After months of bad economic news, Maryland state government will embrace any positive signs it can find. So when the Department of Legislative Services reported last week that state revenues may be on the rise, it was viewed with optimism in Annapolis.
The “good news” is that revenues in October were down 7.2 percent from the same time last year. In September, the revenues were off 9.2 percent from the previous September.
“We’re hopeful that things are looking up,” John Rohrer, a Maryland fiscal policy analyst at the department, said. But he also expressed reservations: “It’s hard to say if that’s good news.”
By this coming summer, the end of the current fiscal year, revenues are projected to be 4.5 percent below the previous fiscal year. “So we’re making progress,” said Warren Deschenaux, Maryland’s top budget analyst.
Stronger state revenues could mean Maryland will not have to make more cuts to the fiscal 2010 budget after $300 million in scheduled reductions are announced by the Board of Public Works later this month. That would be a welcome development for the General Assembly, which begins a new 90-day session in January and considers the new 2011 budget. Many state agencies and local governments have all but resigned themselves to further state budget cuts. That is because the state’s budget gap is at $2 billion, even with spending restrictions and cutbacks.
But if revenues continue to increase, perhaps the state actually will escape having to make deeper and more hurtful spending cuts. That, indeed, would be a pleasant surprise.
