The House Appropriations Committee convened Friday to hear budget recommendations from its subcommittees and make full committee budget decisions.   The meeting, which began in the afternoon and continued after the evening session, ended close to midnight with the committee finalizing its budget actions.   Highlights include –

– Rejection of the Senate’s proposal to transfer a portion of teacher pension costs to the counties
– Partial extension of the Governor’s two-year cut to Highway User Revenues (HUR) for two additional “phase back  in” years until re-reaching the full local share of 28.5% by FY 2015
– No reduction to Baltimore City’s HUR funding level and jurisdictions are allowed to keep the full amount of HUR funds already received although it is greater than the amount proposed in the BRFA
– Return of Disparity Grant funding to FY 2010 level through adoption of a recommendation to use November Net Taxable Income for the grant calculation, not lower overall program cap and base cap on funding to each jurisdiction not the overall program

Background information on Highway User Revenues , the Disparity Grant , and teacher pensions can be found on the MACo blog.