Slots Are a Go, Education is Not

Maryland has been having some problems balancing their budget, and the plan that they unveiled yesterday has left many scratching their heads. The plan is cutting education and approving slots, but not increasing taxes.

Many thought for sure that the state was going to have to increase taxes, but instead the governor has chosen to curtail education spending, which has many residents upset. They feel that there are a host of other governmental programs that could be cut instead of education.

The approval of the slots will assist with the budget in the future, but will not do much for the state of education this year. There are other programs that will be cut this year as well, but many felt that education was not one area that could be spared. Lawmakers say that the slots will help a lot with increasing funding for education next time around, but many say that may be too late.

The other problem is the legalization of slots, which many have a moral objection to. However, the state says that the slots licenses are going to bring in immediate revenue with the auctioning off of those slots licenses to those that will give back to the state the most amount of slots revenue.

The Democrats said that they thought it was well thought out plan that will help with the budget shortage, but Republicans said that it was too broad – saying that they were not clear in how they wanted to cut the areas that were listed. They say that saying you are going to cut education is one thing, but what specifically are you cutting?

 

Back to August 2007 Archive.