By Marc Kilmer • June 12, 2010
In 2007, Gov. Martin O'Malley led the effort to expand our state's Medicaid program. But instead of finding the money to fully fund the cost of Medicaid in this year's state budget, the governor counted on the federal government increasing its funding for the program. Congress had not appropriated the money yet, but the governor and legislators assumed it would and pronounced the state's budget "balanced."
It is now looking likely that Congress will not give states a Medicaid bailout. If Maryland doesn't get this money, the state would resort to another budget trick: taking money away from local governments. O'Malley would once again tap the local income tax reserve fund to help cover the budget shortfall.
This is the fund into which our local income taxes are paid and then distributed to county governments.One of the reasons Wicomico County is having trouble balancing its budget this year is because the state is holding back money properly belonging to counties. For instance, the gas tax collected in Wicomico County is supposed to be given to our local governments to spend on roads. In this fiscal year the state only gave us 10 percent of our allocation and used the rest to cover its high spending.
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