Maryland.

State officials will put off issuing their annual analysis of debt affordability until the end of September, after a clearer revenue picture emerges, Treasurer Lucille Maurer said last week.

Gov. William Donald Schaefer, anxious to determine needed budget cuts, has asked finance officials to come up with preliminary revenue estimates by mid-September. "By Sept. 10, in all likelihood, we should have a planning number, probably a range," Ms. Maurer said. She added that officials should have a firm revenue forecast by Sept. 21.

Gov. Schaefer has said the state could suffer a budget gap of as much as $500 million in fiscal 1993 due to continued sluggishness in revenue collections. But state finance officials have stressed that the governor's figures were not supplied by them, and have hinted that their own revenue projections are likely to be higher than Gov. Schaefer's.

Ms. Maurer said the state's Capital Debt Affordability Committee, which she chairs, will issue recommendations on the maximum amount of debt the state may prudently issue, sometime after Sept. 21.

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