Tonight our club was treated to some financial and legislative expertise as announced guest speaker Delegate Addie Eckardt was joined by fellow Delegate Page Elmore for this month’s WCRC meeting.
Before Delegate Eckardt made her remarks, we took care of the usual club business and found out that our booth at the Salisbury Festival was a “good success”, taking in about 25% more revenue this year than last. The additional revenue was chalked up to good weather but I personally think it was the smiling help that added a few dollars to the WCRC coffers as well. Regardless, the results were outstanding.
When Addie began, she recounted a little bit of the history behind our state’s structural deficit. The veteran legislator told the gathering that the Republicans had generally been true to their fiscal conservatism throughout her tenure, noting for example her opinion that public-private partnerships were preferable to subsidies; but in recent times she felt it was not enough to just be reflexively against things but instead to provide “substantive alternatives” such as the minority budget proposed by the House Republican delegation earlier this year. This was a budget that eliminated the structural deficit, built up the rainy day fund, and repealed the computer service sales tax with no need for a substitute source of funding. Instead, the state ended up with a budget I’ll go into shortly.
Returning to the background Delegate Eckardt recounted, while the Glendening Administration was “spending like drunken sailors” in the relative economic prosperity the state enjoyed during his tenure, she worried about how the state would be able to weather the downturn certain to come. Sure enough, between a mild recession and the 9/11 attacks, suddenly the state was no longer flush with cash and then-incoming Governor Ehrlich acted quickly to address the problem. On the spending side, he implored groups with funding requests to make them leaner while addressing the revenue side with additional user fees for wastewater treatment (the “flush tax”) and transportation, in addition to ill-fated proposals to bring state-sponsored slot machine gambling to Maryland.
One thing I found intriguing about the political machinations was the additional restrictions an unfriendly General Assembly placed on Governor Ehrlich as the percentage of mandated spending in the budget inched up from 63% to 67% during his tenure, along with additional set-aside requirements for the state’s rainy day fund. All of these placed Governor Ehrlich into a little more of a box because he had the nerve to question some of these mandates early on.
On the other hand, Governor O’Malley didn’t address the structural deficit until he called a special session late last year, one Eckardt joined the GOP in calling “unnecessary.” In fact, compounding the tax increases enacted as a result of the special session were five new programs that needed their own space in this year’s budget. Unfortunately, Eckardt added, the cuts required to fund these new programs generally came at the expense of existing ones. The way I see it, Governor O’Malley likes to play that way because he can take credit for anything new programs accomplished while blaming any failures of existing programs on cuts made by the General Assembly. A master of pure politics, that Martin.
In this year’s operating budget, spending increased 3.8% but this came after reductions done by the General Assembly pared $156 million off the original requests and left a cushion of about $226 million. Higher education was a big winner, getting a 9% funding jump. Meanwhile, the capital budget authorized $935 million in new state debt, with 78 local organizations and initiatives getting some financial assistance from the state.
Two things Eckardt spoke out about regarding the budget were the “use it or lose it” philosophy shared by most state agencies and the number of funded positions that weren’t filled but used as a budgetary backstop. She felt a better accounting of these positions was in order as to just how they were filled or the funding spent.
On a personal level, she felt that the Republican caucus “stopped a lot of bad legislation” but she was disappointed that a bill she sponsored regarding task forces went nowhere. It was her personal experience with being on task forces where work was put in and recommendations were made but nothing concrete happened that led her to introduce the bill to study just how effective these groups were. Since she estimated that each group created cost the state anywhere from $100,000 to $250,000 annually, she reasoned that an accounting was needed. She did note the the Department of Legislative Services is beginning to track and audit the results of task forces that are currently being created, so it’s a small victory for the taxpayers.
Addie next informed us that the Republican Caucus will retreat in early May and one subject they’ll delve into is an alternative energy policy for the state. She then fielded a couple questions, one dealing with immigration (something the GOP tried to address in vain) and the other dealing with the environment, particularly farm regulations. On that, it was agreed by both Delegates Eckardt and Elmore that the Department of Agriculture and the people at Soil Conservation needed to lead that effort and it should be addressed in such a manner where farmers need not do any additional paperwork. Delegate Elmore chimed in by noting that Governor O’Malley had the “greenest” administration he’d ever worked with and negotiations were key to dealing with him, not simply saying “no.” (Not said was just how far to go in compromising Republican principles.)
Overall, I was quite informed by the discussion and I did find out that I may have misinterpreted the minority budget by assuming it deemed the O’Malley taxes as a whole necessary. Perhaps their presentation should have made this more clear. I also received a nice four-page summary her office did of legislation that was considered, which I’ll find useful in coming days as I look at the body of work the 2008 General Assembly accomplished.
We then got a brief rundown of other new WCRC business, finding out our club and the Wicomico Republican Party will be representing ourselves at several upcoming events including the Delmarva Chicken Festival in June, the Wicomico Home & Farm Show in August, and the Autumn Wine Festival in October. Look for us at these events, and particularly since it’s an election year I’m thinking the Democrats are sure to counter with spaces of their own. It’ll be fun.
One other note I’d like to pass along is that the District 37 Republicans (Delegate Eckardt, our June meeting speaker Delegate Jeannie Haddaway, and State Senator Rich Colburn) will be holding a joint fundraiser on Sunday, May 4th at the American Legion Post 91 in Cambridge. This Crab Feast begins at 2 p.m. and the number to dial is (410) 228-8048. Technically, RSVP’s were supposed to be in yesterday but I suspect they can secure a crab or two for you if you’re so inclined to support them with a $50 donation for a ticket. It’s the start of that season because Delegate Elmore will have a similar event on Saturday, May 31.
Because our typical fourth Monday meeting date falls on Memorial Day this year, our next meeting will be June 23rd with the aforementioned Delegate Haddaway doing the speaking honors.
“Delegate Elmore chimed in by noting that Governor O’Malley had the “greenest” administration he’d ever worked with and negotiations were key to dealing with him, not simply saying “no.'”
Are either of these supposed to be bad traits in our Governor? If you ask me, Elmore just gave a great endorsement to O’Malley. Maybe there’s hope for you Republics yet!
Final Frontier