Of Course He Does

I'm not going to wax too poetic about the fact that Anne Arundel School Superintendent Kevin Maxwell wants more money in his budget and that he is predicting doom and gloom if County Executive John Leopold's budget isn't adjusted to provide more funding for education. Given his record of telling the county to drop dead, Kevin Maxwell demanding more money in his budget (and of course, calling for higher taxes to go with them) is about as shocking as the sky being blue these days. It remains, of course, a sad indictment of modern education that in the minds of these mindless bureaucrats that money equals success, but that is not the point that I want to make (again).

The point I (again) want to make is the fact that the Anne Arundel County Board of Education that allows Maxwell to act like this is made up completely of unelected bureaucrats, only one of which (the Red Maryland-endorsed Vic Bernson) has any fiscal sense among them. Every single one of them is a Democratic appointed, Democratic endorsed flunky who seeks more and more spending to keep the unions happy and higher and higher taxes to pay for it. And not one of them is truly representative of the parents, teachers, and taxpayers of Anne Arundel County because nobody elected these people.

Until we the people here in Anne Arundel County can elect the members of our Board of Education, there is nobody who can hold Kevin Maxwell responsible for his irresponsible spending and his refusal to spend within the means of the County budget. We are well past the need for true reform of how we select our county's school board members...

They Just Don't Get It

Some people just don't get it. I refer you to the latest comments by Adam Pagnucco as it relates to budget and taxation here in Maryland.

On a post in which in he is discussing the shifting of teacher pensions from a state to a county responsibility, Pagnucco drops the following:

If Montgomery wants to preserve the quality of its schools, it must put up a tough fight and negotiate only when it has maximum leverage. That point is not now, but next year, when the next Governor – whoever it is – will have to pass a tax and spending package to deal with Maryland’s long-term budget deficits. Such a package cannot pass without MoCo’s votes.

Um.....what?

That point is not now, but next year, when the next Governor – whoever it is – will have to pass a tax and spending package to deal with Maryland’s long-term budget deficits.

There is only one problem with Pagnucco's broadbrushed statement.

It's not true.

What is the main reason why Pagnucco's statement bunk? It has nothing to do with the fact that Governor Ehrlich (who, by the way, will be Governor again next year) opposes the broad based tax and spending package that Pagnucco is suggesting. It has nothing to do with the fact that Governor O'Malley has presided over the least fiscally responsible administration in the history of the state, or the fact that O'Malley has engineered a series of immoral and irresponsiblie tax increases that has crippled our state financially.

It's the fact that, as many liberals continue to do, Pagnucco relies on the failed notion of taxes and spending being the solution to deal with our budget problems. People failed to realize that the time for Kenyes still passed.

What's more absurd is the fact that Pagnucco's premise continues to go with the theory that only through higher taxes and increased state spending. Hello? Isn't that the kind of policy on which Governor O'Malley's administration has be predicated upon? All O'Malley has done during his time as Governor is raise taxes, raise spending, and fail to take respoonsible steps to protect the fiscal health of this state.

Liberals like Pagnucco just don't get it. There is another way. Whomever is Governor in 2011 should take broad steps to reduce state spending and lower our taxes. Taxes at the very least should be returned to pre-O'Malley levels, in an effort to the middle and working class families that Maryland Democrats seem hellbent on destroying. Our spending plan should be rebuilt from the ground-up to ensure that only legitimate priorities and not Democratic special interests are receiving the bulk of our funding. And the Governor, whomever it is, should take broad steps to begin reducing the size of our state government. Maryland's government has for far too long been too big for its britches; we need a smaller, mor efficient government that only provides necessary services to the people of Maryland.

Maryland's middle and working class families, the ones who have been so hurt by Martin O'Malley's recklessness, knows that higher taxes are not the answer. If liberal opinion makers such as Pagnucco don't come to grips with the fact that there is an alternative to higher taxes and more spending....the people of Maryland will leave them in the dust.

Starve the Beast

Well it looks like the poster-child for failed state agencies doesn't have enough money to keep things going into the next fiscal year:

The Maryland Transit Administration may not have enough money for personnel and operations in next year's budget, legislative analysts warn, but state transit officials insist that they’ll make do with the funding the governor gave them.

Transportation Secretary Beverly Swaim-Staley told the Senate budget committee Thursday that fiscal 2011 will be challenging under Gov. Martin O’Malley’s proposed budget, but she vowed to make it work.

"We have to move things around in the budget, or look at the capital program to meet our needs,” she said.

Now we know that the Transit Administration is possibly the worst-run aspect of Maryland State Government, with a spate of problems throughout the years; failed equipment, unsafe transit lines, services that don't make any money. I have been calling for the senor leadership to be replaced for a long time at the least, and at most to see the entire system privatized so that it can be better managed.

What better way to prove the fiscally reckless manner in which the MTA is being run than the fact that the in the budget submitted for the Governor's approval the agency doesn't have enough money to keep things going.

And what is one reason that the agency is running out of money. Labor unions:

The Department of Legislative Services raised concerns in its analysis of the MTA’s proposed $468 million budget that projected costs of labor contracts could outpace the agency’s funding next year. The document pointed specifically to ongoing negotiations with transit unions.

“There is concern that the fiscal 2011 allowance for MTA is insufficient to support all of the contract increases for services and union personnel expenses in addition to the ongoing expenses of operating a large transit system,” the analysis said.

Here's a memo to MTA leadership; when negotiating these contracts, why not be reasonable? Why not negotiate within your means and try not to spend more than the Governor has allocated for you? Why? Because that's how we operate in the real world. If you are already projecting $468 million in shortfalls because of the contract that is currently under negotiation, you better come up with a plan that will offset that $468 million projection.

Which then leads to the issue of farebox recovery rates, in that the MTA's stated goal is a recovery rate of 35 percent; that means that the goal of the state is to recover only 35 cents of every dollar that it takes to operate the entire transit system.....and MTA right now is only getting a 30 percent recovery rate.

If the MTA were a private business, they would be hemorrhaging money and close their doors within a year with such rates. ...but here in Maryland, such business practices seem to be perfectly acceptable.

If I were in charge of the MTA, I would take steps to make the Agency profitable. There are ways to make the system self-sufficient without making the system unsafe or transit fares unaffordable to average riders. I'm not saying that the MTA needs to have a 150% farebox recovery rate like they do in Hong Kong (on a privatized system, incidentally), but I would make sure that steps were taken in order to move closer to ending the subsidization of of the system.

But I'm not. Instead, MTA senior leadership needs to do the competent thing and spend within their means. With a budget shortfall, there is no room in the budget to throw more good money after bad toward a failing transit administration. General Assembly leadership needs to resist the urge and make the MTA work with less; we need to starve the beast to create efficiencies and costs savings that will finally make the MTA take common sense approaches to improve service.

Playing the Hand Your Dealt

I don't often disagree with Streiff's assessment of local politics, but I don't think his assessment of yesterday's budget hearings does the Republican Caucus justice in this regard.

As soon as President Miller and Speaker Busch called for public hearings and a public airing of Republican ideas; the caucuses were faced with a Hobson's Choice:

• Show up; or,
• Not show up.

Of course, there were consequences to the Caucus picking either choice:

• Show up, and you get the opportunity to air your grievances publicly, in front of citizens and the media. You get the opportunity to show the people and legislative leadership that there are, in fact, real alternatives to the failure of Martin O'Malley and the Democrats to lead on this issue; or,
• Don't show up, and then the story becomes Republicans not wanting to present their ideas on fixing the budget.

Tony O'Donnell, Chris Shank, David Brinkley, EJ Pipkin, Steve Schuh and other Republicans down in Annapolis did the best they could with the hand that they were dealt; in fact, I think that Republican leadership, in actuality, called the bluff of the Democrats. I am not sure that Speaker Busch thought the Republicans had real budget solutions to offer (never mind all of the amendments that O'Donnell, Lowell Stoltzfus, and others have offered over the years).

The fact that Republicans participated in the budget hearing was the best of all possible solutions, particularly when you consider the media hellstorm that would have followed had the Republican caucus balked.

That leads into a different problem; everybody and their brother knew that the Republican budget ideas were not going to get a fair shake in the media. Which leads me to wonder where the hell the Maryland Republican Party has been on this issue. What messages, emails, and talking points have gone out to aggressively push the Republican side of the story?

Frankly, there are two points that need to be said about the State Party media operation;

• One, it seems to comprise short, pithy, not particularly aggressive our meaningful press releases; and,
• Two, it seems to me that we here at Red Maryland seem to have a more aggressive and organized media operation than the State Party does.
  

Republican legislators in Annapolis did what they had to do yesterday; they played the hand that they were dealt.

Now, we have to do our part to grow their numbers this fall....

Deschenaux questions O'Malley Budget

Last week I called Martin O'Malley's budget irresponsible budgeting. Warren Deschenaux, the General Assembly's Chief Budget analyst, seems to agree:

Maryland lawmakers should consider a Plan B in case the roughly $389 million in federal stimulus funds Gov. Martin O'Malley is counting on to balance the state's budget doesn't materialize, the General Assembly's top budget analyst said Monday.

"Some have questioned whether that money is reliably in the bank," Warren G. Deschenaux said at a hearing. "I would say that is not a certainty. The question then is: What to do about it?"

Deschenaux also warned that the roughly $442 million in cash infusions from previously untouchable parts of the budget that O'Malley uses to help close the revenue hole "amounts to an erosion of accounting standards." But he stopped short of ruling the transfers out-of-bounds, saying they had been used during past downturns to keep services going.

"We've been doing this for a long time," he said. "There is very little that is actually new in terms of the thinking underlying the 'found money' aspect of this budget."

"An erosion of accounting standards." Seems like a synonym for irresponsible budgeting for me.

The question, of course, is what the General Assembly is going to be with Deschenaux's assessment, particularly in regards to the $389 million in Monopoly money that O'Malley invented in order to cover this budget shortfall. When the General Assembly's own policy analysts are telling them that a budget seems to be relying on gimmicks, smoke, and mirrors it (should) be incumbent upon them to make appropriate cuts in order to pass a responsible budget.

But I'm not holding my breath...

O'Malley loses The Sun

You have to know that the budgetary mess that Governor O'Malley has created for the people of Maryland is bad when even the Sun attacks his budgetary shenanigans, labeling his budget as one held together by "Chewing gum and bailing wire":

Governor O'Malley's spending plan would, if all goes according to plan, leave $274 million in the state's bank account at the end of fiscal 2011. That's good. It would also leave the rainy day fund alone, also a fine thing. After that, things go south -- and fast.

The Department of Budget and Management predicts that Maryland will be $1.5 billion in the hole in fiscal 2012, followed by shortfalls of $2.1 billion, $2.2 billion and $2.5 billion. Former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. complained that his predecessor left him with $4 billion in out-year deficits, and Governor O'Malley complained that Mr. Ehrlich left him with $3 billion in shortfalls. But with this spending plan, Mr. O'Malley saddles himself or his successor with an $8.3 billion problem. The governor said putting together this budget plan was painful, but it's peanuts compared to what's coming in the future if something doesn't change.

The editorial goes on to point out, much like we did earlier, that the O'Malley budget plan is an irresponsible budget saddled with gimmicks instead of solutions:

The answer is that too many of the solutions he has employed are one-time tactics, not long-term fixes. For example, the governor saves $330 million in the fiscal 2011 budget by keeping most aid to local governments funded at the already-reduced level they are at now. But in subsequent years, that aid is expected to grow by 5.9 percent a year. He saves $78 million through continuations of employee furloughs, but that isn't a permanent solution either. He shifts money from special funds, like those dedicated to preserving open space, into the general fund and pays for those programs through the the state's capital budget, effectively borrowing money for them. Because they displace other capital projects, they won't increase the state's debt burden, but nonetheless, Maryland's debt service payments are expected to grow by hundreds of millions of dollars in the future.

Now in fairness, the Sun went on to attack Republicans by saying their criticism "rings a bit hollow, since they have offered few concrete ideas for reducing spending." Of course, there are tons of Republican ideas for cutting spending, none of which get a fair shake in the General Assembly. But the fact that a Sun editorial actually calls out O'Malley for his reckless spending and his inability to get our budgetary situation under control really should give the O'Malley Administration at least a bit of understanding about how far off the reservation that they have truly wandered....

When you look up irresponsible budgeting in the dictionary, you see a picture of Martin O'Malley playing his guitar

Not to take away from the zeitgeist of Scott Brown's epic victory in Massachusetts tonight, but take a look at the latest budget shenanigans from the office of Martin O'Malley:

Gov. Martin O'Malley plans to rely on a billion dollars in one-time accounting maneuvers to help balance next year's $13 billion state operating budget, avoiding deep cuts to services in an election year.

The strategy drew immediate concern from critics, particularly Republicans, who say the Democratic governor is deferring tough decisions.

O'Malley presented a broad outline Tuesday of how he plans to fill a $2 billion gap between revenues and expenditures in the spending plan he is required to submit to the General Assembly today.

And what is going to take the brunt of the Governor's budget axe? Health care and state workers, naturally:

He proposes steep cuts to to hospitals, and wants to continue this year's plan which forced state workers to take up to 10 days off without pay. Counties would receive the same reduced amounts of local aid and highway money they got this year.

And sometimes we joke about politicians trying to play with imaginary money when using their budget protections, but Martin O'Malley is actually budgeting using imaginary money!

O'Malley is also banking on Congress approving a new package of emergency assistance to states grappling with the worst economic downturn since the Depression. The governor allocates $389 million he believes the state would receive from that program if it materializes.

What planet is Governor O'Malley living on? He wants to cut aid to hospitals, but talk about expanding health care. He wants to confiscate two weeks worth of pay from state workers, but continue to expand the state bureaucracy, all while trying to be a "jobs Governor" as he runs for re-election. Most laughably of all, he wants to stick it to unionized state workers by (let me say this again) confiscating their pay but expect that SEIU and AFSCME will gladly and cheerfully give their money and time to his re-election efforts this fall.

You know, we have talked about O'Malleynomics for a long, long time as Martin O'Malley has smoked and mirrored his way through the first three years of his administration. But just when you think his budgeting skills can't get any worse, they do. All while trying to use Monopoly money to make it all work.

The General Assembly needs to force Governor O'Malley to make the tough decisions when it comes to passing a budget. We cannot afford to continue this gimmicked budgeting, and we need real solutions to dealing with our budget woes. And those solutions cannot be created on the backs of Maryland State Workers: regardless of whether or not state government is too big, it is irresponsible to take money out of the pockets of these workers who are serving the state of Maryland.

The O'Malley Budget is just the latest in a round of budgeting decisions that eschew responsibility and take money directly out of the pockets of state workers who make up a sizable chunk of Maryland's middle and working class families. And I have a feeling that voters are getting tired of the O'Malley Charade...

Not Good Enough

Well it looks like the General Assembly's Spending Affordability Committee has advised Governor O'Malley to freeze state spending when he introduces his FY2011 budget next month. And while I commend the fact that even legislative Democrats realize our spending growth has gotten untenable, it still is not enough action being taken on the part of the legislature.

Fortunately, Republicans on the Committee tried to show Democrats the way:

Republicans rebuked O'Malley and Democratic leaders, accusing them of fiscal mismanagement. Some contend the state shouldn't accept federal stimulus funding, while others predict Democrats will temporarily reduce spending next year and then propose tax increases after the November 2010 election to fix a structural deficit.

A GOP proposal before the spending committee sought a 7 percent decrease in year-over-year spending. It failed on a party-line vote.

Nobody is surprised that this failed on a party line vote. But it is absolutely correct that state cannot and should not maintain spending at it's current levels. Spending has already increased over the past several years at levels that we cannot afford. And that spending problem is only partially the result of the national economy. As we have noted again, and again, and again, the reasons Maryland has a spending affordability problem are:

• Unnecessary increases in social spending, that led to;
• Historic and immoral tax increases, that led to;
• Lower revenue and a higher costs for Maryland's small businesses, that led to;
• Fewer jobs and a higher cost of living for Maryland's middle and working class families, that led to;
• Lower tax revenues.

And of course we have talked extensively about wasteful spending and tax policy before.

The State of Maryland has a spending problem and our legislative leadership needs to cut spending. NOW. And until Martin O'Malley and the General Assembly decide to do right by Maryland's middle and working class families, Maryland will continue to have spending affordability and revenue problems.

Marylanders need responsible leadership. We get that chance in 2010...

Get Real

Len Lazarick reported yesterday about the work of the General Assembly Compensation Commission, which determines whether or not the members of the General Assembly are underpaid when they make $43,000 a year for part time work. But it seems like some of the findings of the commission are not going to put members of the General Assembly (presumably of both parties) in a good light:

The 51 pages of data legislative staff produced for the commission contained a number of telling statistics. For instance, 86 percent of the 188 lawmakers claim their full $42 daily meal per diem during the 90-day session without submitting receipts, though some senators and delegates attend receptions and committee dinners hosted by others....

...Eighty percent of legislators --156 lawmakers -- are reimbursed for lodging for all 90 days the legislature is in session, most at the maximum rate of $126 a day, even though many live within commuting distance. Some of the hotels throw in free breakfast, Sprague noted.

Emphasis mine. And why not give these folks higher compensation during a recession, the lot of them are doing such a bang-up job...

This is an issue that we have touched on before, with a number of legislators who live right here in Anne Arundel County staying the night in Annapolis and claiming their full $126 per diem rate. As I said nearly two years ago:

There is virtually NO good reason (except for maybe issues concerning the weather) for an Anne Arundel County legislator to seek state reimbursement for hotel rooms in Annapolis. It's completely insulting as a taxpayer to see legislators, regardless of political affiliation, live the high life at the Loews or the Marriott in Annapolis while the rest of us mere mortals are subjected to higher taxes and higher costs of living. Sure, I don't have as much of a problem allowing for reimbursable expenses for legislators from the Eastern Shore, or Western Maryland, or even Montgomery County. But when you work in the county you live in, it's just shows embarrassingly poor judgment.

And it still stand true. Frankly, any legislator who lives within a reasonable commuting distance from Annapolis who decides to stay in Annapolis and claim their full per diem is unfit for office. Period.

In the meantime, somebody also needs to get the memo to Senate President Mike Miller that it's a tacky to justify these handouts to General Assembly members in the middle of a recess

Miller defended the per diems and lodging arrangements.

“I don’t think people abuse” the meal or lodging per diem, Miller said. “These are elected officials. Nobody is going to be chintzy about meals.”

“I get invitations to four or five receptions a night, and I rarely eat or consume anything at these events,” Miller said. “Obviously you can’t drink or you’d be an alcoholic.”

“You’re not there to eat, you’re there to meet and greet, and you can’t talk with your mouth full,” Miller said.

He pointed out that some senators and delegates don’t go to any receptions on principle, and other members will go out to eat after they’ve attended a reception.

Well, let's throw a pity party for General Assembly members. It must be tough getting $43,000 a year to work a part-time job (that admittedly does require a lot of extra attention) while generally holding down another full-time job.

There are thousands of Marylanders right now who are unemployed (a lot of them thanks to the General Assembly's complicity in Martin O'Malley's reckless spending) who would be absolutely delighted to be making $43,000 a year for a full-time job, much less a part-time one. To then defend the legislators use of per diem, with the added insult that implies General Assembly members are too good to eat like the rest of us, is an insult to all of the middle and working class taxpayers who are suffering thanks to the actions of Miller and the rest of the Democrats in the General Assembly.

I hope that the compensation commission recommends no changes to the salary or expense rates for General Assembly members. Regulations should be adopted by the General Assembly regarding who is and is no eligible to receive per diem lodging payments (banning legislators within a 50-mile radius of Annapolis from receiving lodging reimbursements would be a good start). And the commission should continue to hold the line on expenses until legislators shape up, provide receipts, and stop abusing the system. They are not send to Annapolis to have a taxpayer funded vacation; they are citizen legislators who are (theoretically) there to serve the interests of the state, not to be reimbursed for expenses that are clearly unnecessary or nonexistent.

And Jim Zorn is the NFL Coach of the Year....

Four-and-a-half years ago, Time magazine named then-Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley as one of America's five best big city mayors. I noted at the time that Time must be setting low standards to credit O'Malley as being good at his job.

Fast forward back to today, and you would be shocked and appalled to discover that Governing magazine has named Martin O'Malley one of their 2009 Public Officials of the Year.

Seriously:

Everyone knows Martin O'Malley is a numbers guy. The data-driven approach to policy and administration that he created as mayor of Baltimore, known as "CitiStat," has been copied by cities across the country. Now, as governor of Maryland, O'Malley is showing that states, too, can improve performance by measuring what they do and relentlessly monitoring their progress.

Emphasis mine. Because I'm not exactly sure what progress we are improving upon here in Maryland thanks to O'Malley and any of his metrics.

Frankly, somebody needs to get the guy a calculator and a clue so he might realize that spending more than you make is an irresponsible, reckless, and immature way to run a government.

The Governing article gets even deeper with O'Malley in an extended interview that has some, well, enlightening comments.

So as you're tackling these big jobs, how do you keep everyone focused and keep morale up when the budget situation is so tough?

I think there's two things that allow us to stay focused as we're jumping these budgetary bowling balls that keep coming down the gutter at us: It's clarity about the big goals — sustainability, security and skills — and it's the relentless stat meetings.

I ask you this; is a Governor who is so focused on his band really able to keep his entire administration focused on public service?

Next, we get to Martin O'Malley's thoughts on power and "being mean":

But how do you know when to back off a little and when to lean in?

When you actually hold the power, I don't think you ever have to be cruddy or mean. I appoint judges, and that's one of the things that I share with them. If you're wearing the black robe you don't have to be cruddy or mean, you've got the power.

Hasn't Martin O'Malley made a career of being cruddy, mean, petty, immature, irresponsible, and a bunch of other adjectives that you could insert here? O'Malley has some of the thinnest skin in the history of Maryland politics, and loathes it when he doesn't get his way. Just look at his shakedown of Constellation Energy and you will see a Governor who is more petulant than poised, and more concerned in political posturing that doing real work for real people.

And furthermore, you will note in the original that O'Malley himself put an emphasis on the phrase "you've got the power." You can draw your own conclusions of O'Malley's views on government intrusion and the scope and size of government from that little emphasis on that little word.

Then, the subject turns to the budget and the economy, and O'Malley continues to show that he has been living in some fiscal wonderland that the rest of us are not privy to:

We did a lot of things prior to getting hit with this recession. When we came in, we had what was primarily a structural deficit, not a cyclical deficit. That was the result of Democrats and Republicans alike, who had voted for huge increases in education investments, the cost of which they knew wouldn't come ashore for another five or six years, while simultaneously voting for 10 percent cuts to revenues. And so we had to address that utterly irresponsible fiscal math, and we chose to do that in a special session eight months into my first year.

Yes, he somehow managed to squander a $1.2 billion surplus eight months into his term. It was amazing and stupefying, yet he was able to pull it off. That leads us to....

Most of us remember it as a really miserable session — there was nothing terribly special about it. But we looked at virtually every revenue source available, the primary one being the sales tax. So we raised that by a penny. We also put in place a progressive income tax for the first time in Maryland's history, where we asked higher-earning folks in our state to pay a little more than a single parent who might make only $30,000 a year. And we also increased our corporate income tax by 1 percent. Those were some of the things that we did. And as difficult as it was, the fact that we did them before the recessionary tsunami hit has stood us well.

Yeah, it was a miserable session alright; mainly for Maryland's middle and working class families who have been suffering at the hands of Governor O'Malley's recklessness and incompetence. Higher and higher taxes continue to slow our economy, drive jobs out of state, and force middle class Marylanders into continued economic uncertainty, but Martin O'Malley thinks that this is a good thing. And what's even more delusional is the fact that Martin O'Malley thinks that Maryland's fiscal situation is good right now. He raises billions in new taxes, adds billions in new spending, wonders why the math doesn't work out, and then in an Orwellian fashion declares the crisis managed and that victory has been won. It's surreal.

Finally, as is Governor O'Malley hadn't already shown how divorced he was from reality, comes this:

In talking to some of the Republicans in the legislature, while they complain about Democratic dominance they do say that your administration is at least approachable. What's your basic strategy when it comes to working with the legislature?

I was elected following a term of tremendous polarization. It was almost the Newt Gingrich sort of thing, that you'd better not be seen having lunch with people that are not of your party. So I've tried to bring us together, and to underscore that we're one Maryland and we're all in this together. I do understand that each legislator is individually elected and each has a vision that they bring into government.

A Maryland Democrat talking about polarization is so incredibly comical, given the fact that it was Democratic leadership in Annapolis that refused to work with Governor Ehrlich when he came to them with a collaborative approach. In the time since O'Malley has taken office, he has taken a my way or the highway approach, particularly with Republican leadership in Annapolis; how many times over the years has Republican leadership been completely left out of the conversation, particularly when it comes to important issues such as taxation, the budget, and health care.

Sure, there are some Republicans who for whatever reason will give O'Malley cover and vote for his plans. But I think it is safe to say that Martin O'Malley has presided over the greatest partisan divide in Annapolis in my lifetime.

The fact of the matter is that this article in Governing has shown that the O'Malley camp is doing a nice job of pulling the wool over the eyes of people who don't see how he operates on a day-to-day basis, nor people who are living here in the state of Maryland. We see the kind of petulance, incompetence, and indifference that comes out of the O'Malley Administration on a Daily Basis. We see the middle and working class families who are struggling to make ends meet as they suffering from higher taxation and fewer job opportunities. We see state employees suffering furloughs because of lower than expected tax revenues due to businesses, people, and jobs leaving the state in droves.

It makes you wonder how any objective observer could recognize O'Malley's "Accomplishments". I suppose there is hope for Jim Zorn yet...

Now and Then

Remember the good old days, say about 2006, when Bob Ehrlich was in the process of leaving Maryland with a $1.2 billion budget surplus at the end of his term? You're right, it wasn't that long ago, and it really just emphasizes how bad of a steward Martin O'Malley is with your money when a $2 billion budget shortfall is staring us in the face.

We as conservatives and Republicans can jump up and down in the face and say I told you so. We told you that the Democrats spending plans were going to bankrupt the state. We told you that the historic and immoral tax hikes from the 2007 Special Session were going to dry up revenues. And now it seems like every day we are being proven right.

But none of that is going to provide responsible fiscal leadership here in Maryland. Martin O'Malley has shown time and time again that he does not care about the interests of Maryland's middle and working class families. Nor has Governor O'Malley shown the ability to learn from his mistakes.

Unfortunately, just being right on the issues isn't enough in a state like Maryland. So what you need to do is to go ask your friends, your neighbors, your colleagues, one simple question.

Is Maryland better off now than it was three years ago?

Hope and Change Pain

It is obvious to everybody that President Obama's handling of the economy leaves much to be desired. With monetary giveaways to any company with their handout, our "investment" in the auto industry, and record deficits on the way, Obama's fiscal policy seems more like a call for the limbo than it is a plan for fiscal recovery.

And apparently, as I have noted before.....we've seen this movie:

Barack Obama is committing the same mistakes made by policymakers during the Great Depression, according to a new study endorsed by Nobel laureate James Buchanan.

His policies even have the potential to consign the US to a similar fate as Argentina, which suffered a painful and humiliating slide from first to Third World status last century, the paper says.

There are "troubling similarities" between the US President's actions since taking office and those which in the 1930s sent the US and much of the world spiralling into the worst economic collapse in recorded history, says the new pamphlet, published by the Institute of Economic Affairs.

In particular, the authors, economists Charles Rowley of George Mason University and Nathanael Smith of the Locke Institute, claim that the White House's plans to pour hundreds of billions of dollars of cash into the economy will undermine it in the long run. They say that by employing deficit spending and increased state intervention President Obama will ultimately hamper the long-term growth potential of the US economy and may risk delaying full economic recovery by several years.

The study represents a challenge to the widely held view that Keynesian fiscal policies helped the US recover from the Depression which started in the early 1930s. The authors say: "[Franklin D Roosevelt's] interventionist policies and draconian tax increases delayed full economic recovery by several years by exacerbating a climate of pessimistic expectations that drove down private capital formation and household consumption to unprecedented lows."

Well, that's a cheery way to spend your Labor Day. But I think it is incredibly illustrative of the arguments being put forth not just in Washington but also in Annapolis. Both Obama and O'Malley are hellbent on trying to spend our way to fiscal prosperity while, at the same time, making it harder and harder for middle and working class families to compete on a level paying field. Both the President and the Governor are taking us on a reckless fiscal course that will lead to higher deficits at the national level, long-term inflation, and a reduction in earnings and income for most Marylanders.

At the Maryland level, this is a particularly damning problem. With our state Constitution requiring balanced budgets, it is painfully obvious to everybody the danger that comes with proposed overspending. When you combine liberal belief in the myth that Maryland has a recession proof economy with a senseless devotion to Keynes, you wind up with a hyper-bloated state budget that requires piecemeal cuts. And Governor O'Malley, instead of showing leadership and reducing state spending and the size of state government, instead tries to finagle his way out of it.

In short, the fiscal policies of Barack Obama and Martin O'Malley are not sustainable, will cause more and more pain for middle and working class Marylanders and are designed to avoid the tough choices that these leaders need to be making.

On this Labor Day, I challenge Maryland's leaders at the federal and state level to figure out how exactly they are going to make life more affordable for Maryland's middle and working class families. Your reckless fiscal positions have gotten us to this point; so how do you plan on fixing it?

Memo to Governor O'Malley

Your counterpart in Indiana, Mitch Daniels is a pretty smart guy. Read this. You might learn something.

A Good Start

While the President and the Democrats in Congress continue to move forth with their plan of impoverishing America's working and middle class families under the weight of government-run health care, Speaker Newt Gingrich is moving forth with a simple, common-sense plan to get the economy rolling:

1. Cut the Payroll Tax in Half for 2 Years.

2. Abolish Taxes on Capital Gains.

3. Reduce the Corporate Tax Rate.

4. Abolish the Death Tax.

I'm not sure the Speaker's plan goes far enough. I would tie-in appropriate cuts in discretionary spending, and make the cut in the payroll tax permanent and not a temporary, two-year tax, but this is certainly a step in the right direction.

For too long, Democrats like President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Governor O'Malley have tried to sell the public on a bill of goods that implies that only massive bureaucracy, wasteful government spending, and immoral levels of taxation can get us out of our current economic funk. But as we have shown time and again, higher taxes and wateful spending do nothing but put the onus of government largesse on the backs of America's middle and working class families. And I am more every day that the American public is becoming more and more fed-up with the status quo on taxes and spending, something that can be seen with the rise of the size and influence of the tea party movement in America.

Speaker Gingrich's tax proposals are a good start for Congressional Republicans to do their best to try and return fiscal responsibility and sanity to Congress...

Asking for It

So Governor O'Malley, devoid of any ideas of his own in how to manage a budget responsibly, is asking the public for their ideas on how to cut spending.

I have a funny feeling that I'm not the only conservative in Maryland who has ideas on how to accomplish this task. So maybe we all need to tell Governor O'Malley what he really doesn't want to hear.

Do your part over at http://www.governor.maryland.gov/budgetcuts.asp.

Alternative Funding

You know that I have gotten on my privatization high horse more than once before, but it looks like on the other side of the Potomac the idea might get put to good use in a very unusual way:

Robert F. McDonnell, the Republican candidate for governor of Virginia, proposed Tuesday handing over about 330 state-run liquor stores to private operators to pay for road improvements -- a novel way to fund fixes but one that confronts many of the same obstacles that have stalled previous efforts.

For those of you that don't know, all alcohol in Virginia is sold in state-owned ABC stores. McDonnell's proposal would generate half-a-billion dollars in immediate revenue to deal with transportation woes in Northern Virginia, where there is strong opposition to both new taxes, but also in a reduction in funding of education to pay for it.

While this proposal comes from a Republican, and does not solve all of Virginia's long-term revenue needs when it comes to transportation, it is one logical and reasonable alternative to raising taxes and fees in order to keep state government running. Maybe Martin O'Malley can take the hint and realizes that there are, in fact, alternatives to trying to squeeze every last red cent out of Maryland's taxpayers....

Peanuts

In Martin O'Malley's never ending quest to show he is incompetent when it comes to fiscal matters, he announced his plans to put a band-aid over a severed limb:

Health care providers who serve Medicaid patients will get paid less, the University System of Maryland will hire fewer faculty members and 40 state workers will lose their jobs as part of $280 million in budget cuts proposed by Gov. Martin O'Malley.

The Democratic governor has compiled a list of budget cuts to be presented today to the Board of Public Works, a three-member body that can approve midyear budget adjustments when the General Assembly is not in session.

But the cutbacks won't end there: O'Malley plans up to $470 million in further budget cuts before Labor Day. The next round of spending reductions will target aid to local governments and state employee compensation, O'Malley said during a news conference.

And what exactly is included in the current proposed reductions?

• Limiting how much Medicaid will pay for hospital stays over a certain length. Savings: $24 million
• Reducing funding for operating expenses at the University System of Maryland. Savings: more than $17 million
• Reducing the Maryland Lottery's advertising budget. Savings: $5.5 million
• Cutting funding for stem-cell research and Chesapeake Bay cleanup. Savings: $5 million
• Laying off 40 state workers

It's almost like Governor O'Malley is doing his part to do as little damage as possible now, in order to really have to do some financial jujitsu later.

Meanwhile, the adults are the only ones stating what's painfully obvious to the rest of Maryland:

The governor, who briefed reporters on his plan Tuesday afternoon, was harshly criticized afterward by Republicans for not acting more boldly.

"It appears to me to be inadequate and avoids the difficult decisions that need to be made," said House Minority Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell (R-Calvert), pointing to projections showing an even larger budget shortfall next year. "We are in dire financial straits, and the governor continues to fail to act."

It just continues to defy logic and explanation that Governor O'Malley refuses to face the facts that he has wrecked Maryland's economy. He continues to refuse to face that fact that his draconian and immoral tax hikes have stretched Maryland's taxpayers thin, and forced business to close or move out of state. And he refuses to take any preemptive measures to avoid near certain budget shortfalls in the future through adequate planning and fiscal prduence. Martin O'Malley is continuing to cut out peanuts when we desperately to take meat out of our budget.

Just once, I'd like Martin O'Malley to act like he gives a damn about the plight of our state and its taxpayers......

Memo to Judd Legum

All of those people you say allegedly support the President's economic policies.....yeah, where are they again?

As short-term optimism about the economy has grown in recent months, so has the concern that the federal governmentwill do too much in response to the nation’s recent economic challenges.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 52% of the nation’s Likely Voters now worry that the government will do too much. That’s up from 50% a month ago and 43% in mid-February. It’s the highest level of concern measured since Barack Obama was elected president.

To put this simply so Legum can understand.....more than half the country is worried that the government is going to go too far is trying to manage the economy. Maybe that explains why over 500,000 people across the country attended tea parties last week.

Here is a graph so that maybe Legum cam understand what we are talking about here:

There are other stats there that continued to debunk Judd Leugm's space cadet philosophy on the economy. But you need only too look around to notice that people are vehemently opposed to this President's economic policies. And the more the President and Congress spend, the more likely it is Republicans will succeed in 2010 and 2012.

The Brian Griffiths Minute: 04-16-2009

Thanks for playing along

Republicans, conservatives, and sane people in the state of Maryland have been saying for some time now that fiscal policy during the the 2009 Legislative Session has been nothing like the common sense fiscal changes our state truly needs. We have been saying for some time (even going back to the 2007 Special Session) that O'Malleynomics was no way to run a state, and that the Democrats tactic of gaming the system now to forestall actual fiscal decisions until later was no way to solve the budget crisis.

Nice to know that the Baltimore Sun and the rest of the state have caught up:

But all that effort still won't put the state on solid, long-term financial footing.

Even with the influx of federal stimulus money, the General Assembly will reconvene in nine months facing a budget gap that analysts expect will reach more than $1 billion.

That's right. The Democrats mismanagement of the budget situation this year has already sunk us $1 billion into the red for next year. And if there is any solace in the fact that the Democrats can't lead their way out of a paper bag on economic issues, it's this following fact:

And, some would argue, it might be the worst possible time for Gov. Martin O'Malley and lawmakers to make unpopular cuts that could include layoffs or curtailing services.

After all, it will be an election year. The governor is expected to seek a second term, and all 188 General Assembly seats will be on the ballot.

"Next year is going to be enormously challenging, and that's an understatement," said Warren G. Deschenaux, the legislature's chief fiscal analyst, who has pointed out to lawmakers that the next budget they craft will take effect four months before they face re-election.

That's right. The Democrats are going to have to eat their long-standing, long-developed budget disaster at precisely the time they hope the voters are not going to notice.

Now, the last time we had an incumbent running for Governor was in 1998. In that year, the state increased social spending and passed a significant tax cut in order to head off at the pass any momentum that Ellen Sauerbrey might have had going into her rematch against Parris Glendening. It seems like it will be impossible for the Democrats to do either next year given the deficit that O'Malley and legislative leadership has already dug for themselves.

Just wait until 275 days from today, when the General Assembly reconvenes in Annapolis (unless Governor O'Malley reconvenes them in Special Session for some cockamamie reason). And the Democrats, who have already ruled out both spending cuts and tax cuts, are going to have to try and figure out how to get out of the ocean of red ink they made for themselves. And we all know who is going to wind up paying in the end; the taxpayers.

Is is any wonder that tax prostests are popping up all over the country, particularly here in Maryland? Maryland Democrats have proven time and time again that they are incompetent stewards of our taxpayer dollars, and incapable of learning the basic economic lessons that the majority of Marylanders have known for years; that you can't spend your way out of debt.

And I think that come next November, the middle and working class families of Maryland who Democrats are continually screwing over are going to say "enough is enough"......