More News

ANNAPOLIS — In a rare show of budget bipartisanship, Gov. Martin O'Malley met with Republican lawmakers Tuesday to talk about their ideas on trimming state spending.

"I thought it was constructive. At least it was well received. If anything gets adopted, we'll see," Sen. David R. Brinkley said.

O'Malley (D) met for about 30 minutes with Brinkley (R-Dist. 4) of New Market and Sen. E.J. Pipkin (R-Dist. 36) of Elkton.

After it was over, O'Malley met with House Minority Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell and House Minority Whip Christopher B. Shank.

"The governor had some earnest questions with our proposals, and we'll see what he does with it. The ball's in their court," O'Donnell said.

The senators and delegates presented separate budget-cutting plans last week. Brinkley and Pipkin's plan would slice about $1 billion from the governor's $13.2 billion spending plan for fiscal 2011. The cuts would boost the fund balance to more than $1.3 billion. That, along with reductions to automatic inflators built into future budgets, cover projected shortfalls for the following three years, Brinkley and Pipkin believe.

The proposal from O'Donnell (R-Dist. 29C) of Lusby and Shank (R-Dist. 2B) of Hagerstown would cut about $830 million from the budget for fiscal 2011, which begins July 1.

In addition to the governor, the meetings included Budget Secretary T. Eloise Foster and Joseph C. Bryce, O'Malley's chief legislative officer, Brinkley said.

The meetings come a day before the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee begins its hearings on the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act, or BRFA (pronounced "berfa"). If passed, the bill would provide the legal underpinnings for some of O'Malley's budget maneuvers and transfers to balance the budget. By law, Maryland budgets must balance.

Each plan offers several line items, though O'Donnell said O'Malley shouldn't pick and choose what cuts to make, but rather look at the proposal as a whole.

"To select off a menu is not a comprehensive plan. That's been the problem. We hope he doesn't do that," he said.

Before the meeting, the Republican proposals were receiving some skepticism from the administration. Estimates provided to The Gazette last week showed the metropolitan areas of the state hard-hit by the GOP's budget ideas. One analysis of the proposals would mean Montgomery County would lose $129 million, Prince George's County would lose $119.6 million and Baltimore city $101.7 million.

The cuts in aid to the state's 21 other jurisdictions is about $11.4 million.

"From our perspective it was good to have an audience with him and to have our ideas received," Brinkley said.

He said the senators tried to impress upon O'Malley that either he makes cuts or he raises taxes.

The meeting was an unusual step in a capital where the Democrats have strong majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly.

"Think of what we could have done if they did this three years ago, without an economic crisis on our heads and a looming political sea change," O'Donnell said. "If we had started this three years ago, we would have been in real good shape by now."