ROBERT L. EHRLICH, JR., Governor                             Ch. 429

number of FTE contractual positions, as reported in the State Budget Books, may not
exceed 2,811 in Executive Branch agencies. For the purposes of this section. Executive
Branch agencies shall exclude the University System of Maryland, St. Mary's College
of Maryland, Morgan State University, and Baltimore City Community College.

(2)     The Governor shall submit to the Board of Public Works not later
than June 15, 2004, a schedule for aligning the authorizations in Section 1 of this Act
to the levels established in paragraph (1) of this section, and shall take such actions
as necessary to implement any necessary reductions. This schedule may only alter
position authorizations for agencies of the Executive Branch, excluding the
University System of Maryland, St. Mary's College of Maryland, Morgan State
University, and Baltimore City Community College.

(3)     In implementing this section the Governor shall abolish the number
of positions in Executive Branch agencies, excluding the University System of
Maryland, St. Mary's College of Maryland, Morgan State University, and Baltimore
City Community College, necessary to reach the limit. At least 50 percent of those
reductions shall be positions defined as belonging to the "Officials and
Administrators" job family in the Title Rate File maintained by the Division of Salary
Administration and Position Classification in the Department of Budget and
Management or positions identified as providing government relations, legislative
liaison, or public information work. The positions identified as providing government
relations, legislative liaison, or public information work in the Department of Budget
and Management response to a 2003 Joint Chairmen's Report shall be considered the
pool of available positions in those employment categories.

(4)     The reductions (267.6 133.3 FTEs) scheduled to take place by June
30, 2005, from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene shall be used to reach
the limit established in paragraph (1). However, if any of these reductions do not take
place for any reason, an identical number of positions shall be abolished from the
Executive Branch.
(5) The number of exempt or non-State funded positions added in fiscal

2004 through the Board of Public Works in non-higher education agencies, under the
authority of Section 19 of the 2003 budget bill (Chapter 202, Acts of 2003) shall not
count under the limit established in paragraph (1).

(6) Funding for the agencies of the Executive Branch shall be reduced by
not less than $13,000,000 in accordance with a schedule determined by the Governor.
This reduction shall consist of at least $9,000,000 in general funds and $4,000,000 in
special funds. This reduction may be allocated to any object or subobject of
expenditure, unless otherwise restricted.

(6) (7) The Secretary of Budget and Management shall provide to the
budget committees a list of abolished positions by eight-digit budget code on or before
July 1, 2004.

SECTION 41. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That no funds in this
budget may be expended pursuant to, or in furtherance of, any policy or program to
purposefully promote or facilitate the participation of faith based organizations in

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