Glendening Offers Budget Plan; Lame-Duck Governor Suggests Increasing Taxes, Dipping Into Reserve
Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening laid out a plan to balance the state budget yesterday that would cut more than $172 million from programs and services, drain nearly $200 million from the state's reserve fund and cancel bonuses for highly paid state workers.</br></br>The plan also would rely on more than $100 million in one-time accounting maneuvers, such as withholding an extra $1.50 a week from most Marylanders' paychecks. While taxpayers eventually would get the money back through tax refunds, the state would temporarily gain $45 million to help see it through the worst economic crisis since the early 1990s.</br></br>Glendening (D) said his plan would avoid layoffs and other drastic measures employed in other states facing similarly sharp declines in tax revenue. In Virginia, Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) has cut more than $4 billion from the state's two-year $50 billion budget, in part by laying off more than 1,800 state workers. This month, Warner told local governments to brace for reductions in state aid.</br></br>Glendening would make no cuts to local governments or public education in the plan that he said would save about $500 million in the current fiscal year, $100 million shy of the projected deficit.</br></br>But the plan does little to address a projected $1.2 billion shortfall in the following year's budget. And it drew mixed reviews from state leaders who would have to approve key elements.