The plan Gov. Martin O’Malley rolled out last week to cure a persistent deficit is large, complicated and does much more than fill a budget hole, its political calculations as balanced as its accounting.

“It’s got a lot of moving parts,” said House Republican Whip Chris Shank, of Washington.

“The governor is not only proposing new taxes, he’s also proposing new spending on top of new taxes. It’s unconscionable.”

Those moving parts must mesh together in the proper sequence to make the machine work, O’Malley said.

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“I had no idea it would be as comprehensive,” said Senate President Thomas Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert and Prince George’s.

The governor likes to use the word “comprehensive” too, meaning his plan tackles a lot of different problems by taxing a lot of different people in a lot of different ways.

The problems addressed include:

» Funding for public schools and universities;

» Building long-delayed road and transit projects;

» Extending health care to people who are uninsured;

» Curbing smoking;

» Easing the tax burden on “working families.”

To do so, the governor proposes raising nearly every major tax that’s been proposed during the past few years.

“Many of these things are going to be painful to people,” O’Malley said. “I’m mindful of it. I’m respectful of it.”

On Friday, he began meeting with senators and delegates individually to explain the plan and persuade them to vote for it.

On Thursday, he asked an audience of educators to help him in the task.

Lawmakers “need to know they are supported by their neighbors to make those tough decisions to move Maryland forward,” O’Malley told them.

“I don’t think it’s ever easy to raise taxes,” said House Speaker Michael Busch, D-Anne Arundel.

For legislators, the governor’s $1.3 billion tax increases could be “the defining vote of their career,” Busch said.

O’Malley maintains the great mass of taxpayers will pay less, with property tax cuts and reduced rates for lower-income groups and senior citizens — “a peck on the cheek,” as Del. Steven Schuh, R-Anne Arundel, called them.

However, higher taxes for vehicles and gasoline appear to offset those gains.

The people who will pay most of the higher taxes — business owners, corporations and the wealthy — are also the most likely to be the best-organized opponents of the plan.

Realtors, retailers, property managers, tobacco wholesalers, fitness clubs, car dealers, gas station owners and their lobbyists, lawyers and certified public accountants are mounting campaigns to defeat O’Malley’s proposals.

O’Malley seems to have mollified liberal groups with health care expansion and higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations, but higher sales taxes and slots are still difficult for progressives to swallow.

“It’s just not comprehensive or inclusive, [and] ultimately I don’t think it ends up being fair,” Comptroller Peter Franchot told The (Annapolis) Capital editorial board last week.

Other lawmakers want more cuts in local aid, not just the freeze on school aid O’Malley has proposed.

“We can’t tax our way out of this deficit,” Miller said. “People expect taxes as the last resort.”

O’Malley hoped Republicans “will take some heart that we’ve used parts of suggestions,” combining slots with reduced growth in spending.

Republicans aren’t buying it.

“It’s too little, too late,” said House Republican Leader Tony O’Donnell, of Calvert and St. Mary’s. “The governor has given lip service to reining in the growth of spending,” and his slots proposal is nothing like the GOP plan.

“We’re not going to support raising taxes on Marylanders,” O’Donnell said.

If that’s the case, the governor has four weeks to round up at least 71 Democrats in the House and 24 in the Senate who will.

llazarick@baltimoreexaminer.com