2007 3:59 PM