The Maryland General Assembly ended its session Monday at midnight without taking action on proposed revenue measures and passing a budget that will require $512 million in cuts beginning July 1.
The rancorous end to the session left Gov. Martin O'Malley and House Speaker Mike Busch fuming with their fellow Democrat, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr.
The Washington Post called the end of the Democratically-controlled General Assembly's 90-day session at midnight on Monday a “stunning collapse.”
The Baltimore Sun said the session ended in “disarray.”
Maryland Reporter's Len Lazarick wrote:
“O’Malley and House Speaker Michael Busch both blamed Senate President Mike Miller’s insistence on a gaming measure for Prince George’s County for holding up action. But others, including delegates and senators on the conference committee, said the hard philosophical positions on both sides played a role.”
Many lawmakers said O'Malley would likely call a special session to tackle the tax measures that were mostly not voted on before the $35.6 billion balanced budget was passed as required by law. But as the Maryland Reporter video shows, a visibly angry O'Malley made no such announcement early Tuesday morning.
According to The Washington Post, “Without passing any further instructions on spending or revenue, the state would be required to make more than $512 million in funding reductions to schools and state programs beginning July 1.” It would be the “first time in two decades” that the state's lawmakers ended the 90-day session with work remaining on the budget, the paper reported.
In Baltimore County, as Patch's , the abrupt end of the session killed the hopes of many that a partially-elected school board bill was going to receive a vote.
The Washington Post reported that the budget passed Monday “would cut 10 percent, or more than $60 million from higher education, likely necessitating higher tuition increases at state universities and local community colleges.”
“Funding for grade school students,” The Post reported, “would also be reduced by $111 per pupil. And grants to the state’s largest school districts would be cut entirely, accounting for nearly $129 million.”
Stay with Patch for more details.
A couple of items not all teachers use insurance. Second our county self insures. This means that essentially the insurance claims are paid by the pool of money collected from employees etc and than if there is an overage there is a policy that covers the county. If there is an underage there is a return. Since part of that money was contributed by the employee in the first place and it went unused than it would make sense to return it to those employees in the form of an insurance premium holiday. Taxpayers do not fund 100% of the benefits!!! Also remember the employee paid taxes on the part the county did pick-up. It is called the state pick-up.
If these budget experts cannot find ways to cut 1.4%, perhaps they are in the wrong business. Vote them out! Who says most of the cuts must come from the schools? Sounds like scare tactics to me.
.it is Constitutionally mandated in our state
I'm not sure who truly benefits from this plan, but OK.
According to this article: http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2012/04/05/maryland-casino-revenue-up-8-to.html. The state receives almost 8 million dollars each month from our casinos. So if there's 8 million EXTRA dollars each month that's supposed to go to education, why is there a shortfall? My guess is that gaming winnings go to the schools, but the money that formerly went to the schools, now goes somewhere else. Clearly a bait and switch is going on here. I'm surprised that a young aggressive news reporter, eager to make a name for himself/herself, doesn't crack this story and expose these dirty details.