WP: O'Malley Orders Search For Cuts Shortfall Expected To Force Layoffs (Maryland )

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/10/AR2007051002290.html

O'Malley Orders Search For Cuts
Shortfall Expected To Force Layoffs

By Lisa Rein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 11, 2007; 12:08 PM

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley said yesterday that he has ordered his Cabinet secretaries to find $200 million in cuts, including layoffs and reductions in overtime, to help close an inherited budget shortfall that is expected to reach $1.5 billion next year.

O'Malley (D) offered the first details of how his administration will address Maryland's worsening financial outlook. Fewer state vehicles, leaner communications staffs, curtailed travel, more energy conservation, efficient purchasing and a smaller menu of state services -- all will be part of a cost-cutting effort that could take effect in as soon as 30 days, he said.

"I don't think there is a department in state government that believes they couldn't do their job better with more staff," O'Malley told reporters in front of the offices of StateStat, his new statistics-driven accountability program. "But we have to do what we have to do."

Layoffs, from high-level administrators down, are almost certain, and Marylanders will feel the service cuts "in a variety of different ways," O'Malley said without offering specifics. Overtime spending, which exceeded $125 million in the last fiscal year, will be scrutinized "down to individual numbers" of employees who put in for a lot of it, he said.

With the exception of public safety and juvenile services agencies that are understaffed, every department of state government will be directed today to scour its budget for savings of as much as 7 percent. Many will be told to return money approved for this fiscal year to the state treasury.

FULL story at link.