With less than two weeks to go before Maryland lawmakers wrap up the General Assembly session, details on cuts in Gov. Wes Moore’s latest “budget framework” remain vague.
At a Thursday news conference, Moore appeared with House Speaker Adrienne Jones and Senate President Bill Ferguson to declare they had an agreed-upon plan to close a $3 billion deficit with a combination of tax increases and budget cuts.
“No one up here wants to talk about cuts,” Jones said. “Responsible governing means having the tough conversation.”
Moore told reporters, “We’ve agreed on a framework that includes at least an additional $500 million in additional cuts on top of cuts that our administration has already proposed.”
“This is the largest amount that has been cut from a Maryland state budget in 16 years. This is what responsible governance looks like,” he added.
Yet, there was little said about where exactly the additional $500 million in cuts were being made.
When asked for more details on Friday, the governor’s office responded with an email referring to the remarks made at the Thursday news conference.
An official in the speaker’s office said in an email to WTOP that the Department of Legislative Services is still “working through the details of the $500M in additional cuts,” and that it was hoped that more information would be available Monday.
After Thursday’s news conference, Republican leaders issued a statement expressing frustration with the stated plan. Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey wrote, “This announcement was premature — there were only statements about an agreed upon framework of the budget and few, if any, details.”
The Maryland General Assembly session ends April 7.
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