O'Malley Suggests Layoffs, Slashing Vacant Positions; Proposal Excludes Raises for State Workers
Gov. Martin O'Malley announced a budget proposal yesterday that seeks to overcome a $2 billion shortfall next year by laying off 700 state workers, eliminating 1,000 vacant positions and paring spending across a wide swath of government in response to the national recession.</br></br>Under O'Malley's $14.4 billion spending plan, state workers would get no salary increases next year. Community colleges would not receive expected funding increases, which would be likely to lead to tuition increases. The phase-in of a subsidized health initiative would be slowed down, delaying planned coverage to adults without children.</br></br>An education program that benefits Montgomery and Prince George's counties would be scaled back. And state payments to nursing homes and doctors would be frozen at current-year levels.</br></br>"We're making more cuts in this budget than in any budget in our history," O'Malley (D) said. He also said the economic downturn had forced "a painful array of cuts, spending reductions and level funding of worthy programs."</br></br>The budget included some good news for public university students: a proposed fourth straight year of no tuition increases. And O'Malley did not advocate a move feared by local leaders: shifting the cost of teacher pensions from state to county budgets.