The latest round of fiscal bad news for Maryland’s state government prompted a spokeswoman for Gov. Larry Hogan to dust off a classic Republican talking point: “Let’s be clear: Maryland doesn’t have a revenue problem,” spokeswoman Amelia Chasse said. “Certain members of the General Assembly have a spending problem.”
The Board of Revenue Estimates just concluded that the state’s finances over this year and next will be about $800 million worse than it expected six months ago. The state’s anticipated spending hasn’t changed since then. But it’s anticipated tax revenues have. Sounds like a revenue problem to us.
Actually, more accurately, it sounds like a revenue estimate problem, and in the grand scheme of things, not that big of one. The $800 million reduction sounds like a lot, but it amounts to 2.3 percent of the nearly $34 billion in general fund revenue Maryland expects to collect in fiscal 2017 (which started July 1) and fiscal 2018.
Click here to read the rest of the article and watch the video over at Baltimore Sun
