Ready Editorial: What’s a BRFA?
Posted Feb 22
What’s a BRFA?
Of all the issues that Maryland legislators have to tackle in each General Assembly session, passing a balanced state budget is our top constitutional priority.
The way that Governor O’Malley has chosen to balance the budget the last two years has been to increase taxes and fees by hundreds of millions of dollars. I know this may be a surprise to some readers because Governor O’Malley used the slogan, “If it comes out of my pocket, it’s a tax”, during the last election, but it’s true. That’s one of the many reasons I voted against last year’s state budget in my first Session.
However, unlike tax hikes in the past, these tax increases are hidden. They don’t receive up or down votes individually. Instead they are buried in something called the BRFA (often pronounced “Burfa”). That stands for the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act. The BRFA passes as a companion to the state budget each year. Originally, BRFA bills simply adjusted spending formulas to ensure the budget worked within existing law.
Unfortunately, over the past few years, the BRFA has become the place where unpopular policies are placed during the budget process to avoid the typical scrutiny that they would receive if introduced as a single bill. In other words, as a legislator who is not on the budget committee, I am unable to debate and vote proposals up or down individually. Instead we have to vote the entire BRFA up or down – and it’s hundreds of pages.
This year, Governor O’Malley has included nearly $300 million in tax/fee increases in his BRFA (House Bill 87). This $300 million includes limiting personal deductions and mortgage deductions for couples making over $100,000, a tax on cell phone apps, and increases in fees for marriage, birth, and death certificates, swimming pool construction permits, and newborn screening. These are just a few of the increases and they are all in the BRFA.
Several of my colleagues and I are working to expose this practice of hiding policy items in the BRFA. It’s not just taxes either. Often state agencies or programs lose or gain a lot of funding by virtue of what’s in this huge bill. We need a “truth in advertising” policy for government at all levels.
This year, I plan to support a budget alternative that does not depend on regressive tax increases to be balanced. I’ve co-sponsored proposals in the past that bring our budget into balance by reducing the rate of spending increases and exercising the same fiscal discipline that families and businesses have to use in tough times.
I look forward to working with my colleagues in both parties to increase transparency and restrict the hiding of policy matters in the BRFA. As always, I appreciate hearing your thoughts on the issues facing our state. Please feel free to contact me anytime.
Justin Ready
The writer is a Maryland State Delegate representing Carroll County.
