Martin O'Malley is the Governor of Maryland. He writes a regular blog for his official website.
Fiscal Responsibility
Together, we’ve been able to restrain general fund budget growth more than any administration dating back to Gov. Marvin Mandel.
Photos (3)
Photos
By Raquel Guillory, Director of Communications
Yesterday, the Governor unveiled a fiscally responsible budget that continues record cuts while protecting our Triple A bond rating and investing in key priorities like education and job creation.
By using a balanced approach, we’re on the verge of eliminating the $1.7 billion deficit that we inherited in 2007. These graphs show a few of the ways that we’ve been able to cut spending.
At the same time, we’ve been able to do more with less. Even while tightening our belt and making fiscally responsible choices, we have been achieving results:
- Maryland has recovering jobs at the ninth fastest rate of any state in the nation;
- Maryland has the #1 public schools in the country for the fifth year in a row;
- Maryland has done more than any state in the nation in recent years to hold down the cost of college; and
- Maryland has driven down violent crime to the lowest level in more than thirty years.
This blog is posted on 49 sites throughout Maryland. Join the statewide conversation in comments! Find other Patch sites here.
Skip727
10:50 am on Friday, January 18, 2013
Does that graph show spending from the GENERAL FUND before or after other state funds have been raided? Just asking.
Jeff Hawkins
10:50 am on Friday, January 18, 2013
Nice graph and some good work has been accomplished. We do benefit largely by our proximity to Washington D.C. as does Virginia. We have been spared much of the pain the rest of the country has experienced. We have received quite abit of Federal aid I believe.
Not a bad job, but there is more to the story...sometimes it's just geography.
G-Man
6:31 pm on Friday, January 18, 2013
Sorry. These slides do not show the whole picture.
G-Man
6:31 pm on Friday, January 18, 2013
What I'd like to see is the total revenue coming in (Federal and State) and how its being spent. Then we can say god job or bad.
Penelope Patch
5:26 pm on Saturday, January 19, 2013
Yes, and our schools will get even better when teachers get bonuses for not suspending disruptive youth. Funding for youth services has been cut to the bone. It is shameful to see what has been done to many human service agencies. A closer look at the budget may reveal a very different picture.
JD1
10:02 pm on Monday, January 21, 2013
#1 schools according to one very biased magazine. @Penelope what should we do with kids that disrupt the learning environment for MY kids? Maybe we should fine their parents and use the cash to pay the teacher bonuses. Or better yet, give the money to the parents of the good kids so they can send them to private schools that are free of disruptions...now that's an idea!
Penelope Patch
8:52 pm on Friday, January 25, 2013
My point is that if kids are disruptive and need to be suspended, they should be suspended. What a misdirected incentive to keep a child in a classroom who doesn't want to learn and interferes with the learning of others. You can try to fine their parents if you can get in touch with them or better yet, come to the school.
Amy Leahy
9:57 am on Monday, January 21, 2013
Creative graphing, no doubt. This is laughable to any of us who have been paying attention to the legislature for the past 6 years.
Kim
10:02 pm on Monday, January 21, 2013
I wish there was a "Like" button for most of these comments! These graphs certainly don't show the entire picture.
Sanchez
5:54 pm on Tuesday, January 22, 2013
"hat continues record cuts "
TOTAL lies. When the next budget spends MORE than the last budget, THERE IS NO CUTTING in spending. It is cutting the planned INCREASE in spending.
Too bad the sheep believe this newspeak.
To CUT SPENDING requires this budget to be LESS than the last.
Do these lying fools beLIEve themselves?
jag
4:38 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
Maybe you're not understanding the situation and process? Governments are complex things - they must look multiple years out for both spending and revenue projections. Say you have a mortgage payment for the next 25 years, a car payment for the next 5, tuition payments for the next 4...and a few million other projected costs. Say you refinance and cut your mortgage cost for next year by $5,000 and get rid of your car to save 2,500 in car payments next year. That's cutting 7,500 from your estimated costs. Just because your other costs next year still add up to more than you're spending this year doesn't mean your expenses wouldn't have been higher if not for you making cuts.
Get it? It's called relativity - you're complaining that 2013 spending wasn't cut relative to 2012 spending. No one is suggesting or claiming that that's the case - even the graph in the article shows general fund spending has grown 2% - what's being rightly claimed is that spending for, e.g., 2013 is below what it was previously projected to be thanks to cuts made over the last few years.
Sanchez
5:54 pm on Tuesday, January 22, 2013
No mention of the unfunded pensions?
Here is a good source of the real numbers not the propaganda from the boy wonder.
http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/Maryland_state_budget
Sanchez
5:54 pm on Tuesday, January 22, 2013
"The General Assembly is expected to finalize a budget during next week’s special session that will increase spending by as much as $1.2 billion over last year, continuing a trend that has seen the budget grow from $30 billion to more than $35 billion in the past five years.
Democratic leaders say they have made more than $7 billion in cuts over that span by eliminating select programs and limiting projected spending increases - resulting in budgets that have grown, but not by as much as originally planned.
This has often raised the ire of Republicans who argue these aren’t cuts at all, and that real cuts can only come from reducing overall year-to-year spending.
“It’s not the same as a cut,” said Delegate Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio, Talbot Republican. “Most people have not experienced an increase in their income, yet it’s costing them more to live. We as a state government should be sensitive to that.”
www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/7/budget-divide-an-issue-of-cuts/#ixzz2Ik99f7ub
Sanchez
5:54 pm on Tuesday, January 22, 2013
From the Gov office report
http://www.governor.maryland.gov/documents/retirementreform.pdf
Pension liabilities:
2002 95% FUNDED
2010 64% FUNDED
2012 (projected) 60% FUNDED
OVER $11,000,000,000 in unfunded liabilities. And that was in 2008.
http://heartland.org/policy-documents/passing-buck-marylands-unfunded-liabilities-state-and-local-retirees
jag
4:38 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
Indeed. I don't have the time to read your source material, but you're right that unfunded pensions are a concern for most every state. Thankfully, MD is in much better shape than just about everyone, but it's still a cost to worry about, especially now that the budget's been balanced/the state and country are in pretty good shape (assuming Congress isn't in the middle of launching us into another recession, which is a pretty big assumption).
WhrisAmerica
10:40 am on Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Ok, so the people writing the articles still have the mentality that the public is ignorant.
Dan Gerlowski
2:26 pm on Saturday, January 26, 2013
Okay, so the figures presented show less of an increase in general fund spending. So what? How about total spending? In terms of slowing growth how about slowing the growth in tax increases - income and other. How about a measure of government efficiency ? How about infrastructure. And finally, if the theme in government is lets cut spending here and here and raise spending on entitlements how do we change that theme?
Red White and Blue
2:01 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
I'm cutting back and you may want to also....
President Obama ordered the cabinet to cut $100,000,000.00 ($100 million) from the $3,500,000,000,000.00 ($3.5 trillion) federal budget.
I'm so impressed by this sacrifice that I have decided to do the same thing with my personal budget. I spend about $2,000 a month on groceries, household expenses, medicine, utilities, etc., but it's time to get out the budget cutting axe, go through my expenses, and cut back.
I'm going to cut my spending at exactly the same ratio (1/35,000) of my total budget. After doing the math, it looks like instead of spending $2,000 a month, I'm going to have to cut that number by six cents. Yes, I'm going to have to get by with $1999.94, but that's what sacrifice is all about.
It will be difficult but, I'll just have to look very hard to find something to do without that costs only six cents.....!!!!
Did this President actually think no one would do the math? Is it only me or does he and congress understand how idiotic this $100 million cut is in a $3.5 trillion budget?
jag
4:38 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
This is, literally, the dumbest copypasta I've ever seen.
First, it was 100m PER cabinet post. Second, it was specifically regarding administrative costs. Third, this was back when Obama first took office. Back when the emphasis was on jump-starting growth to get us out of the free-falling recession, not on further burdening the economy. Obviously, there have been a number much more substantial cuts since then.
You must think we're all supremely stupid, though it was nice to read a comment from you that wasn't completely filled with misspellings and poor grammar.
FIFA_archived
4:38 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
Any links or just numbers here?
Sanchez
7:06 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
If the budget in 2013 is more than 2012 which is more than 2011 which is more than 2010 then there has not been one dollar of spending cut. It is a very simple concept. It is 2nd grade math which apparently few have grasped.
It is a FLAT OUT LIE to say Maryland's budget has been cut.
Anyone who believes it is free to do so and I am free to call them failed in basic math.
jag
1:25 pm on Friday, March 8, 2013
Apologies for bothering to explain it to you.