Maryland lawmakers face an historic budget deficit when the next session of the General Assembly begins Wednesday, and it could impact taxes and services.
The deficit is projected to be $2.7 billion.
“Everything is on the table this year,” House Democratic Majority Leader David Moon said.
That means cuts as well as increases in revenue through tax and service fee increases and potentially new ways to raise money.
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“Basically, we've got a huge fiscal cliff of several billion dollars facing us, and I think now is the time to roll up our sleeves and address it,” Moon said.
While lawmakers aren't talking specifics, they do point to legislation that was attempted in the House last session but failed — taxes on services and creating an online gambling system.
“Last year, I introduced iGaming, which would have generated about $400-to-500 million that would have been dedicated strictly to education, but the Senate didn't want to budge on that,” Democratic Del. Vanessa Atterbeary said.
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Legislation also is being introduced to pilot a program to ban cellphones in classrooms and increase speed-camera fines across the state.
Prince George's County State's Attorney Aisha Braveboy, who is running for county executive, is pushing for public safety legislation. She wants to make possession of a device that turns a gun into a machine gun — commonly called a giggle switch — a felony. And she wants a public registry of domestic abusers.
“These are the most serious offenders,” she said. “We’re talking about life or death for a lot of people.”
But the budget will be centerstage. A new Gonzales Research poll shows a majority of Marylanders do not support increased taxes to deal with the budget.
Republicans are against raising taxes and express concern about making Maryland too expensive.
“We believe quite fundamentally that we can't tax our way out of this problem, and you can't create that solution to a multibillion-dollar budget deficit solution through taxation unless you tax everybody,” House Minority Leader Jason Buckel said.
Lawmakers’ plans will become clearer after Gov. Wes Moore releases his budget plan Jan. 15.
This session of the Maryland General Assembly gavels in at noon Wednesday.
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