The County Times
Thursday, April 15, 2010
6
ews O’Donnell: Budget Will Force Tax Hikes Next Year
By Guy Leonard Staff Writer
House Minority Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell (R-Dist. 29C) believes that the budget that passed the House and Senate in Annapolis means that the state’s money problems will continue for the foreseeable future. It also means that the state and counties will likely have to raise taxes to compensate for lagging tax revenues, he said. “We did little to nothing to solve the state’s overspending problem and reliance of federal aid dollars,” O’Donnell said of overall efforts in Annapolis this year. “Massive tax increases are being planned by the majority and they’re also planning to shift the burden of teacher pensions to counties which will force them to raise taxes.” The fiscal 2011 budget passage was predicated on the state getting a projected 3.6 percent increase in revenue, O’Donnell said. “It’s highly unlikely that will materialize,” he said. But Del. Sue Kullen (D-Dist. 27B) said that the budget, about $32 billion with $2 billion in deep cuts, was “responsible and forward-looking.” Kullen said that every budget year is different, and that it is difficult to speculate on the state’s fiscal standing in 2011. She does not believe that this year’s budget would necessitate having to raise taxes. “I don’t see it that way,” Kullen said. “We
may need to make deeper cuts next year.” Kullen said that in voting for the budget, she and other delegates rejected some of the deeper cuts that Republicans wanted to make in education and public safety. “We held fast to our priorities,” Kullen said. “Those areas to me are sacrosanct.” Kullen said that voting to cut those critical budget areas would have been “short sighted.” Del. John Bonhanan (D-Dist.29B) said that the current administration has dealt with an inherited $5 billion structural deficit admirably and that this year marked the first time in more than 40 years the state budgeted less than the prior fiscal year. “We passed probably the leanest budget we’ve ever seen,” Bohanan said. “But we protected priorities like education without passing teacher pensions down to the counties. “In all government is smaller by 4,000 employees.” Bohanan also touted much needed capital project money for St. Mary’s County to include funds for expansion of the California Bay District Volunteer Fire Department station, $765,000 for planning a new library in Leonardtown or renovating the old and $5.5 million towards construction of an expansion of the county detention center aimed at overcrowding. guyleonard@countytimes.net
O’Malley Announces Big Gain in Crab Population
By Guy Leonard Staff Writer
Gov. Martin O’Malley announced Wednesday that recent dredging surveys of the Chesapeake Bay show that the native hard crab population has increased by a whopping 60 percent. O’Malley, making his announcement from a crab house in Kent Island, said this was the second straight year of increases. “Today, we can see firsthand what progress looks and feels like on the Chesapeake Bay,” O’Malley said in a written statement. “The… crab population is estimated to be 658 million crabs, a 60 percent increase over last year and the highest total population estimate since 1997.” O’Malley claimed that partnerships between Maryland and Virginia, which includes tough restrictions on the amount of crabs that can be harvested, helped spur the massive estimated increase. Both Maryland and Virginia enacted measures over the past several years to decrease the amount of egg-laying female crabs that watermen could take out of the bay by about 34 percent, according to information from the Governor’s office. The most recent estimates on the improving health of the crab population come from the 2009-2010 conducted by the state’s Department of Natural Resources and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Last year’s survey estimated 400 million crabs were inhabiting the bay over the winter, according to the Governor. The Governor’s office also touted the increased estimates of the number of adult female and male crabs this year at 315 million, which
exceeds the immediate goal of having 200 million in the population. Robert Brown, president of the St. Mary’s County Waterman’s Association, said that the announcement was good news, but that watermen still had to wait and see if it would have a lasting impact. The tough restrictions on crabbing, especially of females, was sometimes difficult to live with, he said, but Virginia’s decision to stop dredging up of females last year probably had more to do with the increase in the population than Maryland’s restrictions. “With the [restrictions on harvesting] shecrabs in the fall it makes it kind of tough,” Brown said. “We need to see what this season does.”