EHRLICH Causes Assmebly Budget Tensions: Seniors, Sick Kids, Schools, Etc.

[AuntiBush]

Ehrlich, Assembly budget tensions unusually public

By Andrew A. Green
Sun Staff - June 24, 2005

Partisan tensions have spoiled the usual Annapolis summer lull the past two weeks, as Democratic leaders have decried Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s unwillingness to fund programs the legislature tried to mandate in the budget. Most of the services are the kind politicians like to brag about: meals for seniors, grants for failing schools, cancer research, health care for severely ill and disabled children, and prenatal care for low-income, legal immigrants. All were due for cuts in Ehrlich's original budget proposal. The General Assembly, hamstrung by the Maryland Constitution, employed legislative sleight of hand to pressure the governor to restore them. But with just days to go before the end of the fiscal year, aides say the governor will refuse many of the legislature's requests.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-te.md.spend24jun24,1,3200142,print.story