There's been a structural deficit in the state budget since Glendenning, primarily related to school funding, which every Governor, including Hogan (although he tried to tackle it) has kicked down the road.
Making matters worse was O' Malley's raiding of the State Retirement System and Highway User Revenue funds to balance his General Fund budgets and pay for new initiatives (he took the Retirement System down from 105% funding out as far as could be figured to less than 40%). Hogan started to pay those funds back, although the Legislature opposed him every step of the way.
That's one reason why the TJ bridge keeps getting unfunded, O" Malley spent the money ten or twelve years ago.
I've said this before, if there's one thing that elected officials at every level hate is to have a fund reserved for future expenses just sitting there when it could be spent for something today.
