As the 437th Maryland General Assembly kicked off on Wednesday, Gov. Larry Hogan was tight-lipped about what steps he will take to repair the state’s structural budget deficit.
Hogan will present his budget fiscal 2018 budget proposal next week, addressing what the Department of Legislative Services estimates is a $500 million structural deficit. While he wasn’t specific at Wednesday’s Annapolis Summit about how he’ll address the problem, Hogan did offer up a couple of details about his budget.
Hogan, a Republican, was also quick to deflect blame over to the majority-Democrat legislature.
During his interview with radio show host Marc Steiner, Hogan said his administration “sort of predicted” a shortfall while the legislature ignored it. Hogan said he inherited a $5.1 billion structural deficit when he took office in January 2015, and used his first budget to eliminate 90 percent of it.
Last year, when the state had a $400 million surplus, he made the decision to invest $1 billion into the “Rainy Day” fund.
Click here to read the rest of the story written by Holden Wilen over at Washington Business Journal