A lapse in action

Hopefully you didn’t think I was kidding when I noted the other day that the folks at the Maryland Republican Party read monoblogue – I know Jim Pelura is a fan of the site. It took them about six days longer than I thought it would but they integrated the info I brought up into a new press release:

Following a report by the Tax Foundation last week ranking Maryland 45th in business-friendliness, the CATO Institute ranked Martin O’Malley as one of the worst governors in the country on fiscal issues, giving him an “F” grade for pushing through the largest tax increase in state history and dramatically increasing spending.

“Governor O’Malley has consistently supported higher taxes and runaway government spending during his two years in office,” said MDGOP Chairman Jim Pelura.  “His “F” grade is well-deserved and the low business friendliness ranking is a direct result of O’Malley’s tax-first policies.”

“Working families were already struggling in late 2007 and a recession was on the horizon.  Martin O’Malley and his allies in the General Assembly decided that the solution to the projected deficit was to raise taxes astronomically AND allocate new spending for new programs.  If we had just chosen to restrict government growth to the rate of inflation, we could have closed the budget gap without raising taxes,” concluded Pelura.

To give additional credit where credit is due, the article by Chris Edwards also appeared on National Review Online. So certainly Mr. Edwards is no slouch, and the reasoning behind Governor O’Malley’s poor rating is simple: he’s a tax-and-spend governor. As the CATO study notes:

The lowest-scoring governor, Martin O’Malley of Maryland, spearheaded the passage of a $1.4 billion tax increase in 2007, which was unique in its large size and scope. It increased the corporate tax rate, the top personal income tax rate, the sales tax rate, and the cigarette tax rate. It also expanded the sales tax base and raised taxes on vehicles. This enormous increase will hit Marylanders directly in the pocketbook, and indirectly through slower economic growth over time. (Emphasis mine.)

As a result many areas of Maryland are being hit hard by tough times, the Eastern Shore being one. Martin O’Malley and his cronies are about the only ones with a sure salary these days. And even the so-called fiscal panacea of video slot machines is now not going to be enough to plug the state’s budget hole (see page 32) because revenues are declining even with the higher tax rates (duh! Welcome to real-world economics, Martin.) The newly revised estimates for FY2009 now have a nearly $600 million revenue shortfall, up from $432 million just a month ago (see page 8). And FY2010 has a nearly $300 million hole which needs to be filled.

So it’s going to be up to the General Assembly when they meet in just a few short weeks to find ways of making the expenses match the revenues. Even if we pass the slots referendum (and I still think it’s a bad idea), there will have to either be cuts made or O’Malley will choose to once again do what he does best and tax Marylanders into other states. After all, it’s his budget – all the GOP can do is make helpful suggestions and proposals which won’t see the light of day.

Our next best chance to address this problem comes November 2, 2010. It’s time to place the adults in charge in Maryland.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer. View all posts by Michael