Saying “suuuey!” in Maryland

When it comes to treating the state treasury like a loan office, our Delegates and Senators have gotten to be pretty good at the game. So far in this session there’s a total of 309 bond bills entered into the legislative annals. Of course, the pork isn’t spread around evenly – I actually went through the list and subdivided it by county. Note that the numbers don’t nearly add up to 309 because most of these are crossfiled between House and Senate, and I’ve ranked counties by the number of bond bills submitted on their behalf. Not surprisingly, Baltimore City leads the pack with Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties close behind.

  • Baltimore City – 39
  • Prince George’s – 30
  • Montgomery – 24
  • Anne Arundel and Baltimore County – 12 each
  • St. Mary’s and Washington – 5 each
  • Dorchester and Frederick – 4 each
  • Allegany, Carroll, Cecil, Charles, Harford, Howard – 3 each
  • Caroline, Kent – 2 each
  • Calvert, Garrett, Queen Anne’s, Somerset, Talbot, Wicomico, Worcester – 1 each

It says something when you take the lowest 17 counties on the list, add up their total bond bill projects, and still have a lower number than Baltimore City by itself. Between our four counties on the Lower Shore, we have just seven earmarks so I’d have to say our local legislators are showing very good restraint.

Obviously these bills aren’t introduced to become law per se, the real idea is to get them included among the millions of dollars that’s awarded late in the session when bond bills are placed into the next year’s budget. So, you ask, what are our local people trying to get included? You know I’m not going to disappont you, with the exception that I’m not going to link to the bills because, quite frankly, I don’t have all night to write this!

Funding sought in Dorchester County includes $480,000 for the WaterLand Fisheries (HB244/SB670); $150,000 for the Galestown Community Center (HB571/SB153), $1 million for the Bay Country Kid’s Club Facility (HB548/SB668), and $500,000 for the Dorchester County Family YMCA (HB547/SB669).

In Somerset County, $200,000 in assistance is asked for Bending Water Park (HB1007/SB892).

Wicomico County’s project is a new Epilepsy Association Facility, at a state price tag of $170,000 (HB1001/SB893).

$250,000 for the Rackliffe House is the lone Worcester County bid (HB1003/SB894).

I also found it interesting that some of our local delegation had signed on as co-sponsors for funding sought in other counties. Obviously Senator Colburn, whose district stretches northward to include Talbot and Caroline counties, would place his name on funding requests from those areas, but why would he be one of those asking for $100,000 for the Aquaculture and Seafood Retail and Distribution Market in Prince George’s County? Delegate Rudy Cane also has a PG County project under his name as a co-sponsor, $300,000 for the Delta Alumnae Community Development Center.

In that same vein, Delegate Norm Conway is co-sponsoring $350,000 for the Camp Fairlee Manor in Kent County and, along with Delegate Jim Mathias, two of several asking for $250,000 for improvements to the Maryland Food Bank in Baltimore County. Perhaps there’s a local benefit to these, but in an era where political candidates are crucified for every pork-laden measure they vote for (like the “dance hall in Montgomery County” Andy Harris was accused of voting for, surely part of a much larger state budget); it just makes me think that in this time of needing to cut state spending we should try to get out of the loan business. Yes, many of these are worthwhile causes but should it be our state’s place to pick and choose which ones receive taxpayer largesse?

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.