Donald F. Norris, professor and chairman of UMBC’s Department of Public Policy, offered insight to both the Washington Post and Baltimore Sun this week on what the media are calling Maryland’s “budget meltdown.”

Although state lawmakers passed a budget, the Senate failed to vote on a package of tax increases that would fund it. If the problem isn’t corrected by July 1, it will trigger a “Doomsday” budget that cuts hundreds of millions of dollars from public safety and education.

“If the Doomsday budget stands, everybody gets hurt,” Norris argues, including both interests in Maryland that now lack funding and the lawmakers themselves, who appear dysfunctional. Norris says, “It shows that they can’t function. That they can’t govern.”