ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Maryland's leading budget analyst says state lawmakers and policy makers need to "get real" about addressing ongoing budget shortfalls.
Warren Deschenaux, the legislature's chief budget analyst, told a panel of lawmakers on Tuesday that the state appears to be in a period of comparatively slow economic growth. He says the state needs to trim its sails in order to accommodate that.
The long-time budget adviser for the state says lawmakers typically respond to shortfalls by making annual adjustments in hopes that better times will come. But now he says Maryland doesn't have a recession to attribute hundreds of millions of dollars in shortfalls.
He says "getting real" means not "budgeting up to every possible dime," though that requires discipline.