The only bill that is constitutionally required to pass every year is a balanced state budget. The budget was especially tight this year, as state revenues failed to meet projections, and the state was facing a $700 million dollar shortfall. This year, the originally proposed budget did fully fund the Blueprint for Education, but saw a drastic reduction in funding for our community colleges, moving the state contribution to its community colleges from 29% to 26.5%. Community College members testified in Annapolis and lobbied their representatives to restore community college funding, and the legislature amended the state budget to lessen the cut, from 26.5% to 27.2%. The community college budgets will now be taken up by the local county council boards in the next few months, and our members working in these institutions will have to be vigilant that the counties fulfill their promises of adequately funding these colleges.
Revenues: While the budget deficit was a challenge this year, future deficits in the next three years are expected to be absolutely devastating, potentially reaching $3 billion by 2027. As we see, these budget deficits directly hit our members as state workers and public educators.
To address these deficits, the house has passed a provision in the budget called “Combined Reporting” which closes a loophole allowing out-of-state corporations to evade paying Maryland taxes. The senate has signaled a reluctance to follow the house, however.
If we are to avoid these future devastating budget deficits, we must continue to contact our senators demanding they close these corporate tax loopholes. Maryland can no longer afford to let those out-of state billionaires to avoid paying what they owe.
article by AFT Maryland staff