The Maryland House of Delegates approved a $47.9 billion budget plan on Tuesday, after a series of extraordinary steps to speed the budget approval process as the state battles the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
“Each year we are faced with a different set of circumstances dictating how we achieve the goal of providing a balanced budget that meets the needs of our state. It is safe to say that the challenges we currently face are unlike any we have experienced before,” House Appropriations Chairwoman Maggie L. McIntosh (D-Baltimore City) said this week. “…We are very aware that the situation that we face with this new virus does not currently have an end date and could directly impact our economy,” McIntosh said.
The budget bill and accompanying Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act maintains more than $1.2 billion in the state’s rainy day fund, and last-minute budget adjustments boosted the unallocated general fund balance to $231.3 million, an effort to give Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) more flexibility in spending as the state faces unknown fiscal challenges with the spread of the novel coronavirus.
On Tuesday, the House approved an additional amendment that would allow Hogan to transfer up to $100 million from a revenue stabilization account to help with the state’s COVID-19 response.
Click here to read the rest for the article written by Danielle E. Gaines over at Maryland Matters