More information would be helpful here. How much is this year's budget? How much of the projected "shortfall" is an increase over this year's budget? How much of a shortfall would there be if every budget category was unchanged from this year?

when my taxes go up,prices of commodities go up,I cut back.
what about government???
they know only one thing,RAISE TAXES!!!
more revenue to fund goverment "services"
CUT BACK on waste in government,such as overpaid salaries and benefits.
stop hitting the middle class!
the next "Boston" tea party won't be as pretty!

when my taxes go up,prices of commodities go up,I cut back.
what about government???
they know only one thing,RAISE TAXES!!!
more revenue to fund goverment "services"
CUT BACK on waste in government,such as overpaid salaries and benefits.
stop hitting the middle class!
the next "Boston" tea party won't be as pretty!

I love it - DOOMSDAY means no increases....

education spending (already among the highest in the country) would be frozen (not cut)

"promised NEW funding for nursing homes, drug treatment and children with disabilities" not materialize

State employees (again, already wel paid compared to others around the country) would have salaries frozen (none fired god-forbid or even reduced hours or pay cuts) just frozen.

And this is DOOMSDAY.

Only in Annapolis....

ehrlich shoulda been given a 2nd term...

Sounds like a good, common sense budget plan. Too bad our Democrat "leaders" will instead embrace tax increases in order to pay for increases for a bunch of ineffectual, wasteful government programs.

I can suggest three areas for the Post to explore in depth:
l. Which of the legislative leaders now advocating tax increases 7 months after the election talked about such increases in their campaign literature?
2. Examine the effect on Maryland businesses which are near Delaware of a Maryland sales tax increase. Delaware has NO sales tax, a fact that the Post leaves out of every article it prints on possible tax increases in Maryland.
3. What costly programs has Md. passed without a funding source?

I can suggest three areas for the Post to explore in depth:
l. Which of the legislative leaders now advocating tax increases 7 months after the election talked about such increases in their campaign literature?
2. Examine the effect on Maryland businesses which are near Delaware of a Maryland sales tax increase. Delaware has NO sales tax, a fact that the Post leaves out of every article it prints on possible tax increases in Maryland.
3. What costly programs has Md. passed without a funding source?

"ehrlich shoulda been given a 2nd term..."

Yeah, his pretend-it-doesn't-exist approach to the structural deficit was so efficient.

Most nonpolitical appointees in state government are not overpaid. In fact, they are underpaid compared to their local and federal government counterparts. People in state government jump ship all the time to go to the federal government, where the health and retirement benefits are superior and the salaries are much higher (thousands of dollars).

This is a good thing to do.
Lay the choices out there so the public --and the Republicans --can say which of those items they would like to see cut out or reduced and how to pay for all that they want to keep.
The Democrats have to clearly spell out how much of this shortfall is fall out from the mess Erlich left and how much they are responsible for. Facts, folks, facts.

The GOP members of the legislature laid out a budget plan that did exactly what you wanted, jmsbh. There were very few cuts. Most of the savings can come from simply reducing the size of the projected increase or freezing spending for a year or two.

It would also be helpful if Democrats don't choose to expand Medicaid at a time when the state is facing such a large deficit. Of course, there are plenty of Democratic legislators planning to do just that. Their fiscal irresponsibility is stunning.

I agree with jj: more information would really be helpful. Instead of the frequently irrelevant or trivial links WaPo typically embeds within stories, it would be useful to instead link to more substantive content, in this case concrete budget details.

Interestingly enough, even Prince George's taxpayers are rejecting a tax increase.

www.pgtaxsummit.com

I've heard the same rhetoric in Montgomery County as well. From what I can tell, "Doomsday" is looking more and more like "It's about time the government shouldered some responsibility day!"

What hurts the middle class more than a progressive tax increase is large increases in college tuition, health insurance cost, and cutting drug treatment, so there is an increase in crime by sick addicts servicing their habit!

Howie-- I love it when O'Malley throws dog poop on his own supporters like you.

Howie-- I love it when O'Malley throws dog poop on his own supporters like you.

2 cents:

A google search for pgtaxsummit.com yielded zero results. Can you provide more info?

The state budget breaks down approximately as, Education 42%, Health Care 24%, Public Safety 10%, (Troopers are your best protection.....from Troopers), Reserve fund 10%. Not a lot left (14%) for everything else.

Therefore, in good times Education and Health prosper most, in bad times they should suffer first. DUH!

MD State salaries are already low. I'm not in favor of freezing them. A progressive tax that starts hitting those making more than $175 a year is good. I also think we should let the bars stay open later (i.e., the DC 3am closing time) and increase both the cost of the new liquor licenses and alcohol tax. MD needs to think about ways to grow our way out of this not just scrape money from here and there while maintaining business as usual.

TOLD YOU SO...

if these are such dire times, why is o'malley purchasing land from his political backers and members of his transition team for more than $1 million over the appraised value? and why is the post silent on this?

Only people who voted for Democrats should have their taxes raised. They think it's a good idea so they should go first.