THERE IS NO “DOOMSDAY BUDGET” IN MARYLAND

In Maryland we have taken the concept of “entitlement math” to a whole new level. Only in Maryland could a $700 Million Dollar increase in State spending in a new fiscal year be considered a “Doomsday” budget. The default budget that was passed by the Maryland General Assembly is balanced and Constitutionally sound. The argument that this budget will result in any steep cuts in education or elsewhere is a simple case of political rhetoric getting in the way of the facts.

The way that “entitlement math” works is that special interest lobbies ask for large increases in the amount of taxpayer dollars they are being given for the next fiscal cycle, let’s say 1 billion dollars and instead of getting the 1 billion dollars they demanded they are only given a $400 million dollar increase. Entitlement mathematicians within the special interest lobby claim there special interest has taken a $600 million dollar cut. The fact is they received a $400 million dollar increase not a dime in cuts. The media seems to love entitlement math because I have yet to see them actually call out the Governor or those legislative leaders who irresponsibly continue to threaten citizens with predictions of dire consequences for failing to pass hundreds of millions of dollars in additional new taxes and thus stop the imagined negative effects from entitlement math “cuts” to the projected growth in budget dollars.

See the first chart above,(upper left) which shows in very simple terms that there has been no decrease in the budget for the last 7 years and that in fact the budget has grown each year by a billion dollars or more, including a 700 million dollar increase under this default budget (referred to by the Democrats as a doomsday budget.)

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