Maryland remains in a decades-long cycle of structural budget deficits driven by excess spending.  For instance, Maryland’s budget has risen to $42 billion in 2016 from $30 billion just ten years earlier.   The Institute’s key recommendations for budget and tax reform are:

• Rein in mandated spending, which accounts for 83 percent of Maryland’s state budget.
• Tie Maryland’s debt limit to property values, not property tax revenue, to erase the incentive to increase property tax rates to fill budget gaps.
• Tie state government spending to personal income growth or a “population plus inflation” metric.
• End the decades-long raiding of special funds to balance the state’s budget.