Maryland is looking at about a $500 million budget surplus — larger than April’s predictions following the end of the last legislative session, and already lawmakers in the Maryland General Assembly, which is under Democratic control, are looking for ways to spend it on new programs. In other words, the Democratic leadership is continuing its well-worn tradition of fiscal recklessness.
What makes this happy-sounding fiscal report tenuous is that the extra $500 million is only a windfall, coming from a one-time bump in capital gains tax revenue and 60,000 fewer enrollments in Medicaid from people who could renew their enrollment in the future, according to The Daily Record.
If anything, it’s a time for caution. Take this prediction from a 2015 Brookings Institution report on the national capital region’s economy, which notes that “recent economic signs for Greater Washington have been less than encouraging. While the region weathered the Great Recession better than most, it has recovered more weakly. Recent job growth has been concentrated in lower-paying sectors of the economy. Federal ‘sequestration’ budget cuts have already affected the region’s workforce and federal contractors, and looming discretionary spending pressures are likely to limit the federal government’s future contributions to the region’s growth as well.”
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9 comments:
how about giving it back from whence it came
that could be roughly 100 bucks to every resident in md.
May I bring it up again.. the budget process has been 'diverting' payments from the retirement fund for years, leaving it grossly under-funded.
This would be a good time for those who stole that money from the piggy bank to put it back.
9:22 - and the OweMalley raided transportation fund!
Not if it was divided amongst those who actually paid into Maryland taxes...
need to keep taxes down and reduce my unemployment rates that went up 800% under Omalley. Fight the urge to spend Hogan. Keep Maryland On track.
That area did not weather the recession better than others. Most of the jobs in the area are government ones and not private industry. They had a major advantage on other places that rely on private industry.
If it must be spent rather than returned to the taxpayers, spend it on roads.
Put it back into the State Retirement Fund O'Malley and the others have been robbing from and not paying back.
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