Key lawmakers from the House and Senate are hashing out their differences over the state's $13.2 billion budget with the help of fiscal analyst Warren Deschenaux.
Deschenaux is known for his overwhelming knowledge of the budget and his dry wit … we've taken a couple favorite snippets from Monday's two hour meeting and copied them below.
- On the House proposal to borrowing an additional $100 million from an obscure account where local income taxes are collected:
"It is like Easter. Easter morning finding a basket. Except you might get a bill. It is a nice thing if you can pay for it."
"I can't guarantee you that that the accountant mavens will not come back and say something horrible" about the idea.
"This is an account that had a huge balance. We went to a large balance. We are now going to a small balance."
- On the Marylanders who voluntarily check off a box on their state income tax forms to donate money to publically fund elections:
"For some crazy reason people keep checking off the box even though it [the fund] has not been used in recent memory."