March 20th, 2024 by WCBC Radio
During today’s budget debate in the House of Delegates, Democratic members rejected efforts to add funding to the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future – the sweeping education plan that is projected to create billions of dollars in budget deficits in the coming years.
House Republicans offered an amendment that would move $500,000 from salary increases for Public Defenders and use the money to fund the Blueprint and another amendment that would take $3.5 million earmarked for training abortion providers and expanding abortion services and move it to the Blueprint Fund.
“It seems fair to suggest, after these votes, that funding the Blueprint is only a priority if it can be used as a rallying point to raise revenues,” said House Minority Leader Jason Buckel. “Before we raid the wallets of taxpayers, we need to reprioritize our spending. These amendments were offered to do just that. After being told that education spending is the top priority of Maryland Democrats, today it took a back seat to salary increases for criminal defense lawyers and publicly funded abortion services.”
“Tough choices are needed to address the looming mandates under the Blueprint,” said House Minority Whip Jesse Pippy. “It appears the knee-jerk response from my Democratic colleagues is to raise your taxes. Before we go to the taxpayers for more, we must look at how we are spending their money first and then make the difficult but necessary cuts.”
