Taxes and cost shifts are on the table for the coming General Assembly session as Gov. Wes Moore (D) and lawmakers look to solve both a structural budget shortfall and massive cuts to transportation projects.
Eric Luedtke, Moore’s chief legislative officer, told county officials Friday that the coming legislative session will center around “answering some really tough questions” because of an end to billions in federal aid that pumped up state coffers in recent years.
“How do we continue to achieve what we all want to achieve in terms of education, in terms of transportation in terms of economic development in terms of public safety? How do we do that in the context of a fiscal situation that is tighter than it’s been for the last few years?” Luedtke said during the closing day of the Maryland Association of Counties winter convention in Cambridge.
Local government leaders left the Eastern Shore after a tough three days that focused on $3 billion in cuts to state transportation projects over six years, with few answers on how to pay for a plan to improve public school education that some counties say they cannot afford.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Bryan P. Sears over at Maryland Matters
