One day before a scheduled meeting of the Board of Public Works, the three-member panel that approves state contracts and other spending decisions (and which has general authority to enact mid-year budget reductions of up to 25%), Governor O’Malley has announced his intention to bring up to $400 million in budget cuts to the Board for its approval. Tomorrow’s meeting is the last schedule meeting of the body before the Governor’s term ends on January 21.

The Daily Record has broken this story, and its coverage (limited access for non-subscribers) is available online.

The state budget shortfall, recently recalculated to sum over $1.2 billion for FY15 and FY16, has triggered widespread concern about ongoing programs and other fiscal priorities, notably undermining some of the aspirations of incoming Governor-elect Larry Hogan. See previous Conduit Street coverage for more background.

The publicly available agenda for the meeting does not include mention of the potentially impactful budget changes.

MACo will offer more details as they become more widely available.