O'Malley Says He Wants To Build Consensus Before Calling Special Budget Session
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ)-- Budget mess in Maryland. Millions of dollars for education and public safety are on the chopping block. WJZ catches up with Gov. Martin O'Malley who says he's not ready to call a special session just yet.
Political reporter Pat Warren has more on what the governor is saying.
The strategy the governor is outlining is to avoid a repeat of Monday night when lawmakers said they had an agreement and then ran into a dead-end.
O'Malley is breaking the ice.
"If we had the consensus, I'd be glad to call a special session this afternoon," he said.
But the first job is getting the House and Senate in order.
"What we have to do first is call one another and see if we have the consensus to resolve what many thought should have been resolved before midnight on the final day of the session," O'Malley said.
It's the first indication of a plan to bring lawmakers back to Annapolis after they passed a budget with nothing but cuts. Cuts that will affect families like the Gills touring the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) on Thursday looking for college educations with affordable tuition. Those cuts mean tuition goes up.
"A 10 to 13 to 15 percent increase in college tuition-- hardly the sort of progress that we had been making in making college education more affordable," O'Malley said.
"I don't know anybody's jobs who are giving them 10 percent sudden raises to counteract that. And all of our friends, we're all in the same boat. We all have school-age children," Liz Gill said.
On sine die, the ship of state sprung a $512 million leak it'll take a special session to plug.
"I think what we all need to do is take a deep breath, put special interests to the side, put egos to the side and focus on what's best for the people we serve," O'Malley said.
The governor believes that the revenue package that was agreed on on Monday night was a casualty of an ongoing battle between the House and Senate over expanded gambling. Now, Senate President Mike Miller says the clock simply ran out.
By law, Maryland must have a balanced budget.
