Governor O’Malley released his supplemental budget today, which includes $10 million for county pothole repairs. The $10 million was initially provided in the Senate’s budget plan for fiscal 2015, and then accelerated into the fiscal 2014 budget in the House budget plan.  To be allocated in fiscal 2014, there needed to be a specific appropriation. The Governor first announced his intention of including these funds in the supplemental budget when he addressed our MACo Legislative Committee on March 26.

The Department of Legislative Services (DLS)’ analysis of the supplemental budget provides a breakdown of the funding by county, which would be distributed based on the percent of road miles in each jurisdiction.

The Governor’s supplemental budget also includes $549,000 to be used in the development of the new optical scan voting system.  This general fund allocation is replacing funds that were to be provided in the fiscal 2014 budget through the Fair Campaign Financing Fund for this purpose. However, DLS has recommended that these funds be deleted in the budget as they are intended to support local expenditures. If funds are deleted, these costs would be shifted onto the counties.

The Senate and House budget conferees will be taking up this issue in the near future.  MACo is hopeful that they will reject this DLS recommendation.