Hype, Reality, Gimmicks

If you listen to Martin O'Malley, you would think that Maryland is the land of milk and honey when it comes to job retention and job creation.

Of course, the reality of the situation could not be any different for the working men and women of our state:

Two well-paying blue-collar employers in Washington County are shuttering their businesses, adding to the woes of this Western Maryland county that already has a jobless rate among the highest in the state.

Read the whole story to learn about the bleak economic picture out in this region of our state. The recession impacts Western Maryland worse than many other areas of the state because the businesses in this region are competing against two states for businesses and job creation. Both Pennsylvania and West Virginia have a climate that is more conducive for economic growth given the fact that businesses face fewer unnecessary regulations and are no subjected to such a high cost of business through overtaxation.

Martin O'Malley has not been inclined to deal with the issue of economic growth and job creation throughout his term, as you know, since he insists on expanding the scope of government and raising taxes on businesses and individuals alike.

But that does not mean that the administration is doing nothing in an effort to pretend like they are creating a conducive economic climate. The Democrats in Annapolis still insisted on bringing back the sales tax holiday each August as part of the Saturday Night Massacre back in 2007. As part of their effort to raise taxes to historic and immoral levels, Democrats decided that the least they could do is to give citizens the facade that their care by overhyping a sales tax holiday on small purchases that does little more than prove to citizens how much they actually pay in taxes on even the most basic of items. The sales tax holiday is little more than a gimmick designed to make people think that the Democrats in Annapolis care about them.

There are fewer than 90 days until the election. And on November 2nd we will have the opportunity to elect a Governor and members of the General Assembly who will take steps to improve instead of destroy our economy.

Slick Spots

Martin O'Malley's endorsement of union violence isn't the only bad decision that's coming back to bite him. After all, his pronouncements about oil washing up on Maryland's shores sure looks stupid considering it was O'Malley who took over 20 percent of the state's Oil Disaster Cleanup Fund to cover his excessive spending in other areas.

Of course, we have documented Martin O'Malley's irresponsible budgeting for some time now. Maybe O'Malley doesn't understand that you have contingency funds such as the Oil Disaster Cleanup Fund in case of a contingency such as the need to fund an Oil Disaster Cleanup, not to line the pockets of the union thugs and special interests who support his candidacy.

With Martin O'Malley in Annapolis, you get a Governor who never has your best interests at heart. It's past time to put the adults back in charge in Annapolis. Just another reason Red Maryland backs Bob.

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.

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...

This guy wants to represent you, too....

Local trial lawyer/house candidate/mudslinger Judd Legum is still doing his trial lawyer bit as he campaigns for the House of Delegates. And let me tell you what, he takes on some odd cases for someone who wants to earn the public's trust:

The Odenton Volunteer Fire Company wrongly rented out its social hall for an event in which two people were shot and a third was hit by a car while fleeing the violence, a lawyer for the injured partygoers said in opening remarks Tuesday to an Anne Arundel County jury.

Judd Legum asked jurors to hold the fire company liable for his clients' injuries.

But Senior Assistant County Attorney Hamilton Tyler said that it was not the fire company's fault that the party organizer lied on her application and that a disgruntled partygoer shot two people....

....Legum said the county liquor board threatened to curb the license at the Odenton facility after other violence, including at an event in March 2005 in which Young applied under her maiden name to hold a party for a nonprofit that was really a for-profit party where a person was stabbed.

The fire company promised to rein in the parties, blackball anyone who lied on an application and have firefighters monitor the events, but that didn't happen, Legum said.

Tyler said the trial will show that Young lied on the application for the September 2005 party because she knew the fire company had changed its rental policy.

So let me get this straight; Judd Legum wants to hold the Odenton Volunteer Fire Department responsible for the misuse of their facility by somebody who committed fraud and decieved the fire company to obtain use of its facility, and he wants Anne Arundel County taxpayers to fork over $7 million in taxpayer dollars in restitution for something neither the county nor the taxpayers were liable for.

Is this really why we pay taxes? Is this really a good use of taxpayer dollars? Of course it isn't.

The fact of the matter is that the trial lawyer who wants Anne Arundel County resident to fork over $7 million for something that the lawyer himself knows that the county could not be responsible for also wants to represent the people of Anne Arundel County in the House of Delegates. Is this the kind of guy we want to be making decisions with our taxpayer dollars in the House of Delgates?

Judd Legum is very good and finding new and creative ways to beclown himself, and new and amazing ways to show that he is not fit to be a member of the House of Delegates...

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...

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.

Never Ceasing to Amaze

This is not the first time we have heard Democrats float this idea, but it never ceases to amaze me that in the middle of a recession that has seen Democrats continue to put the financial hammer to middle and working class families, they want to tax us some more:

A Montgomery County delegate says that legislators should consider new taxes after revenue shortfalls forced Maryland to slash $736 million from its fiscal 2010 budget this summer.

"If our guiding principle is to protect those vulnerable among us, we need to look at revenue, because clearly our problem is a revenue problem," said Del. Roger Manno, who added that the legislature should "as soon as possible, take another look at revenue as opposed to cuts."

Yes, clearly what is called for right now when families are suffering is to make more families suffer, and to make families suffer more.

What is amazing about Del. Manno's attitude is the fact that we need to tax more in order to protect the vulnerable. What that assumes is that anybody who makes even a reasonable middle class living should be forced to subsidize not just the needs of the poor, but also the needs of the special interest groups that bend over backwards to support Democrats during election season. If Manno was not so oblivious to the needs of his constituents, he would do something constructive in order to "protect those vulnerable among us" by sticking to basic good government principles. And a good start to enact those good government principles would be to fight for smaller taxes and to eliminate the very same wasteful government spending that Manno belives we need to raise taxes in order to afford.

Yes, the likelihood of a tax increase during the 2010 General Assembly session is slim to none. But remember that the small minority of Democrats who are willing to admit that they want to raise taxes in the year before an eletion will become a thundering cacophony of tax-hiking Democrats come 2011.

We owe it to our neightbors to make sure that these slicksters don't deceive the electorate into thinking they are against tax hikes, and the electorate needs to be reminded that the historic O'Malley tax hikes and O'Malley deficit will be child's play compared to what will come in 2011 if Democrats are kept in control of our state through another election cycle.

C'mon Democrats, I'm begging you

This might be one of the all time most amazing stories I have ever read about dumb ideas from Democrats in Annapolis:

Annapolis is girding for a debate on taxes as the traditional election season stance of "no new taxes" is being worn down by seemingly endless bouts of state budget-cutting.

Gov. Martin O'Malley has slashed spending as tax revenues have fallen and plans to announce about $470 million in further reductions this month. That has prompted some Maryland lawmakers and special-interest groups to suggest looking at the other side of the ledger to get more revenue flowing into state coffers.

Read the whole thing, but liberals are proposing a whole slew of new taxes include even more taxes on business, charging sales tax on all internet purchases, and the idea of combined reporting, an accounting trick that will force more business to pay new taxes.

To their credit, Mike Miller and Mike Busch are both saying that there will be no attempts to increase taxes......for now. But I am begging legislative Democrats and their interest group friends to hop on board this train and see where it takes them. Citizens across Maryland are already fed up with overregulation, overspending, and overtaxation here in our state. We have already seen what out of control taxation and spending have done to Maryland's economy and the economic well being of Maryland's middle and working class families. And we already know that liberal Democrats in Annapolis are naive enough to believe that the people of this state will stand for more of the same failed economic policies from Governor O'Malley and the General Assembly.

To make a long story short, if the Democrats find a way to move forward with a proposed tax increase in an election year, Republicans will pick up a considerable number of seats in the General Assembly and have a realistic shot of ensuring a Republican gets elected Governor next year.

So Democrats, I'm begging you to make one more dumb mistake. Try raising taxes and see what happens at the ballot box in 2010.......

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......

Pipe Dreams

The Sun had a reasonably written editorial this morning encouraging action that will not likely occur in this or any other universe; spending cuts by Maryland Democrats, including cuts to legislative scholarships, a roll-back to the tuition freeze, and a reduction in aid to local governments.

But let's take a look at Governor O'Malley's track record on this. Increasing health care spending in a fiscal crisis? Check. Pass prevailing wage laws to increase required spending on government contracts? Check. Billions to create a "biotech hub"? Check. And that's just a small sampling of the spending hikes that Governor O'Malley has foisted upon us, to say nothing of the tax hikes that have led to reduced tax revenues.

Sadly, we knew back in 2007 that Fiscal 2010 was going to be a tough year, yet Governor O'Malley and his partners in crime in Annapolis did nothing responsible about it. Why should we suspect that they'll start now?

The Governor needs to pay attention

How come it only ever seems like Governor O'Malley and his administration are surprised at the need for fiscal restraint, most recently shown through the announcement of an impending $700 million in cuts for the current fiscal year that would be coming down the pike?

How many times over the course of this economic downturn have Republicans, economists, and yes Maryland's conservative blogosphere, warned of the impending economic calamity from the imposition of O'Malleynomics here in Maryland? How many times did people note the folly of increasing discretionary spending during a budgetary deficit? How many times were Annapolis Democrats warned that drastic and immoral tax hikes during a recession would lead to a reduction in tax revenues (something that we have already seen this year)? How many times have people noted that the time Keynesian economics has passed, and its continued implementation would provide disastrous consequences to our state and its taxpayers?

Instead, Governor O'Malley insisted on continuing to raise taxes and to increase social spending in order to keep the coalition of interest groups that elected him in line. It's sad, it's objectionable, and it shows O'Malley's commitment to putting special interests ahead of the interests of Maryland's working and middle class families. Now, it looks like the Governor is actaully going to have to make cuts, which is a good thing except for one small fact.

O'Malley declined to detail specific cuts that he's considering but indicated it would be "impossible" to fully preserve budgeted spending for education, health and public safety because those areas comprise such a large part of the budget.

Two of those three are a severe problem, as two of the state's constitutional duties are to provide funding for public safety and for education. So instead of cutting spending or retreating on his silly list of 15 goals, he is going to really put the screws to the people and cut where it really hurts, presumably in a ruse designed to create popular support for a tax increase or to blame Bob Ehrlich for these cuts. Either way, O'Malley is (as usual) putting the political calculus ahead of the bottom line for Maryland's families.

I think the people are really starting to see through this charade. It is long past time that we return competent leadership to Annapolis. And Governor O'Malley is neither competent or a leader...

The Impact of O'Malleynomics

Governor's Martin O'Malley's seemingly neverending quest to destroy Maryland's middle and working class families looks like it is right on schedule:

Unemployment in Maryland climbed to 7.2 percent in May, a more than 25-year-high, as joblessness rose in nearly all states, preliminary government statistics show.

Compared with a year earlier, unemployment rose in every state last month, including Maryland, where the rate has jumped from 4.1 percent in May 2008, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Friday.

Maryland's unemployment rate has not been 7.2 percent or higher since July 1983, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows.

During the 12 months through May, Maryland lost more than 64,000 jobs, not adjusted for seasonal changes, preliminary government numbers show.

Of course, as we have noted here time and time again, this is what happens when you enact the economic policies that Governor O'Malley and his Democratic cronies have been pushing for the last three years. When you continue to raise taxes, when you continue to inflate spending to unmanageable levels, and when you continue to make it harder and harder for business to compete, middle and working class workers and their families pay the consequences. Jobs are lost. Businesses are shuttered. Tax revenues plummet. And the economy is destroyed.

I hope Governor O'Malley can sleep well knowing that he put the expansion of government and his own political self interest ahead of average Marylanders by adopting such reckless fiscal policies. O'Malley has cost a lot of people their jobs and a lot of people their livelihoods, and I hope that these people who have been negatively impacted by the Governor's incompetence remember the toll these policies have taken on them and their families...

Eating their Money

Every time Superintendent Kevin Maxwell kvetches about the lack of funding for Anne Arundel County Public Schools, remember this:

Next year, parents won't have to ask. A feature of a new software system coming to county schools will allow parents to look online and see whether their children are really buying a balanced hot lunch or surviving on ice cream and cookies.

"Parents are going to love it," said Jodi Risse, supervisor of food and nutrition services in county schools.

The Board of Education is paying $283,643 for the new system from Georgia-based Horizon Software. It will replace the current system used in county schools, which is more than 20 years old, Risse said.

It works like this: Instead of handing out lunch money every day, parents can log in to an online program and use a Visa, MasterCard or e-check to put money in their child's account. Then students use their student ID in the cafeteria to access the account and pay for lunch.

Meanwhile, parents can go back into the same online system and see an itemized list - just like a credit-card statement - of what their child bought.

"It's usually lunch, lunch, lunch, but then (you see) every a la carte item, ice cream, cookies or chips," said Tina Bennett, a director with Horizon.

I cannot possibly fathom a more ridiculous use of $283,643 from the school budget than this.

Amazingly, a similar system is already in place in county public schools; it's called the "brown bag" program, where parents actually make a meal for their child and send them to school with it. It gives the parent immediate access to foods their child is consuming at lunch, involves parents in the lives of their kids, and (more importantly) it costs nothing to me as a taxpayer.

Anne Arundel Public Schools have absolutely no responsibility to be the food police to parents. While I'm appalled by the waste of money this program is, I'm not surprised given the fiscal irresponsibility shown by Maxwell and our unelected Board of Education, particularly when you consider that this system costs as much as the salaries of several teachers.....

Squeezing for the Last Drops

As if Governor Martin O'Malley hasn't spent enough money, hasn't raised enough taxes, and hasn't bloated the size of the Maryland state government enough, apparently he has decided to double down in advance of his re-election campaign:

Drawing little public attention so far, a small team of aides has developed a list of 15 major goals -- and several dozen smaller ones -- intended to guide the remainder of O'Malley's term, as well as a second one if he wins reelection next year.

Among the targets: Increase public transit ridership by 10 percent a year. (That would require doubling the growth seen last year, when high gas prices led many people to abandon their cars.) Reduce violent crime against women and children by 25 percent by 2012. (That would require recent trends to accelerate and continue for several years.) And end childhood hunger in Maryland by 2015. (No one seems to know exactly how that would be measured.)

Other goals provide aggressive benchmarks for education, the environment and health care.

O'Malley's office is preparing to publicize the efforts in coming days. But the loftiness of the goals and the motives behind them are already sparking debate as O'Malley prepares to stand for reelection.

Yeah, no kidding. Governor O'Malley has already left a trail of broken promises across the state from his first election campaign. Remember lower energy rates? Remember promises not to raise taxes? Remember enforcing the death penalty? Yeah, the Governor hopes you don't remember those promises either. But in typical O'Malleyesque fashion, he decides not to explain his failures as a Governor and instead goes back to his old bag of tricks to criticize......Bob Ehrlich:

In an interview, O'Malley described the goals as "pretty ambitious but not unachievable," and he said that is by design.

"If by putting my political neck on the line we're able to get halfway to these goals, it will be far more progress than the previous administration," O'Malley said. "The politically safe thing to do is never have any goals, because then you can't be judged or measured by them. That's the risk we take."

No Governor, working towards your goals isn't progress. It's a regressive strategy that is designed to increase the size of government at the expense of Maryland's middle and working class families. It's a strategy that is designed to create feel-good talking points for your re-election campaign instead of providing any actual goals to create good public policy. Even those goals that seem reasonable are festooned with your administration's previous failures. Take a look at transit policy; how can the MTA hope to increase ridership when they are so hopelessly mismanaged? Ending childhood hunger? Maybe a good place to start would not to make feeding children so difficult through aggressive tax increases and large increases in government spending. Do you not understand that those policies are what makes it hard for families to make ends meet, harder for individuals to support local charitable efforts, and harder for businesses to stay open to continue to employ Maryland's middle and working class families?

It of course is easy to be cynical of Martin O'Malley's efforts due to his failed administration. But since O'Malley and Co. never seem to learn their lessons, the only way the people of Maryland will notice the administration's new efforts is the continued contraction of Maryland's economy and more and more taxes coming out of their paychecks unless we eneact positive change at the ballot box next November....

The Brian Griffiths Minute: 05-14-2009

For more info on this story, click here.

Where have I heard this before?

Let's just say some of us saw this coming....

One of Maryland's budget-balancing tactics - asking millionaires to pay more money to the state - appears to be backfiring as the number of the highest-earning taxpayers dwindles with the flagging economy....

....But as the state comptroller's office sifts through this year's returns, it is finding that the number of Marylanders with more than $1 million in taxable income who filed by the end of April has fallen by one-third, to about 2,000. Taxes collected from those returns as of last month have declined by roughly $100 million.
- The Baltimore Sun, 5/14/2009

That's because the General Assembly as a whole refuses to act like grown ups and live within their means. Instead of acting responsibly and reducing state spending last year when they had to opportunity, they chose to approval O'Malley's irresponsible tax hikes, and bless his near immoral increase in discretionary state spending. Instead of cutting spending to manageable levels, Democrats railroaded a $2 billion tax increase to cover a $500 million shortfall, and then added $1.5 billion in spending just to break even.

No reasonably intelligent person would think that's a good idea. It's an even worse idea when you considered, as conservatives have noted time and time again, that tax revenues decrease when individuals and businesses change their spending habits or leave the state entirely.
- Brian Griffiths, 9/4/2008

Still, the "substantial decline" in million-dollar earners filing on time was enough for the comptroller's office to announce that it will "be thoroughly analyzing these returns and their implications." And it was enough for opponents of the state's new surcharge to say, in essence, "I told you so."

"I don't think anyone can dispute that some people have left Maryland," said Senate Minority Leader Allan H. Kittleman (R-Howard). "That's what we were trying to explain when we were voting on this."
- Washington Post, 5/14/2009

It's true that the housing and retail sectors being down are going to lead to lower tax revenues. But what the writers do not take into account, naturally, is the decrease in tax revenues due to the increases in taxes. I have noted before that when tax rates are increased, revenues decrease. This is particularly true when you make it a point to pass taxes targeted at those with the means to leave.
- Brian Griffiths, 7/13/2008

"This is not an unexpected development, but it is a very unfortunate development," Schuh said. "It is deja vu all over again."
- The Captial, 5/14/2009

Of course one thing that we noted time and again was the fact that increases in taxes would lead to decrease tax revenues. While a small portion of that can be attributed to the national economy, the bulk of the difference in revenues collected vis-a-vis revenues projected has a lot to do with the impact of this profligate spending and irresponsible tax hikes.
- Brian Griffiths, 7/9/2009

So, we are going to go ahead and try to further fleece those Maryland taxpayers who are simultaneously most able to pay more taxes and able to pick up and move someplace that their tax burden won't be so high? This is what passes for fiscal responsibility in the minds of Maryland Democrats?
- Brian Griffiths, 3/27/2008

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.