WASHINGTON- President Bush’s fiscal 2002 budget will be hit and miss for Maryland, which will benefit in areas such as health research and education, but may suffer from environmental and transportation spending cuts, lawmakers said.
“It’s a mixed bag,” said Jesse Jacobs, spokesman for Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D- Baltimore.
One benefit in the budget will be a $2.75 billion increase in the National Institutes of Health budget, part of a five-year plan to double the Bethesda agency’s funding by 2003.
Maryland would also see federal education spending increase by $48 million, to $597 million, including money for two new programs to encourage teacher quality and student reading skills.
Bush’s budget also cuts a number of agency budgets, with cities like Baltimore expected to bear the brunt of some of those cuts. Money for public housing, AIDS treatment and drug abuse programs will be cut, as well as money to community policing program.
State lawmakers expressed concerns about specific projects or programs that they feel were overlooked in Bush’s budget, which was released Monday:
— Rep Steny Hoyer, D-Mechanicsville, said cuts to National Aeronautic and Space Administration’s budget could affect Goddard Space Flight Center;
— Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D- Baltimore, feared inadequate funding could cause delays in construction of a new Food and Drug Administration facility in White Oak;
— and Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Frederick, is concerned that a $500 million cut in the Energy Department’s budget might cut into research for future energy sources.
But Bartlett was pleased with the budget overall, saying that the proposal to phase out the COPPS program, for example, does not go far enough.
“It shouldn’t be cut. It should be abolished,” said Bartlett.
He applauded the Bush plan to use more block grants and cut back on spending for specific programs. Bartlett said block grants provide more freedom for local legislators, and they are a better reflection of how the budget will benefit the state.
“If I were a Maryland official, I would applaud Washington for taking the money out of these programs,” he said.
Other cuts that may affect Maryland include a 4 percent decrease in the Interior Department’s budget, to $9.8 billion nationwide, and an11.4 percent cut in the transportation budget to $16.3 billion.
“All of these will have dramatic impacts on Maryland,” said Rep. Ben Cardin, D-Baltimore. “We have major needs in those areas.”
As part of the environmental cuts, for example, the Chesapeake Bay clean- up program would be cut from $20.7 million to $18.8 million. A spokeswoman for Gov. Parris Glendening said the Bush budget would move “toward undermining very effective environmental programs.”
Cardin said the transportation cuts would be particularly bad because Maryland is most “vulnerable” in this area.
“I think you would look long and hard at this budget and would have some sleepless nights,” if you were Maryland’s transportation secretary, he said.
But Erin Henson, spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of Transportation, said the new budget was good for the state.
“It’s about what we expected,” she said. “It’s a positive budget.”
Henson said the budget would increase funding for highway and transit systems. It also would provide $60 million for the Metro extension to Largo, $18 million to double-track light rail in Baltimore and $203 million for the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, she said.
One issue uniting several of members of the Maryland delegation is the disparity in the pay raise the budget proposes for military personnel, who would get 4.6 percent, and civilian personnel, who would see only a 3.6 percent gain.
“Instead of a morale booster, it’s a morale buster,” Jacobs said.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers from the Washington region has supported a resolution by Rep. Steny Hoyer, D- Mechanicsville, calling for equal pay increases.
Bartlett is one delegation member who disagrees with the resolution.
“I haven’t noticed any problems with government recruiting,” he said. “There are so many people working for the government that when you give government people a raise, it’s inflationary.”
Hoyer was particularly unhappy with Bush’s budget.
“He’s put a budget forward that is the same old, same old,” he said. “This budget is the same old way of doing business as Reagan and Bush Sr.”
Cardin suggested that it was only a working blueprint that Congress will work to change.
“I just don’t think it’s a realistic budget,” he said. “I don’t think Congress is going to go along with it.”
-30- CNS 04-10-01