Analyst dissects tactics O’Malley used to balance Md. budget, including pension cut

Analyst dissects tactics O’Malley used to balance Md. budget, including pension cut

Warren Deschenaux, center at mic, surrounded by other fiscal analysts testifies on budget.

By Len Lazarick

[email protected]

Warren Deschenaux, center at mic, surrounded by other fiscal analysts testifies on budget

Warren Deschenaux, center at mic, surrounded by other fiscal analysts testifies on budget. (Screen capture of webstream)

Picking apart Gov. Martin O’Malley’s proposed fiscal 2015 budget, the legislature’s chief fiscal analyst told lawmakers Monday that the administration relied on “familiar budget balancing strategies” to make the numbers work.

According to the fiscal briefing by chief analyst Warren Deschenaux, these tactics in O’Malley’s final spending plan included:

  •  leaving a fund balance cushion of only $30 million, far too small to cover unexpected spending, known as deficiencies. Deficiencies have averaged $145 million in recent years;
  •  shifting revenue from dedicated taxes for open space into the general fund pot;
  •   increasing bond debt to finance the open space programs supposed to be funded by those dedicated taxes;
  •   giving pay raises in mid year, which requires extra funding in the following budget to pay the full raise;
  • Budget highlights cover  providing no money to handle costly court judgments on bail representation and out-of-state taxes;
  •   tapping into reserves of the employee health benefit fund;
  •   cutting required pension payments by $100 million.

Concerned about pension cut

Some legislators at the joint hearing of House and Senate budget committees focused on O’Malley’s decision to cut $100 million from a $300 million pension payment mandated when state employees and teachers began contributing more of their salaries to retirement. Unions representing employees and teachers said last week that they were surprised by the cut and the move to make it permanent.

Del. Charles Barkley, D-Montgomery, said, “It seems to me we’re not living up to our part of the bargain.” The legislature promised to use the money from additional employee salary deductions required by a 2011 pension reform to help cure underfunding in the pension system.

“What do we say to our employees?” Barkley asked.

“There’s nothing in the budget that interferes with [pensions] being paid,” Deschenaux said. The true cost is just a one year deferral of 80% funding, from 2024 to 2025.

“By far the largest determining level [of pension funding] is the economy and investment return,” Deschenaux said. “$200 million is roughly the amount the employees were asked to put in” when their pension deductions went from 5% to 7% of salary.

Bond-rating agencies concerned

Barkley also argued that the bond rating agencies “were not real happy with what we were doing.” But Deschenaux disagreed, saying he participated in the conference calls with the rating agencies, and they did not raise that issue.

The three New York bond-rating agencies have praised Maryland’s pension reforms of 2011, but in most reports done before bond sales, they raise concerns about Maryland’s high pension liabilities.

Maryland has $40 billion in its pension fund, plenty to cover paying current retirees but only 65% of what’s needed to pay all future pension promises.

Del. Gail Bates, R-Howard, an accountant who has frequently introduced legislation to change Maryland’s pension system and its accounting, asked if the plan would reduce payments to the pension fund by $1 billion.

Deschenaux pointed to a chart in the briefing book (page 29) that shows the $100 million cut $600 million over 12 years, as other pension contributions must be increased to make up for lost investment earnings.

Unions will be lobbying to remove the permanent cut in pension funding, according a statement from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

“AFSCME is reaching out the legislators now to eliminate the language which permanently reduces the investment into the pension fund and replace it with language which forbids it in the future.”

About The Author

Len Lazarick

[email protected]

Len Lazarick was the founding editor and publisher of MarylandReporter.com and is currently the president of its nonprofit corporation and chairman of its board He was formerly the State House bureau chief of the daily Baltimore Examiner from its start in April 2006 to its demise in February 2009. He was a copy editor on the national desk of the Washington Post for eight years before that, and has spent decades covering Maryland politics and government.

8 Comments

  1. pkd

    The governor overspent so now he is raiding the retirement fund.

  2. ron

    There is another thing not mentioned. O’Malley has also raided the 911 fund and is trying to do it again. The 911 trust fund is managed by the Maryland Emergency Number Systems Board whose Mission Statement is …………..

    ENSB
    MISSION STATEMENT
    The Emergency Number Systems Board works cooperatively
    with the counties to provide an effective and efficient
    Maryland 9-1-1 system through the administration of the 9-1-1
    Trust Fund revenues.

    Now, just like the transportation fund, this fund was raided last year and O’Malley is supporting/pushing a bill that would allow the Gov’t to raid this fund again to the tune of about 10 million. I tried to find this documented but couldn’t but I know because I know someone on the board.

  3. reader

    This is what the dumb a** voters of Maryland deserve for always voting the dems into office. Nuf said.

    • ron

      Not all Marylanders voted for this tax happy idiot.

      • Bobjo

        O’Malley could not do this without the support of the democratic legislative party…we need to turn around the party leadership….not is the time.

  4. md observer

    At what point does this budget legerdemain become a constructive breach of MD constitution’s balanced-budget requirement?

  5. Darlene

    This is not clever accounting or even close to being accountable: this is robbing the state employees of their earned benefits and money they paid into the pension plan. Why and for what? This is a disaster and pathetic if the legislatures go along with it. This stealing of funds from one allocation to another must stop!

  6. Frank_Van

    No outrage, no reaction to the glaring dishonesty and patent manipulation of the budget, time and again after promises that the structural deficit is (this time!!!) eliminated with last years one billion dollars and the budgets before. “Borrowing” from dedicated funds, be it highway or parks or where ever they can get it, and the have the gall to borrow those same funds. Is there absolutely no honesty anywhere.
    Are we so stupid that we let this stand, democrat or republican???

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