Bad news from Annapolis, as the chasing of business out of Maryland begins. The “Fair Share” veto properly applied by Governor Ehrlich was overriden.
According to the Baltimore Sun, there were 3 Senate Democrats from Anne Arundel County who properly voted to uphold the veto, but it did not say how the House of Delegates split out. Currently the delegates are split 98-43 in favor of the Democrats (isn’t that sickening?) but the final override vote was 88-50. So at least 10 Democrats didn’t get the memo from their union. Of course, knowing they had it in the bag once they got to 85 votes it’s possible the Democrat leadership may have allowed a few in swing districts to vote to uphold the veto. So it’s possible my two delegates may have followed my advice, but overall the story’s still bad for business.
More bad news for small business may follow tomorrow, as the House of Delegates voted 91-48 to override Governor Ehrlich’s veto of a minimum-wage increase. It still has to be taken up by the Senate.
Let me guess…in 30 days when the “Fair Share Health Care Act” takes effect, Wal-Mart’s going to announce that they’ve decided to place their distribution center in Delaware instead. Just hope it’s in southern Sussex County so some people in Salisbury may work there.
As for me, might be time to skip Giant (who helped push the Fair Share bill in the first place) for a couple weeks on my shopping rounds.
Late update, 2 p.m. Friday:
I found on the Sun’s website how the vote went.
On the side to override in the Senate were 30 of the 33 Democrats, which accounted for all 30 votes. Three Democrats joined the 14 Republicans in seeking to sustain the veto.
In the House of Delegates, 87 of the 98 Democrats voted for the override along with one of the 43 Republicans. That one was Jean Cryor of Montgomery County, a very heavily Democrat area. All but one of the other 42 Republicans voted to uphold the veto along with 9 Democrats. Two other Democrats did not vote.
As expected, Delegates Bozman and Conway sucked up to the unions and turned their back on Somerset County, voting to override.
Rush just got finished commenting on this – he noted that one object of this legislation is to raise Wal-Mart’s price point and ruin their business plan.
Wow, you actually READ the Baltimore Sun?
As you may remember, I live just north of Baltimore (Abingdon MD), and every time I pick up that rag I regret it!
Sucks to be Walmart in Maryland!
I have it as a “favorite” under Media, along with the Washington Times and our local Daily Times. I basically read it on a regular basis for the politics section because our local paper sucks at that kind of coverage.
It’s decent background info for my blog, especially since I don’t really know all the players here yet. But I’m learning!
Just thought you should know, individual Democratic politicians are called “Democrats”, but the party itself and any time you refer to partisan people, the proper term is “Democratic” as in the “Democratic Party” or “Democratic senators have challenged Judge Alito”. Proper use of words enables us to reach a better grasp on the truth.