Gov. Martin O’Malley made one of his regular appearances on the Kojo Nnamdi show today on WAMU 88.5 FM, and I think I can help out one of the callers.

O’Malley had to punt on a question from an Anne Arundel County resident who wondered why there is so much education stimulus money and yet his wife will not be getting any sort of raise or cost-of-living adjustment. Here is the answer from a story I wrote on Feb. 13:

County education officials don't believe the federal gravy train will make a significant dent in their budget problems while they explore serious options to cover tens of millions in spending increases slated for next year.

Dr. Kevin Maxwell, superintendent of Anne Arundel County Public Schools, told the county House delegation yesterday anything flowing to the county from the congressional stimulus bill may not allow them the same type of dollar swaps the State House is envisioning: federal money replacing state money, which will then be shifted to cover other shortfalls.

Although spending allocated for school construction will be helpful, federal regulations typically constrain local school systems from making those swaps, he said.

"We don't see that as a big panacea," Maxwell said. "I am much more hopeful on the construction side."

I don’t know if the man who called will ever see that, but there you have it: pots of money earmarked for things such as special education cannot supplement current appropriations and free it up for another use.

O’Malley went on to say that poor revenue estimates released today – so far an overall 3.5 percent decline from last year -- are going to spur another $200 million in cuts.

“These cuts are putting a tremendous amount of pressure (and) workload on people,” the governor said.