A request for the Maryland forum

[undergroundpanther]

A mental health worker I know has asked me if I wanted to do an interview with a a reporter in a local paper concerning these possible impending horrible cuts in funding to mental health services in Maryland.

I agreed to do it because I have done psych advocacy and stuff before I am a psych survivor and I can be articulate and direct.I have done fine in the past with this sort of interview thing.

But this is the first time the Aegis is interviewing me.They have a right wing tilt.So I am gathering up my data statistics and all.

My request is anyone here or in Maryland who can give me a more accurate lowdown on the agenda( the spoken and "unspoken") of this session in Annapolis going on currently about the state deficits,taxes and funding that O'Malley has called , I need it.Especially the reasons or excuses behind the cuts in mental health services in Maryland including removing the cost of living raises to psych workers and staff...Please send it to me. I am putting this request in the Maryland Forum,mental health forum and General discuss too. Thanks y'all.

[DaveinMD]

1. Basically

there is a huge structural deficit in our state budget. Part of this was caused by the Glendening tax cuts when he was afraid of Sauerbrey in 98. The other huge cause of the deficit was the Thornton Bill which mandated certain education funding. O'Malley proposed a fairly progressive tax plan to solve much of this problem.

Some spending will need to be cut, but no decisions have really been made yet.

[RavensChick]

2. The hot topic of course is slots

Personally, I'd rather go to another state to get my slots on, so I don't care one way or another about it until I see it on the ballot next November.

What I do care about are the tax increases. I moved to Hyattsville last year from DC, and the major sticker shock I got was when I received my property tax bill. I live in a condo and just dealing with that is enough. What they (the delegates in Annapolis) really should do is make sure we get more services in education, health care, help out the counties with high crime rates (of which Prince George's is the highest next to Baltimore), and clean the Chesapeake Bay. I'll be watching the General Assembly very closely when they convene in January so anything's possible.

[DaveinMD]

3. O'Malley wanted to cut property taxes

but the legislature took that out of the package. They'll revisit that in a year when they have a sense of how everything worked.