Sunday, January 25, 2009
Budget Discussion Dominates Business Day
Maryland business people packed the Miller Senate Office building last week for Business Day in Annapolis. Several hundred business people from across the state gathered for a briefing by the General Assembly’s presiding officers and minority leaders, before visiting with their lawmakers.
“Times are difficult for businesses, not just government,” said Maryland Chamber Chairman Betty Buck, President of Buck Distributing Co., Inc. “Business provides 82 percent of the jobs in Maryland, and it’s our mission to help businesses grow.”
Buck outlined the Maryland Chamber’s priorities for the 2009 session, which include keeping Maryland competitive, limiting unnecessary workplace regulation, protecting transportation funding, promoting affordable health care and more. Buck was followed by Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, House Speaker Michael E. Busch, Senate Minority Leader Allan H. Kittleman and House Minority Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell.
Legislative leaders expect the budget to dominate the 2009 session. “Obviously we’re facing a deficit like the vast majority of states in the country. Last year we thought we put our fiscal house in order. We made some tough decisions with some cuts and some increased revenues. We thought we were pretty much well positioned coming into this year and then the national recession takes place,” Busch said.
“I was disappointed in the budget, to be honest with you, because we didn’t really solve the problem. We kind of kicked the can down the road,” O’Donnell said. “We haven’t done anything substantial to change it. That’s going to hurt the business climate in the long-run and it’s going to threaten our priorities.”
Lawmakers also discussed transportation funding and the prospect of a gas tax increase this session. After outlining a number of priority transportation projects, Miller said, “It’s very important for the state. It’s not simply an economic development issue; it’s a quality of life issue for all of us.”
Referring to recent years, when money was transferred out of the Transportation Trust Fund, Kittleman said, “Why give more money to someone who hasn’t spent the money they have properly? One way you can control spending is to cutoff the revenue.”
Here are some video highlights of the speakers discussing Maryland’s budget deficit and Governor Martin O’Malley’s budget.
