Budget Update: A Vote for Public Schools

A Message from Governor Martin O’Malley

Dear Friend,

Last night, we opened the Special Session to solve the $1.7 billion budget deficit we've inherited. And today, the General Assembly began its hearing on our long-term solution that's fair to middle class families.

This afternoon, the Senate and House are holding a joint hearing on how best to secure our historic investment in education through the Thornton law.

Five years ago, legislators of both parties supported this important $1.5 billion investment in our schools - at about the same time that they, again, on a bipartisan basis, reduced revenue with a $1 billion income tax cut. These two decisions combined to create our current structural budget deficit.

In our budget solution, we're finally going to keep our promise - continuing to improve Maryland's schools - by adjusting growth, while maintaining record funding for schools. As a result, Maryland's teachers have said: A vote for our plan "is a vote for public schools."

This morning's hearing focused on the cuts we've already made and are proposing in our plan.

• In January, we made $400 million in cuts to balance this year's budget - keeping budget growth at just over 2%, which is lower than the rate of inflation.
• In July, we cut another $280 million.
• And our long-term budget plan would reduce spending growth by $1 billion over the next two years.

The hearing also examined the damage that would be done if we fail to come to consensus and are forced to introduce the Cost of Delay budget in January - balancing the budget with $1.7 billion in cuts. Those cuts would result in raising college tuition, reducing school funding, raiding open space funds, and sliding backwards on healthcare, rather than making it more affordable.

The General Assembly will continue to discuss and debate our budget solution in the coming days, and we will keep you posted on our progress. Additionally, if you're interested, you can read or watch my speech opening this special session (Also, below.).

Thank you for your work to move Maryland forward. And if you would like to contact your legislators to support our solution, you can reach them at: http://mdelect.net/.

Sincerely,

Martin O'Malley
Governor

GOVERNOR MARTIN O'MALLEY

PREPARED OPENING REMARKS

SPECIAL SESSION

October 29, 2007

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, thank you for inviting me to join you here tonight. And thank you also for the extraordinary amount of work, dialogue, and collaboration of these last several months.  This joint session and the joint hearings that will follow are further evidence of the goodwill and statesmanship that you have both shown in meeting this challenge.  Thank you for your counsel and for your trust. 

The leadership of your respective bodies - Senator Currie along with Delegate Conway and Delegate Hixson; Senator Middleton along with Delegate Hammen; Senator DeGrange along with Delegate Branch; Senator Kasemeyer along with Delegate Barve and President Pro Tem Nathaniel McFadden, Speaker Pro Tem Jones and others - have contributed greatly to the creation of a consensus plan for Maryland's future.  And I thank you both for surrounding yourselves with such able and principled leaders.

To the members of the Maryland General Assembly, of both parties, you have my sincere thanks - and more importantly that of your neighbors - for setting aside the many responsibilities of your family and business lives to return here for the urgent work of this special session. 

My fellow Marylanders, as you are no doubt aware, 5 years ago - and in bipartisan fashion - we made a historic and necessary investment in improving public education. Sadly, at the same time we voted in similar bi-partisan fashion to reduce the very revenues needed to sustain such an important investment and to defend our quality of life. We now face one of the toughest fiscal challenges in our State's 373 year history.

As prior generations might have warned us - there is no progress without sacrifice, no shared return without shared investment, and no future better than this present, unless we are willing to work for it 

This inherited structural deficit - a deficit which has now cast its shadow over the progress of our people for the last five years - can no longer be deferred. The storm is upon us; and this looming shortfall threatens to do grave damage to the very quality of life that our neighbors have elected us to defend… 

The stakes are high; the potential damage too harmful to accept.  Further delay will only compound the difficulty of correcting the half-actions and inactions of our recent past.   

"The occasion is piled high with difficulty," but the goals of this special session are straightforward: 

• To restore fiscal responsibility to the government of our people.
• To protect our investments in education, health and public safety so very critical to future of the state we leave our children.
• And to do so in a way that not only protects our competitive advantage with surrounding states, but is also fairer to the working people of Maryland.

In one sense, our challenge is as timeless as the human condition itself: will the circumstances we've inherited change us, or will we change our circumstances? It's time for us to correct our course.  It is time for us to pass a long-term budget solution that's fairer to middle class families - and ensures Maryland's progress for the future. 

By now you have had the opportunity to receive our proposals for restoring fiscal responsibility and returning to the path of progress. Many of the components of this plan have been considered by members of this Assembly many times before. Many have been proposed and passed before by one house or the other.  And in the important days ahead, you will, no doubt, have the opportunity to study, debate and improve upon the fairness of the framework proposed. 

Although we are blessed with the distinction of being the wealthiest State in the nation according to the US Census, our tax burden is below average. We rank 31^st among the 50 states in spending on a per capita basis; and 50^th out of 50 states in terms of what we spend through our local and state governments to defend our quality of life, as a percentage of our wealth.   

Our challenge is not capacity; our challenge is consensus.

And I have faith in the abilities of the men and women of this Assembly to forge that consensus.  In your hearts and regardless of party, each of you knows there is more that unites us than divides us…  

We, here, are united in our belief in the dignity of every individual. We, here, are united in our belief in our own responsibility to advance the common good. 

For this is not merely about correcting the flawed math of the past.  Everything we do to restore fiscal responsibility to our State is really about making progress for the future… progress for the education of our children… progress for affordable college… progress for the healthcare of our workforce… progress on transportation… progress for the health and sustainability of the Chesapeake Bay.   

Yes, everything we do to restore fiscal responsibility to our State is really about making progress for the future.  Perhaps that is why Maryland's teachers have declared: "A vote for the plan is a vote for public schools..."

And so, men and women of Maryland, let us fulfill this responsibility together.  On the common ground that exists between us, cooled by the clear waters of civil discourse, and breathing the honest air of mutual understanding, let us forge a consensus for the One Maryland we carry in our hearts and that all of our children deserve. 

As we begin our work, remember, if you will, the words of a great American uttered to another representative assembly of his own time:

"… Fellow citizens," he said, "We cannot escape history. We... will be remembered in spite of ourselves.  No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us.  The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation... We - even we here - hold the power and bear the responsibility…" 

Thank you for your service, your resolve, and your dedication to the best interests of our people in the face of this challenge.

May God lead the deliberations of this important session. 

Let's get to work.