Maryland’s Board of Public Works, a three-member panel authorized to approve budget actions, unanimously approved more than $280 million 2010 budget reductions today, a step in addressing a projected budget shortfall of more than $700 million for Fiscal Year 2010.  These actions would bring the total amount of reduced spending and budget cuts under the O’Malley-Brown Administration to $4 billion.

“In the past two and half years, some very tough circumstances – first an inherited structural deficit, and then a troubled national economy – have forced us to make some difficult choices,” said Governor O’Malley.  “We’ve made these choices with an eye toward protecting our core priorities of education, public safety, the environment, protecting our most vulnerable families, and protecting those things that keep Maryland positioned for economic growth and recovery.  Were it not for these decisions we made together, the choices we’d face today would be far difficult and Marylanders would be facing many of the nightmare scenarios plaguing other states.”

These cuts bring the FY10 Operating Budget below $13 billion, representing the first known incidence of General Fund declines for three straight years in the in state history.

Maryland’s unemployment rate remains well below the national average – 7.3 percent compared to the national 9.5 percent rate.  And just this week, all three credit reporting agencies affirmed Maryland as one of only seven states to retain the coveted AAA bond rating, granted only to those governments that demonstrate remarkable fiscal stewardship.