$10M for Baltimore in $947M MD capital budget

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Jan 27, 2005 by Andrea Cecil

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. included a total of $10 million for two major economic development projects in Baltimore in his $947.5 million capital budget released yesterday.

The fiscal year 2006 capital budget provides $5 million for the East Baltimore Biotechnology Park and $5 million for the West Side Revitalization Project.

The biotech park is part of an $800 million mixed-use project that will swallow up about a quarter of the 80-acre development north of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. The West Side project is a $1 billion public-private partnership aimed at revitalizing a low-end retail area on downtown Baltimore's West Side.

The Greater Baltimore Committee, a nonprofit regional development group, expressed satisfaction at the governor's funding of the two projects.

They were high on our list. They were top priorities for us, said GBC spokesman Gene Bracken. The funding demonstrates the state's continuing commitment to East and West Side revitalization.

Most of the governor's budget went to education, including public four-year colleges and universities; public school construction; community colleges and private four-year colleges.

The institutions are the place where technology training happens in this post-industrial economy, Ehrlich said.

This is a terrific budget, said Ehrlich, who said the same thing about his $25.9 billion operating budget he released on Jan. 19, adding that it represents the administration's five pillars: education, commerce, fiscal responsibility, health and the environment, and public safety and safer neighborhoods.

The governor added that the administration is quite pleased with lawmakers' reaction to the capital budget.

Legislators must approve the capital budget, as they must the operating budget. However, while they cannot add anything to the operating budget, they may add to the capital budget, as well as make other changes.

In his operating budget, Ehrlich gave the state Department of Business and Economic Development $100.5 million. It was a decrease of a relatively small $700,000 from the amount he proposed last year, and about $3 million more than the Legislature ultimately gave the department to operate on this year.

DBED's fiscal year 2006 budget represents the first time under Ehrlich's administration that the governor has not significantly decreased the agency's budget.