Facing a $131 million budget shortfall, Prince George's County Executive Wayne K. Curry announced drastic budget cuts yesterday that call for laying off 830 people and eliminating 500 vacant jobs.
"I'm standing here to say that I can't print money. The reality of our budget deficit must be addressed and I have that onerous task," Mr. Curry told more than 150 people, including police officers, firefighters and other county employees.
The potential layoffs come to light in the wake of a controversy over a county pension program that benefited Gov. Parris N. Glendening and three top aides, as well as "no-layoff" provisions the former county executive negotiated with the local labor unions.
The governor based much of his campaign on his record as Prince George's County executive for 12 years, frequently stating in campaign speeches that he had left the county with a $45 million surplus.
But yesterday, there was only talk of dire financial problems.
Among Mr. Curry's proposed cuts -- which he said represent the largest one-time cut in the county government's history -- are the laying off of 300 teachers and school administrators.
Another 530 county government employees, or about one of every nine people on the payroll, will be let go in the attempt to balance the county's $1.2 billion budget, Mr. Curry said.
Some union officials pointed to Mr. Glendening's administration as the culprit behind the deficit. Said John A. Bartlett, president of the county's Fraternal Order of Police: "I hope the state of Maryland doesn't end up this way. The same people are going up there who headed things down here."
Mr. Curry, who took over as county executive two months ago, outlined plans for closing down six county libraries and eliminating county funding for drunken driving and suicide prevention programs. But he didn't attribute any overt blame to Mr. Glendening.
Mr. Curry did, however, say that he was going to eliminate the "involuntary separation" provision in the county's pension system created during Mr. Glendening's administration. The provision has been criticized for paying lucrative benefits to the governor and his top advisers he selected from Prince George's County.
"Obviously, the current involuntary separation clauses and provisions are unacceptable and must be eliminated," Mr. Curry said. "The county's current pension program needs immediate assessment . . . to bring it back to the mainstream of what is reasonable."
The scope of Mr. Curry's proposal rivals a state layoff plan that was implemented at the height of Maryland's budget crisis a few years ago.
In those drastic cuts, Gov. William Donald Schaefer eliminated 5,500 state jobs. Most of those positions were vacant, but the state did lay off about 1,000 employees under the plan, recalled Frederick W. Puddester, deputy chief of staff for Mr. Glendening and a former deputy budget secretary under Mr. Schaefer.
When the Prince George's layoffs will occur and the mechanics are unclear because many of the county's labor unions have "no-layoff" provisions. During that time Prince George's County employees were awarded some of the best pension and fringe benefits of any county in the state.
M. H. Jim Estepp, a member of the County Council, said he foresees difficulty in laying off such a huge number of workers. Layoffs presumably would have to take effect by the new fiscal year, which begins July 1, and there are many legal hurdles in the no-layoff contracts, Mr. Estepp said.
"I find it highly unlikely that the unions would give up their [no-layoff] provisions," Mr. Estepp said. He added that he thinks Mr. Curry is faced with a major deficit problem and is sending a message that the county, whoever or whatever is to blame, is in deep fiscal trouble.
Tim Ayers, a spokesman for Mr. Glendening, said Prince George's financial problems are not that different from those in neighboring Montgomery County or in other jurisdictions that are expecting income and property tax revenues to remain essentially flat in the coming year.
"The principal problem seems to be the slowdown in the economy, which is affecting a number of jurisdictions," he said.
Mr. Glendening, he said, would have been in the same boat had he remained county executive.