General Assembly leaders are calling on senators and delegates to take voluntary pay cuts in the wake of the latest budget reductions approved this week by the Board of Public Works.
 
On Thursday, House Speaker Michael Busch and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller asked legislators to voluntarily give up eight days’ pay.

State employees will also be required to take up to 10 furlough days. The number of days each employee will lose will depend on how much they earn.

Employees earning $40,000 to $49,999 will be required to take three furlough days. Those earning $50,000 to $99,999 will lose four days pay. Those making over $100,000 will lose five days pay under Gov. Martin O’Malley’s plan.

On top of that, employees will receive five additional unpaid days off as the result of the closure of government offices. Most of those will be scheduled on the last business day prior to a holiday.

Busch and Miller said they would each give up the maximum of 10 days pay.
 
It’s a similar call to what was made earlier this year, when Busch and Miller wrote a letter to legislators encouraging them to voluntarily give up five days pay at the same time 67,000 state employees were told to do the same.
 
Furloughs for legislators are voluntary. The salary for legislators is set at $43,500. One day of pay equals $120.84, according to the Department of Legislative Services.
 
Details of whether legislators fully followed through on Busch’s and Miller’s call earlier this year remains unknown, because spokesmen for both the House of Delegates and the Senate say they can only provide lists of legislators who participated — not on how many days pay each legislator gave up.
 
But David Schwartz, state director for Americans for Prosperity, said the mere list of names only doesn’t go far enough.

Americans for Prosperity is an organization that advocates for smaller and more accountable government. In recent months, the group has organized tax protests and has been involved in protesting speed cameras in Baltimore County.
 
“We need to be able to hold these guys to what they say,” said Schwartz.
 
A list released by the state Senate shows that seven of eight Baltimore County senators took the earlier pay cut.
 
According to the list, only Republican Sen. Andy Harris did not return part of his salary to the state.
 
In January, Harris said he would participate by making a donation of “four or five days pay” to charity instead.
 
“The last people I trust to spend my money wisely is the Maryland state government,” said Harris, a Republican who represents Cockeysville, Middle River and part of Perry Hall.
 
At the time, Republican Dels. Bill Frank and Pat McDonough said they would also make charitable donations.

Of the 21 delegates from Baltimore County, three are not on the list of those who voluntarily returned pay to the state — Republican Dels. Bill Frank and J.B. Jennings and Democratic Del. Emmett Burns.

Frank, who represents the 42nd District which includes Towson, Timonium and part of Pikesville, said children's tuition payments prevented him from making the donation thus far, but he said he plans to make a $750 donation -- what he promised earlier this year -- to the United Way. Frank works as a fundraiser for United Way.

Jennings, who represents the 7th District which includes Cockesyville, Kingsville and part of Middle River, said he believed he had given verbal authorization to the state human resources officials. Jennings said he will take 15 days without pay -- which will include the five from the first round plus the maximum 10 days Busch and Miller requested last week.

Burns, in a phone interview Friday, said he was unaware of the voluntary furlough earlier this year and asked for additional details. It was explained that Busch and Miller made the request earlier this year in a letter to each legislator. When a reporter asked Burns why his name did not appear on the list of those who returned money, the delegate ended the interview.

“I have absolutely no comment about that,” Burns said.

Alexandra Hughes, a spokeswoman for House Speaker Michael Busch, said personnel laws prohibit the release of specific information pertaining to salary withheld or returned by individual legislators.
 
A Jan. 28 letter to the Frederick News-Post from Sandra Benson Brantly, an assistant attorney general, said the state Public Information Act “prohibits the release of detailed salary information such as exemptions and payroll deductions.”
 
Hughes said that for this new round of furloughs, legislators are being asked to sign a waiver that would authorize the release of information about the number of days for which each legislator would give up his pay.

 
An earlier version of this story included an incorrect headline and misidentified Americans for Prosperity. Both have been corrected here. This story has been updated.

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user comments (2)

user says...

It is astonishing how state lawmakers exhibit a sense of urgency once a crisis has evolved. Instead of offering to take furlough days themselves, those responsible for reckless spending should resign for running our state's train off the railroad tracks. State lawmakers have turned Governor Ehrlich's billion dollar surplus into record deficits despite receiving over $51 million in federal government stimulus funds, implementing the largest tax increase in Maryland's history, and raiding the state's pension fund. O'Malley and his followers in the State Legislature have also prompted a crisis the press has failed to expose fully -- the state's unfunded retiree healthcare liability, which is $15.1 billion dollars and larger than the state's annual operating budget! When will the public realize that decades of one-party rule in Annapolis and our county seats invite disaster? I can only hope the public recalls these desperate times in November 2010.

Posted 6:40 PM, 08.28.09

• Permalink

user stevewhisler says...

It is astonishing how state lawmakers exhibit a sense of urgency once a crisis has evolved. Instead of offering to take furlough days themselves, those responsible for reckless spending should resign for running our state's train off the railroad tracks. State lawmakers have turned Governor Ehrlich's billion dollar surplus into record deficits despite receiving over $51 million in federal government stimulus funds, implementing the largest tax increase in Maryland's history, and raiding the state's pension fund. O'Malley and his followers in the State Legislature have also prompted a crisis the press has failed to expose fully -- the state's unfunded retiree healthcare liability, which is $15.1 billion dollars and larger than the state's annual operating budget! When will the public realize that decades of one-party rule in Annapolis and our county seats invite disaster? I can only hope the public recalls these desperate times in November 2010.

Posted 6:41 PM, 08.28.09

• Permalink