O'Malley keeps giving us clues as to how he intends to balance the budget. Interestingly, the major papers report somewhat different tidbits to their readers. Today, the Baltimore Sun let us know that O'Malley expects the State to raise and to broaden the sales tax:
O'Malley has been talking for months about the need to modernize Maryland's tax code to make it "inclusive and fair." He has yet to offer a specific proposal, but he said yesterday that based on discussions with legislative leaders, an expansion and increase in the sales tax will likely be a part of the final compromise. Maryland's sales tax, designed when the state's economy was dominated by manufacturing, does not tax most services, such as shoe repair, haircuts and advertising.Meanwhile the Gazette says no special session if legislative leaders cannot reach consensus by September 30:
‘‘The clock is ticking. The lieutenant governor and I already have a pretty good working idea of the number of steps that will be required to close this huge gap we inherited and hopefully we’ll have leadership consensus by [the end of] September,” O’Malley (D) said in his strongest comments to date.The Washington Post warns us that O'Malley may not fully fund the Thornton Plan for continued increases in education spending:
During a radio interview, O'Malley questioned whether it would be "prudent" to include the full amount in the fiscal 2009 budget that he is required to submit to lawmakers by January.
"Whether we're able to do the sort of inflationary kicker at the degree to which it was originally locked in five years ago . . . remains to be seen," O'Malley said on "The Marc Steiner Show" on Baltimore's WYPR (88.1 FM). "I'm not sure it would be prudent to do that, given the $580 million that just came in. But that, again, is something that has to be worked out with the General Assembly and leaders there."
O'Malley later told reporters that the state might consider capping future funding increases at a percentage less than dictated by the formula or holding off on increases until the state budget crisis is solved
