Matt Schnabel
On Jan. 16, university President Wallace Loh detailed this university’s share of a $40.3 million cut to the University System of Maryland budget in a campuswide email. The $15.6 million in cuts handed down to this university predictably proved unpopular, though in the face of this state’s staggering budget shortfall, they were hardly unwarranted.
The cuts, part of efforts taken by former Gov. Martin O’Malley to close the gap before the end of the fiscal year in July — slashing the system’s budget, 2 percent across-the-board cuts to state agencies, 2 percent midyear tuition increases at system institutions, among others — reflected a fiscal climate legislators had allowed to sour for years, if not decades. And when voters elected Larry Hogan, a businessman with a primarily economic platform and the second Republican governor this state’s seen since the 1960s, it demonstrated residents had their money on their minds more than ever before.
Now, as Hogan navigates this state’s often-murky financial waters, the bottom line has taken on more significance than in years past. Residents, weary of two terms of tax increases and a struggling business environment, have called on lawmakers to roll back spending while continuing to provide for their constituents — a test for even the savviest legislators.
With a new age of austerity on the way in Annapolis, state officials must recommit themselves to financial transparency. Where are residents’ taxes going? Why are state agencies seeing less funding?
The decisions we witnessed O’Malley make in the waning days of his tenure, as well as the moves we saw Hogan make in the early days of his own, have at times been difficult to swallow. All the same, with an understanding of the projected $750 million budget deficit that prompted them, it’s harder still to argue that they aren’t necessary.
Here at The Diamondback, we’ve spent the year cataloging the financial decisions made in Annapolis and on the campus in an effort to deliver the day’s news in an easily digestible format — to help our readers keep track of and understand campus, local and state policy and budgetary changes.
As journalists, we’ve pledged to hold officials accountable in our coverage. Our annual salary guide adheres to that mission, laying out each university employee’s yearly pay over its 24 pages. Online, you can find the same broad listing, which you can search by salary, department, title and other factors.
Each year, in a display of the transparency we aim to ensure from officials, the university provides this public data to The Diamondback in a basic Excel spreadsheet. We’ve rendered its contents on the page and online without tampering; if so inclined, readers could request the same public data from the university to receive all of the information presented in this guide.
The Diamondback chooses to compile this data year after year as a service to our readers — giving students, alumni, employees and others in the university community immediate, comprehensive access to the kind of financial information state residents have prioritized in great measures this year.
As with all of our news coverage, the salary guide maintains The Diamondback’s commitment to objectivity. We won’t tell you what conclusions to draw from these numbers, but it’s our hope that they’ll give you every bit of information you need to reflect on your own. As always, your takeaways from this information are your own — just as they should be.
