After BP Oil Spill - O’Malley’s Fund Raids Don’t Look Too Slick

Marylanders traveling to the beach for Memorial Day weekend now know oil migrating from the BP oil spill could be off Maryland’s coast within weeks. What they don’t know is that Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and the legislature this year raided Maryland’s Oil Disaster Clean Up Fund by roughly 21 percent as part of their efforts to paper over a record budget deficit in an election year.

“There are many consequences to Governor O’Malley’s failure to present a long-term solution to the record budget deficit he created,” said Audrey Scott, Chairman of the Maryland Republican Party. “One is that Maryland is now less prepared to respond to hazardous oil spills if one were to occur right now in Maryland. This Fund raid weakens Maryland’s environmental response and demonstrates that Governor O’Malley continues to kick the budget can down rather than show leadership in fixing Maryland’s record budget deficit.”

According to the Budget Reconciliation & Financing Act of 2010, Governor O’Malley sought to raid $2.2 million from Maryland’s Oil Disaster Clean Up Fund, nearly half the anticipated year-end fund balance of $4.8 million, and move the moneys to the State’s General Fund to help balance the budget. The Maryland legislature amended the legislation to raid only but a still significant $1 million from the Fund.

Governor O’Malley also signed legislation increasing fees on those who transport oil in Maryland, but that tax increase does not go into effect until later this summer, meaning that the State’s Oil Disaster Clean Up Fund is woefully inadequate.