O'Malley Stumping for Support to Raise Taxes to Help Close Budget Gap

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley asked Washington-area business leaders yesterday to help make the case that tax increases will be necessary to help close a looming $1.5 billion state budget shortfall and preserve "the very quality of life we all care about."

"I need your help in this," O'Malley (D) told the Greater Washington Board of Trade. "I really, really do. . . . I did not put myself or my family through the meat grinder of public service to preside over decline."

The appearance in Bethesda was the second in two days in which O'Malley said that the state's fiscal problems cannot be solved through budget cuts alone.

On Wednesday, O'Malley spoke in Ocean City to the Maryland Municipal League while lawmakers meeting in Annapolis were briefed on what a "doomsday" budget -- balanced through deep spending cuts -- might look like.

O'Malley said yesterday that some people will say that a cuts-only budget is a simple solution for the state.

"Like most simple answers, it's also wrong," he said, later adding: "I think there's a lot of denial about the degree of our problem."

The appearances, which continue today in television and radio interviews in the Washington area, are the beginning of what one aide described as a "doomsday tour" to prepare the public for what's ahead.

O'Malley said he is uncertain whether he and lawmakers will craft a budget fix in a special session of the legislature, as some have advocated, or wait until lawmakers' next regular session in January.

O'Malley repeated his position that slot machines should be legalized to help support Maryland's horse racing industry and preserve open space. But he said he would prefer to spend any state proceeds on capital projects rather than use the money to reduce the shortfall in the state's $15 billion general fund.

"I've never been a big fan of slots as a revenue solution," O'Malley said. "I don't want to become hard-line dependent on it in the operating budget."

O'Malley said he is willing to consider other views, though. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) has pitched a slots plan that would raise nearly $800 million for the state, legislative analysts say, with much of that going toward the operating budget.

O'Malley also used yesterday's appearance to reaffirm his support for several Board of Trade priorities, including the intercounty connector, a planned 18-mile toll highway in Montgomery and Prince George's counties that has drawn opposition from environmental groups.

"We're forging ahead," O'Malley said, promising to complete the $2.4 billion project "with deliberate speed."

O'Malley also voiced support for the Purple Line, a proposed rail link between Bethesda and New Carrollton, noting jokingly that his transportation secretary, John D. Porcari, was in the audience wearing a purple tie.