* WARNING: THIS IS AN UNOFFICIAL, INTRODUCTORY COPY OF THE BILL.
THE OFFICIAL COPY CONSIDERED BY THE CITY COUNCIL IS THE FIRST READER COPY.
INTRODUCTORY*
CITY OF BALTIMORE
COUNCIL BILL R
(Resolution)
Introduced by: Council President Young
A RESOLUTION ENTITLED
A COUNCIL RESOLUTION concerning
title
Request for State Action - Special General Assembly Session to Avoid the 'Doomsday Budget'
FOR the purpose of calling on the Governor and the members of the Maryland General Assembly to act swiftly to ensure that a special session of the General Assembly is called in order to reverse the catastrophic cuts in State funding for Baltimore City, Maryland's counties, and the State as a whole contained in the Fiscal 2013 'doomsday budget'.
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Recitals
Earlier this month Maryland's General Assembly session ended without work being completed on the State's budget for fiscal year 2013. As a result, a 'doomsday budget' with more than $500 million in cuts to spending on many Maryland priorities is currently slated to go into effect on July 1st. These cuts would be particularly harsh in the areas of law enforcement, education, and aid to localities such as Baltimore.
Our city alone would lose nearly $66 million in expected State funding. A reduction in funding of more than $30 million would have to be absorbed by the Baltimore City school system, and $10 million would be cut from law enforcement in Baltimore.
Baltimore simply can not afford these cuts. The reduction in core City services, such as education and policing, that would be necessary to live without this expected funding would be devastating. The doomsday budget includes a cut of over $30 million in needed operating funding for Baltimore City Public Schools; dollars our children need to succeed. As the result of the elimination of a $7.2 million State Police Grant, 92 police officer positions would be eliminated; and as the result of the elimination of a $3 million state grant, eighteen State's Attorney prosecutor positions would also be eliminated.
Time is short to reverse these unacceptable cuts. Both the City and State budgets for Fiscal Year 2013 must go into effect on July 1st; and new budgets cannot be drawn up or implemented overnight. In order to reverse these cuts before they can do serious damage throughout the State, a special session of the General Assembly would have to be called within the next few weeks; and it would have to act quickly to bring new revenue into the State's coffers.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE, That the Council calls on the Governor and the members of the Maryland General Assembly to act swiftly to ensure that a special session of the General Assembly is called in order to reverse the catastrophic cuts in State funding for Baltimore City, Maryland's counties, and the State as a whole contained in the Fiscal 2013 'doomsday budget'.
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution be sent to the Governor, the President of the Maryland Senate, the Maryland House Speaker, the Baltimore City Senate and House Delegations to the Maryland General Assembly, the Mayor, and the Mayor's Legislative Liaison to the City Council.
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