By John Wagner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 24, 2008; B01

Saddled with a slumping economy and a lingering budget pinch, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley delivered a State of the State address yesterday that acknowledged "totally understandable" frustration over recently passed tax increases but defended them as necessary to "protect our priorities."

In an often somber half-hour address, O'Malley (D) also asked for the General Assembly's help in holding down university tuition, further restricting development in environmentally sensitive areas and developing a long-term plan for energy generation and conservation. And he pledged to place heightened focus on fighting violent crime.

"No wonder many of us are frustrated when, in the midst of this national economic downtown, we were forced to confront a long-neglected and huge structural deficit," O'Malley said in his second annual address.

He was referring to the three-week special session that ended in November with lawmakers raising taxes by $1.4 billion a year and directing O'Malley to cut $550 million from next year's budget to help fix the state's finances.

"There is good reason for all of us to be concerned and worried about our economic future," O'Malley said. "But I submit to you that the way we get through these tough times . . . is not by abandoning our priorities, but by protecting them."

O'Malley used the first portion of his address, delivered to a joint session of the legislature, to express sympathy for "the vast majority of Maryland families" that are finding it harder to pay bills at a time when growth in wages is outpaced by the rising costs of groceries, gasoline and health insurance.

In a nod to such concerns, he pledged to work with legislators to "end the fast track to foreclosure" that has cost an unprecedented number of Marylanders their homes in the past year. A proposal by O'Malley would significantly lengthen the time between default and foreclosure and increase oversight of the mortgage-lending industry.

The address, coming early in the 90-day legislation session, drew sharply different reactions from Democrats and Republicans. Democrats voiced a willingness to work with O'Malley on the laundry list of relatively modest proposals he advanced. With the state budget outlook far better than a year ago but still fragile, none of the governor's initiatives carries a hefty price tag.

"It wasn't a 'rah-rah' tone," said Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D), among a large contingent of guests at the State House in Annapolis. "It's a roll-up-your-sleeves-type tone. We have some real important issues. . . . The economy is very solemn."

Republicans, however, echoed the sentiments of House Minority Whip Christopher B. Shank (R-Washington), who suggested O'Malley chose to focus on "safe, bipartisan" issues at a time when two polls have shown his approval rating dropping below 40 percent in the wake of the special session.

"He's trying to change the subject," Shank said. "He wants to talk about uniting issues that aren't driving his poll numbers down. He's hoping people will forget that he drove the largest tax increase in state history."

Among the priorities O'Malley pledged to push in his second year is a fight against violent crime, an issue that was the centerpiece of his tenure as mayor of Baltimore. He has spoken often as governor about the disconnect between Maryland being the nation's wealthiest state but also its fifth-most violent.

"For too long, we have allowed ourselves to look at violent crime as a socioeconomic problem or a cultural problem, a problem that defies a solution because that is 'just the way it is,' " O'Malley said. "One of our highest priorities this year will be to fight back against violent crime, wherever it occurs in Maryland."

O'Malley urged lawmakers to pass his proposal to expand the state's collection of DNA to include samples taken from people arrested for violent crime. Under current policy, samples are taken only from those convicted. The governor said his proposal would bring Maryland's efforts in line with 11 other states, including Virginia, and said that his plan is "supported by virtually every prosecutor and police chief in our state."

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) praised O'Malley's speech overall but predicted his expanded DNA testing plan will be "hard sell" in the legislature because of privacy concerns.

O'Malley also asked for approval of plans to hire more parole and probation officers, use Global Position System technology to track juvenile offenders and build four new juvenile detention and treatment centers, two of them in Prince George's County.

Sounding another of his consistent themes, the governor urged long-term support in confronting rising energy costs, which he blamed in part on a 1999 law deregulating the industry. He called for passage of several measures he has introduced this session to promote energy conservation and suggested that bolder action is needed in the future to avoid "crippling energy bills and rolling brownouts."

"Deregulation has failed us in Maryland, and we cannot allow our future to be determined by that mistake," O'Malley said in a remark that was cheered by advocates of re-regulating the industry.

O'Malley also pitched a proposal to tighten the state's Critical Area Act, which restricts development in environmentally sensitive areas. He said the law needs to be updated so that projects such as the proposed 1,350-home Four Seasons development on Kent Island could be stopped earlier in the process. The project was derailed last spring when the Board of Public Works, a three-member panel on which O'Malley sits, denied the developer a wetlands permit.

Staff writers Lisa Rein and Philip Rucker contributed to this report.