The Washington Post has restarted its weekly column on Annapolis topics, “Five Things To Watch in Annapolis This Week.”
How deep will Hogan’s budget knife cut?
There will also be some serious governing that occurs this week. Hogan has warned that his first budget proposal will include major cuts to help erase a projected budget shortfall of about $750 million.
Last week, O’Malley publicly released a recommended menu of cuts that included a 4 percent across-the-board reduction to discretionary agency spending but only minor trims to spending on K-12 education, a leading Democratic priority.
Left intact, for example, was the “geographic cost of education index,” which sends extra funds the way of Montgomery and Prince George’s counties and other jurisdictions where the cost of providing education is higher.
Advocates for education, the environment and health care are bracing for larger proposed cuts from Hogan, in part to address longer-term budget problems in Annapolis and in part to provide promised tax relief.
Visit the Washington Post website, or follow Post writer John Wagner on twitter for more Annapolis coverage.
