LIKE SOME OTHER states, Maryland is enjoying the fruits of an economic boom whose bounty has intoxicated state officials and blurred their vision. A windfall owing much to the rising housing market has flooded the state's treasury with the sort of easy money that seems as if it might last forever. Politicians of both parties, in an election year, are happily spending the excess cash and cutting taxes besides. But it doesn't take clairvoyance to see that the state is digging itself a big hole; within three or four years, spending is projected to outstrip revenue by more than $1...