Since this will be our last meeting for a couple months and we had an informative guest speaker, there was a pretty decent showing of about 30 members for the club’s March meeting. Once through the Lord’s Prayer, Pledge of Allegiance, and treasurer’s report (the minutes were mistakenly left at home by our secretary) we got to the meat of our meeting.
Bob Miller spoke first about the “hot” time at the Salisbury Festival and opined that the attendance was “noticeably” down, basing his estimate on traffic at the nearby Powellville VFD booth – normally they had lines back to the WCRC booth for their oyster sandwiches. But our booth was still profitable; just not as much as the 2008 version was.
Next up was Ryan Biehl, who gave the Lower Shore Young Republicans’ account of their efforts. He was pleased to announce that the club had been nominated once again for the club of the year award in Maryland after winning in 2008. Member Nick Loffer is also in the running for the YR’s man of the year award.
Turning to the event front, the LSYR’s are holding a fundraiser on May 23rd featuring State Senator Andy Harris as a keynote speaker – more details will certainly be following in this space.
Filling in for an ailing county Chair Dr. John Bartkovich, Vice Chair Dave Parker gave the Central Committee report. It actually consisted of announcements of upcoming events, including this weekend’s state Republican spring convention in Hagerstown. Other events are a fundraiser for Senator Colburn and Delegates Eckardt and Haddaway on Sunday, May 3rd and the Tawes event in Crisfield in July. That same venue (Somers Cove Marina) also hosts a fundraiser for our guest speaker on June 13th.
Delegate Page Elmore pledged to “stick to the facts as I know them” for his address on the recently-concluded 2009 General Assembly session. While he called the FY2010 budget an “interesting document”, he spent a good portion of his time rehashing how we got to where we are.
Probably most alarming in Elmore’s budget discussion was how the state ended up making its books balance in the near-term future – it will be because of a $4 billion infusion of federal “stimulus” funds, which are slated to be released to the state of Maryland each October through 2011. But, Page asked, “what happens in 2012?” Assuming the Democrats are re-elected, the only way to cover the new shortfall would be to raise taxes.
Elmore also discussed the 10% of the stimulus package which is actually going toward its announced purpose: infrastructure. Most of the rest goes to education and propping up the Medicare/Medicaid system. Roads that were originally slated to be repaired under half of the 2008 sales tax increase of 1% would be somewhat covered with stimulus funds; however, the Transportation Trust Fund was still lagging its envisioned amount by $300 million. Those funds were raided to balance the state’s budget in the last couple years.
And then we have the infamous Nitrogen Reduction Act of 2009. Sponsored for the most part by Democrats whose districts would be little affected by the change, the bill mandates costly upgrades for the septic systems of those homeowners who live within the reach of so-called “critical areas” should their existing systems fail. And while the state is supposed to help these owners, the available funding covers less than half of the estimated need.
Of course, given the rampant incrementalism the General Assembly is famous for, look for all homeowners with septic systems to have this mandate in a year or two. As the owner of a home with a septic system, I guarantee it.
Page noted that he and most of the rest of the Eastern Shore delegation fought the legislation “tooth and nail” – only the uber-liberal Rudy Cane voted in favor of the final bill in the House. All to address perhaps 6% of the pollution coming into the bay.
Other key issues Elmore spoke to were the two-tier drivers’ license bill, which mandates proof of legal presence for new applicants but allows existing license holders to renew without proof until 2015 (or two state election cycles), limiting early voting to six days and excluding Sunday voting on the 2010 election (but not in 2012), and securing the funds for three new Medevac helicopters per year until the entire 12-copter fleet is replaced. It’s a key issue for Shore residents because of the distance to medical facilities for severe trauma cases in this rural region.
All in all, the Delegate told those present he “enjoys the game of wits” in Annapolis and looked forward to continuing to serve. When asked later whose seats he considered vulnerable locally, he simply stated “we’re all vulnerable” and wouldn’t elaborate further.
Briefly, we addressed an issue of old business as the committees suggested in the last meeting were still being formed.
Two pieces of new business were considered; one being our annual donation to the Wicomico YMCA (which garnered no opposition), and the other a question about where the club stood on the Wicomico County downzoning issue. At this point the club is not taking a stand, although many members do not support the changes.
With that, we adjourned until June 22nd as our next fourth Monday date falls on Memorial Day.
Sir:
Does this group have a position on the cluster subdivision land grab or is it gonna duck that one too?
As WCRC President, I’ll take a stab at answering this — we don’t have a position and I don’t think we’re going to take one. We are a partisan club, not a policy club. We exist to promote the Republican Party in Wicomico County. We don’t exist to lobby on issues. There are other organizations for that. It’s not a mater of ducking the issue — it’s not the purpose of the Club to do what you request.
However, the members of our Club have opinions on this issue and I’m sure many of them aren’t in favor of the legislation you mentioned. I know I’m not. As I offered at the Club meeting, we’re happy to send out any information about this legislation to our members. The Club itself won’t take a position but we’re happy to use our resources to educate our members.
As far as I know, no one opposed to this legislation has sent any information for our Club Secretary to disseminate.
Why have a party if it does not take positions on crucial matters?
Why do you insist on posting under an assumed name?
As Marc noted, the idea of our club is to work on getting Republicans elected. While I think the downzoning proposal is a poor idea, it doesn’t rise to the level of an issue the club needs to take a stand on.
If you disagree, feel free to run for club office in 2010 and change the bylaws as you see fit. I know you complained about our lack of support for Bob Caldwell in a mayoral primary where two Republicans were contesting the race, and as was stated then we do not endorse candidates pre-primary.
The WCRC is not a political party. We’re a political club that has as its aim to elect Republicans. We aren’t a public policy organization. As such, we don’t endorse folks in nonpartisan races. We don’t take a stand on issues. We provide a forum for political discussion that pertains to the Republican Party and we work to ensure that the Republican candidates who run in elections are elected.
Folks are free to start an organization that pushes for property rights and lower taxes. I’d be happy to join such an organization. I’m sure there would be a lot of common ground between the WCRC and that organization.