The Walk Back

Yesterday, Gov. Martin O'Malley's was a $50 million bill that the county had no say in.

Today it appears County Executive Kevin Kamenetz is walking back his concerns that were punctuated with dire hints of layoffs and furloughs or other budget costs.

Kamenetz Wednesday afternoon told Robert Lang, a WBAL radio reporter, how much of a hit the county actually takes is dependent upon whether the General Assembly passes other tax programs in the budget.

"It's really a $50 million bill," Kamenetz told Lang.

"Boy, that's a lot of money and we really have no say in it," he said. (Listen to Lang's interview with Kamenetz.)

The county executive hints in the interview that should the county take a large hit from the plan that layoffs or furloughs or other budget cuts could be on the table.

His interview with Lang was around the same time that a county spokeswoman was telling me that the county would defer comment to a later date.

"Our budget analysts are reviewing the proposal," said Ellen Kobler, adding that this would be the sum total of the county's statement on the issue Wednesday.

So hearing the differences, I called Don Mohler, Kamenetz's chief of staff who reiterated Kobler's comments.

"We're not going to weigh in on the issue this early in the process," said Mohler Thursday afternoon.

Mohler said Kamenetz has been "very consistent" in terms of his statements on the pension issue and was not walking anything back.

So what about the $50 million bill? The all options are on the table comments?

Mohler attributed that to Lang's timing.

"He caught the county executive coming out of a briefing on the issue," said Mohler. "He had just looked at the (spreadsheet) and didn't have a chance to talk to the county budget staff."

The sheet released to Kamenetz and other county executives was obtained earlier on Wednesday by Patch.

It shows that Baltimore County would have to come up with $2.9 million after the state provides some additional financial help to offset the costs. That's a far cry from the range of $10 million to $50 million Kamenetz talks about in his radio interview.

"It appears, from the governor's proposal, that the impact of this to the county is about $2.9 million," said Mohler on Thursday afternoon.

So do county budget officials agree with the governor's numbers?

Mohler would only say that the county preferred to not comment on the pension issue.

"Everything is fluid at this point," Mohler said.