WCRC meeting – June 2008

Buoyed by a sizeable contingent of Young Republicans fresh off dinner with the featured speaker (there was also one not-so-young Republican there), this month’s Wicomico County Republican Club meeting had great attendance for a mid-summer affair. The speaker in question was District 37B Delegate Jeannie Haddaway, and once we took care of some of our club business Delegate Haddaway was granted the floor.

Jeannie touched on a number of issues once she gave some of those unfamiliar with her background a brief update. She represents the western side of Wicomico County as part of a district that runs through four Shore counties, and has represented the district since being appointed to the post in August of 2003. Being an Eastern Shore native, she also had good things to say about the whole Eastern Shore contingent, calling our area “well-represented” in Annapolis.

Since Delegate Haddaway serves on the Economic Matters Committee as part of her duties, naturally she had a lot to say about the state of Maryland’s economy. She pointed out that, while the General Assembly’s 2007 special session passed tax increases slated to raise $1.3 billion to address a long-term (or, in the parlance of Annapolis, a “structural”) deficit, the budget that was passed for FY2009 increased spending by almost that same $1.3 billion. Unfortunately for a state government in Annapolis that Jeannie stated was “addicted to spending” those projected revenues are coming up short, particularly in the areas of sales and real estate transfer taxes. Thus we’ll likely face the exact same issues next year in addressing the FY2010 budget; meanwhile Haddaway opined that our side was “winning” in the game of putting out the message that Annapolis’s issue was one of spending, not revenue.

In looking at Maryland’s business climate, Delegate Haddaway chided her fellows in the General Assembly for increasing taxes and enacting further business regulations at the “worst possible time.” Even when things were going successfully the state was working at cross-purposes against itself. Using the Maryland broadband initiative as an example, Jeannie told the assembled that the project was working on time and on budget until the Maryland Department of the Environment stepped in and decided that there needed to be permits required and fees imposed to the tune of $1 per foot for allowing the broadband to cross waterways – while that doesn’t seem like a lot there’s 500 miles of proposed distance. Haddaway helped work out a compromise that satisfied both parties and the broadband program is back underway. She called the broadband initiative a good private/public partnership.

Another sizeable portion of her remarks dealt with environmental issues. Delegate Haddaway saw conservation as something to “strive for”, particularly “incentive-based conservation” like the solar and geothermal incentives which passed the General Assembly last session. (She can call it “incentive-based conservation” but personally I call it gaming the marketplace.) In this bill, individual incentives were increased but the pot of money stayed the same. On the other hand, Jeannie didn’t care for the increased tempo of utility mandates which compel companies to produce a certain percentage of power from a “renewable portfolio.” By raising the bar more quickly, the state was making it increasingly possible that utilities would be liable for a monetary fine for noncompliance, with the revenue seized from power producers earmarked for incentive programs to reduce energy usage. In reality, businesses never pay fines – they simply pass the costs on to the consumer. In this case, we’ll all pay a share of the cost but few will benefit. (As an aside, I received the annual Delmarva Power report on that in my bill and their combined renewable portfolio total for 2007 was just 3.7 percent. If the state mandated any number higher than that Delmarva Power will have to cut the state of Maryland a check.)

One area that Haddaway thought a need wasn’t being addressed was the condition of Maryland’s electrical grid infrastructure. She mentioned that several areas were already dealing with periodic outages because the strain on the system from increased demand was not being addressed and Maryland’s situation would deteriorate farther if the state continued to be a net consumer of power. In essence we don’t produce enough power in Maryland to meet demand and siting a power plant is nearly impossible because of objections from people or groups who don’t want a electrical plant in their backyard.

Another change in environmental law that concerns me personally was the increasing scope and reach of Maryland’s Critical Areas Commission. One portion of this year’s CAC legislation which Haddaway worked to pull back a little bit was securing a requirement that waivers could be granted to the “soft shoreline” portion of the bill when it was proven that having a sand or planted shoreline would subject that area to untenable amounts of erosion – in that case a bulkhead or stone riprap could be placed, as current practice allows.

After concluding her presentation by briefly bringing up the need for more foster homes on the Eastern Shore, Jeannie opened the floor to questions. The two best questions asked were about the prospect of state-sponsored slot machine gambling (on November’s ballot) and about where the state would likely turn to get additional revenue to satisfy the Annapolis hunger for more dollars to spend.

While Delegate Haddaway had supported slot machines in the past, she voted against placing the proposal on the ballot because enshrining slot machine gambling in Maryland’s Constitution would mean that any proposed change would also have to be through Constitutional means. In her words, passing the ballot measure this November would be a “bad deal.”

As for revenue sources, two predictions Jeannie made were that LLC’s would become a target (with vastly increased filing fees on the order of three to four times their current rate) and also that another attempt would be made to extend the recently increased sales tax to more services. While the computer services tax was beaten back with Republican help, that assistance to the majority did not extend to the “millionaire’s tax” which Democrats passed to “replace” the revenue which the state beancounters estimated would be gained through the computer services tax. Once again it could be landscapers, tanning salons, or other service providers who were spared in 2008 that may be under the gun early next year.

While I don’t agree with everything Jeannie brought up as supporting, on the whole she gave an excellent presentation of issues that we as Eastern Shore residents will have to deal with in the coming months. We did have a few other speakers though and some interesting tidbits came up.

For one thing, Dr. John Bartkovich gave the county chair’s perspective on how the overall mood of the electorate was influencing our registration numbers. We’ve lost a little ground to the Democrats (in real numbers it was about 375 voters) and things might “get worse before they get better.” (Not if I can help it they won’t.) Personally I think the turnaround will begin right after the election, especially if Barack Obama happens to win and Martin O’Malley continues to push legislation through the General Assembly to further raise taxes and drive all but his most favored cronies out of business in Maryland. On a state level, John had good things to say about Maryland’s GOP leadership and I happen to agree – at least we feel like our part of the state has a little more influence in party affairs. And just because someone happens to be a registered Democrat certainly doesn’t mean that they can’t touch the screen next to John McCain’s or Andy Harris’s name.

By the way, speaking of Andy Harris, he’s going to be Bill Reddish’s guest on the AM Salisbury radio program tomorrow morning at 7:40. Andy will be discussing his recently-released energy plan. Even better from my perspective is that on Friday, July 25th, Andy will be sponsoring a picnic with the Delmarva Shorebirds during their contest against the Lexington Legends. At the moment, they have 75 spots for the picnic pavilion but based on interest just during the meeting they’ll go fast – $25 is a good price. The evening is also a fireworks night and Andy’s sponsoring those too.

And those YR’s that I discussed at the top will have good representation at this weekend’s state YR convention. They’re also attempting to put together two other events – on the political side a debate with local Democrats and on the community side a Relay For Life team for the Wicomico County event coming in late September.

To top it all off, our club is being looked at as a model for Dorchester County to follow as they try to start their own county Republican club. So while the media paints the GOP as disspirited, locally the enthusiasm isn’t totally lost.

Overall we had a really good meeting and it may be tough to beat this one. That’s why we won’t have a meeting next month – our next get-together will be a work session on August 25th, same bat-time and same bat-channel. 

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.