Maryland Senate Budget and Taxation Chair Guy Guzzone said Friday that House and Senate leadership are prepared to make up to $500 million in additional budget cuts as Maryland waits with bated breath for Congress to make its fiscal decisions.

“We’re going to make decisions … along the way in a targeted sense, knowing that the things we do send messages to communities about what their situation is,” Guzzone, a Howard County Democrat, said at an Annapolis news conference Friday morning.

Within the next couple of weeks, lawmakers are anticipating making between $200 million and $500 million in additional cuts to the budget to backfill or bank money — “to do as much as we can, to put us in the best possible place as we move forward,” Guzzone said.

“There are certain cuts in there that really push the limit of our values,” he said.

Guzzone would not go into detail about what is possibly on the chopping block but said lawmakers are looking to protect funding for poverty, mental health and quality-of-life programming the state provides.

“There are a number of places that … you don’t want to make those cuts,” he said. “We’re just taking it step by step.”

The Maryland House of Delegates has the first opportunity to amend Gov. Wes Moore’s proposed budget this year.

Guzzone and House Appropriations Committee Chair Ben Barnes, a Democrat from Prince George’s County, have significant influence over Maryland’s budget. Guzzone said that they have been working very closely, given the uncertainty caused by the federal government.

Guzzone said that leadership is adjusting their budget schedule by six days so that House lawmakers can absorb what happens when — or if — Congress passes a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown on March 14.

The Board of Revenue Estimates is slated to publicize fiscal projections for the state on March 9, which will also help indicate if lawmakers need to make significant cuts.

The Maryland General Assembly meets for 90 days and is scheduled to adjourn for the year on April 7.

Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat, said “the hope is” the budget process will be completed by then.

“It will be structurally balanced. We will follow our constitutional mandate,” he said. “It’s hard to predict the future. I think we are going to take into account what we know as March moves forward to try to anticipate what could also be coming down the line.”

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