State lawmakers closed a $1.1 billion budget deficit at the start of the current fiscal year by raising income taxes on residents earning at least $100,000 a year and forcing counties to pay for rising teacher pensions. On Election Day, Maryland voters approved a gambling expansion, a move officials promised would add millions of dollars to the state's bottom line.
But after all that, Maryland still has a $27 million hole going into fiscal 2014 -- a gap that would exceed $400 million if not for a surplus being carried into next year that resulted partly from the tax hikes -- and a $385 million gap going into fiscal 2015. To put that in context, raising the state sales tax by half a cent would raise $350 million in revenue, said Warren Deschenaux, director of the Maryland General Assembly's Office of Policy Analysis. The state also faces gradually declining shortfalls every year through fiscal 2018, which is projected to have a $152 million gap.
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3 comments:
More costs will get put on the counties, cities and towns in MD. Like the teachers pensions did.
This is why it is/was so important to elect officials who know and understand what is really going on.
Alot of people think gambling is the answer. How could they? You have to look no further than DE to see gambling has failed miserably as a revenue source.
Governor O'Money = Ireton mentor
This gap is going to continue for as long as they keep spending more money. I've never lived outside of MD, but I'm strongly considering it.
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