As reported by the Gazette, the State of Maryland has exceeded its budget for FY 2010 and some counties are close to or have exceeded their budgets as well.

“After one major storm, the state of Maryland has already plowed through its snow-removal budget for the season, and many counties have done the same.  Officials say they will be forced to cut back on other services to pay for snow-removal and salt operations for the remainder of fiscal 2010.”

As reported in an earlier post, county and municipal funding for transportation budgets (the so-called Highway User Revenues, the share of state-levied gas and titling taxes distributed statewide to maintain local roads and bridges) was slashed by the State this year due to budget constraints.  Since local governments in Maryland do not have any independent means to raise transportation revenues, local maintenance and resurfacing budgets have been nearly wiped out for the current year statewide.