O’MALLEY LEAVES THE DOOR OPEN,
WAVERS BETWEEN  NO COMMENT
AND ‘A HALF-HOUR FROM NOW’

Will he or won’t he? That’s the question
state lawmakers and others are asking
 
Will a special session of the Maryland General Assembly be called to revisit the revenue legislation it failed to pass before adjourning its 90-day session as required by law Monday night?

That’s the question lawmakers and others throughout the state are asking as Gov. Martin O’Malley wavers between saying he’s willing to call the legislature back into special session “a half-hour from now” after first refusing to discuss it, and then later expressing uncertainty about when — or even if he would do so at all.

At a middle of the night press conference following the General Assembly’s adjournment at midnight Monday he refused to discuss the issue, charging the state’s lawmakers with a failure of leadership in not dealing with important budget questions.

He then remained mum on the special session subject during a testy bill signing ceremony Tuesday, describing what he called his party’s failure of leadership as “really a damned shame,” and prompting Senate President Thomas V. “Mike” Miller Jr. (D-27th/Calvert) to respond:

“We didn’t fail anybody. This is a bump in the road. I have been here before in 1991 and 1992.”

Miller was referring to a similar budget situation two decades ago (in 1992) when then-Gov. William Donald Schaefer called the legislature back into special session to reconsider budget legislation left unpassed, as now, during the regular session.

“The governor, he’s not a happy camper, but he’ll get over it and the sun will come up tomorrow,” Miller said.

On Thursday, O’Malley said he accepts some of the blame for the failure to replace $512 million in spending cuts with a revenue package that would include tax increases and alternate savings.

But late in the day he again expressed uncertainty about whether he would call a special session. This, after telling WTTG-Television, the Fox Network affiliate in Washington, the same morning, “We can do it as soon as we have a consensus,” although he questioned when that might occur:

“Is that tomorrow? Is that late August?” he asked rhetorically.

“That is something that the presiding officers and their members and I need to figure out.”

However the clock is ticking. If the impasse is not resolved by July 1 — the start of the next fiscal year — huge cuts to education and other programs will occur.
 
— Alan Z. Forman
 
alforman@voiceofbaltimore.org