Business leaders receptive to talk of balanced solution

Deficit blamed on Thornton spending and a tax cut ‘no one’ wanted

O’Malley did not soften his speech, telling the business leaders that eliminating government programs that help people is the wrong way to address the deficit. Any new taxes should not be put on the poor or middle class whose wages have remained flat for the past seven years, he said.

The General Assembly’s budget guru laid out a ‘‘doomsday” budget on Wednesday that showed which programs would be reduced to eliminate the deficit through spending cuts only.

‘‘But if we go the route of solving deficits with cuts ... we’re going to eventually erode our quality of life,” O’Malley told the Board of Trade.

O’Malley said he did not get into public service to make life worse for citizens. ‘‘We’ll either be successful or I’ll find something else to do,” he said.

Charles Ingersoll, a senior client partner with executive placement firm Korn Ferry International in Washington, described himself as a ‘‘fiscal conservative” who does not like tax increases. He said he found much to like in O’Malley’s speech.

‘‘This presentation was so positive,” Ingersoll said. ‘‘There’s time for policy disagreements later.”

George Washington University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg said it was good that O’Malley met with the organization.

‘‘The fact he’s here shows he’s trying to make friends and influence people,” Trachtenberg said. ‘‘We have to meet him halfway. He did inherit a problem not of his own making.”

Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce President and Executive Director Georgette ‘‘Gigi” Godwin said she was glad O’Malley remained committed to funding education programs that help keep the state competitive in a global economy.

O’Malley said there has been a ‘‘swing of the pendulum” away from those opposed to the state serving ‘‘the common good.”

A new presidential administration in 2008 should ‘‘return the federal government to a much more traditional role” in providing more money for projects at the state and county levels, O’Malley said.

‘‘We do not want to be the first generation of Americans to leave our country in worse condition than we inherited it,” he said.

In response to one question about lower taxes in surrounding jurisdictions, O’Malley said, ‘‘We know we don’t want to put Maryland at a competitive disadvantage.”

O’Malley said he has not decided whether to call the General Assembly back for a special session to deal with the deficit. ‘‘We’re not going to do a special session for political theater,” he said.

But O’Malley said a special session might be needed to emphasize the issue’s seriousness.

‘‘Unfortunately, some people think we don’t have a problem or that cuts can solve the problem with no one feeling them or it hurting our quality of life,” he said.

Asked about legalized gambling, O’Malley said he does not favor solving the deficit with slot machines.

Slots could be useful for keeping the 18,000 people employed in the horse racing industry and to help keep associated farmland as green open space, he said.

O’Malley said he is open to compromise. However, he said, if the General Assembly chooses to expand gambling, he would prefer any additional revenues go to pay for capital projects instead of the operating budget.