Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) and Democratic leaders of the General Assembly on Thursday announced a deal to balance the state budget using a combination of deep cuts and new taxes to fill a more than $3 billion deficit.
After months of deliberating over tax reforms, spending cuts and new revenue sources, the governor and leaders of the Democratic-controlled state legislature presented a united front signaling that they have found an approach they can all agree on to balance the budget.
“No one up here wants to talk about cuts, no one wants to talk about revenue,” House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. “But responsibly governing means having the tough conversations. It means doing what is right, not just what is politically convenient.”
The state faces a budget hole deeper than any seen since the Great Recession, and the gap between revenue and spending has only widened in the first months of Donald Trump’s second presidency. The White House’s moves to fire federal workers, claw back federal grants and contracts, and downsize or move federal agencies out of the Washington region have threatened to upend Maryland’s economy even more. The Comptroller’s Office projected an additional $280 million in lost revenue in early March because of the changes within the federal government.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Katie Shepherd over at The Washington Post
