Summit speech praises Charles’ prudent growth

Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2007

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photo by Gary Smith Gov. Martin O’Malley speaks Tuesday at the Charles County Economic Summit held in Waldorf. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Hours before delivering the keynote address Tuesday at the Charles County Economic Development Summit, O’Malley outlined a list of cuts broken down by jurisdiction that would be necessary to unsnarl the projected $1.7 billion deficit if no action is taken

Charles County would lose about $19 million in state aid under the ‘‘Cost of Delay” budget that O’Malley unveiled at a news conference in Annapolis to highlight the severity of reductions that counties would face if lawmakers do nothing.

During a 25-minute address to more than 300 Charles County business leaders, O’Malley (D) praised local officials for their work in pursuing economic development opportunities.

‘‘You’d have to be really numb not to be bowled over by what Charles County is doing,” he said. ‘‘... I think we have tremendous opportunities, even in the face of the challenges we have, and they are many.”

But if the deficit is not addressed now, it would force deep cuts that would jeopardize future progress.

‘‘There are many people who have been out there saying the very simple and popular refrain that we should just do this all with cuts,” O’Malley said after the summit. ‘‘The problem is when nearly 85 percent of your budget is public education, health and public safety, the places that you would be forced to cut in trying to make up a $2 billion gap in a $15 billion operating base are all the things that ... local governments depend upon in order to deliver the quality of life that their people deserve.”

The cuts would have a profound effect on local government’s ability to provide services, said Charles County commissioners’ President F. Wayne Cooper (D).

‘‘We do not want to see the budget balanced on the backs of the counties,” he said. ‘‘... Everything would come to a standstill, and that’s regression, not progression.”

A large chunk of the $19 million reduction to Charles County in fiscal 2009, which begins July 1, is already on the table. O’Malley (D) has proposed freezing an inflation index built into the 2002 Thornton school funding law, which would cost the county about $6.9 million in anticipated state aid.

The delay budget shows Charles would stand to lose an additional $1 million in aid to schools, $2.5 million by withholding a utility property tax grant, $1.7 million by freezing retirement payments for teachers and librarians, $1.2 million for parks, about $775,000 for the College of Southern Maryland, close to $500,000 for substance abuse programs and about $120,000 in police aid.

The county would also lose $3.25 million in entitlement funding for programs such as Medicaid and foster care.

All told, O’Malley would have to cut $886.2 million in aid to the counties with Baltimore and Prince George’s County bearing more than 40 percent of the cuts.

The budget plan also trims other state programs by $791.5 million. That would mean layoffs of 10 percent of the nonpublic safety and higher education work force, producing $136.9 million in savings. It also would mean a loss of $110 million for the University System of Maryland.

‘‘The price of doing nothing is too great for our state,” O’Malley said.

Republicans, who have proposed slowing the rate of spending to combat the deficit, dismissed the ‘‘delay budget” as a scare tactic to convince wary Democrats to embrace tax increases over large cuts.

‘‘There’s not a consensus here. He’s trying to scare people into consensus and that’s not going to work,” said Senate Minority Whip Allan H. Kittleman (R-Howard, Carroll).

To cover the shortfall between projected spending and expected revenues, O’Malley has proposed a penny increase in the sales tax, a 14 percent increase in the corporate income tax, a doubling of the tobacco tax, separate tax brackets for the wealthiest Marylanders, the closure of two corporate tax ‘‘loopholes” and a 20 percent increase in the vehicle titling tax.

O’Malley also wants lawmakers to legalize slot machines, but opposition in the House of Delegates has led him to talk about letting voters settle the matter in a referendum next year.

The governor will address the General Assembly in a joint session Monday night before committee hearings are held throughout the week.

‘‘I’m convinced that the general public ... understands the sort of damage that would be done to our quality of life by cutting $2 billion out of essential programs ... and thereby greatly cutting your local government’s efforts,” said O’Malley.

‘‘I don’t believe they would choose that to the alternative that we’ve advanced as a fair and comprehensive budget reconciliation.”

Staff writers Douglas Tallman and Sean R. Sedam contributed to this report.

E-mail Alan Brody at abrody@somdnews.com.