BERLIN — State lawmakers are still attempting to reconcile the governor’s budget with the session coming to a close on Monday, but several key funding issues near and dear to the local area appear to remain intact.
While the Senate and House have approved versions of Gov. Larry Hogan’s $40.7 billion fiscal year 2016 state budget, both sides were still attempting to reconcile different versions heading into the session’s final days. After both chambers approved the governor’s budget a week ago, everything appeared rosy and heading to final approval, but with the clock now ticking, the anticipated friction between Hogan and the House and Senate leadership has increased and the sides are still far apart.
To that end, Hogan on Monday issued an executive order which will extend the session by as many as 10 days to provide additional time for legislators to pass a budget. Passing an approved budget is the only real mandate for state lawmakers during the General Assembly and the executive order issued by Hogan this week is a procedural move evoked if it appears a budget will not be struck before Sine Die at midnight on Monday. It remains possible a budget will be approved before the close of the session, but the executive order allows for as many as 10 extra days if it is not.
“With the final week of session upon us, I am happy to give legislators extra time to reach an agreement on the budget,” said Hogan on Monday. “I remain committed to working with the General Assembly to reach a bipartisan budget resolution that delivers the tax relief and fiscal responsibility that Marylanders are demanding.”
While it remains to be seen what cuts are added or subtracted in the budget’s final version and what concessions are made by all parties, some of the elements of the spending plan near and dear to the local area appear to be untouchable. Certain elements in the budget are protected by the Budget Reconciliation and
Financing Act (BRFA) and could be off limits in the final budget deliberations. Senator Jim Mathias (D-38) said this week he was fairly confident a budget agreement could be reached without extending the session.
“I’m optimistic we can still figure this thing out,” he said. “I know we’re working on Saturday, so we are committed to getting this done before the session expires.”
Mathias said he was confident the local impact grant funding from the state’s operating casinos would survive the late budget deliberations.
Local legislators earlier in the session were able to successfully convince Hogan to reverse a clause in his vast budget that would have stripped millions of dollars from the local impact grants from the state’s operating casinos and diverted it to the Educational Trust Fund. As proposed initially, the governor’s budget would have taken over $4 million earmarked for local impact grants to the communities in which the state’s casinos are located, including Worcester County, and moved it to the education fund.
The governor’s initial budget would have diverted the local impact grants away from communities such as Worcester, Ocean City, Ocean Pines and Berlin, for example, but the Eastern Shore delegation was able to successfully avoid that.
Mathias also said Hogan’s supplemental budget included restoring roughly $19 million in Highway User Funds that had been stripped in recent years to the counties and municipalities. The governor’s spending plan also increased the state’s commitment to the beach replenishment in Ocean City from $500,000 to $1 million. Mathias said he believed the highway user revenue restoration and the beach replenishment funding increase were protected by BFRA.
“A lot of these things are still in play as the budget deliberations continue, but it looks like most of these things important to our area will make it through,” he said.