In the category of “duh…”

Blogging by press release…hey, sometimes others say things as well or better than I can. This comes courtesy of the Maryland Republican Party as a commentary on our state’s continuing revenue shortfalls.

Last week, Comptroller Peter Franchot announced that Maryland tax collections for April fell 16.6 percent below the same period last year and income tax collection fell even lower, at 17.4 percent below April 2008. This is in addition to falling sales tax receipts. Perhaps even more interesting is the news that tax revenue from people making over $1 million has plummeted by over 30%.

“This is another sign of the flawed thinking of Governor O’Malley and the Democrats in Annapolis,” said MDGOP Chairman Jim Pelura. “Whenever you tax something, you get less of it. It’s a basic fact of economics. We warned that this would happen back in the fall of 2007. What made anyone think that people who had the means to move across state lines would hang around to pay higher and higher income and sales taxes?”

“In the fall of 2007, rather than passing the largest tax increase in Maryland history, Martin O’Malley, Mike Miller, and Mike Busch could have resolved our budget issues without taking a bite out of working families and businesses. Instead, they raised every conceivable tax and created a few new ones as well,” Chairman Pelura continued. “Now they are surprised and making excuses for falling revenue but this year’s budget is chock full of more of the same short-sighted spending and band-aid fixes. It’s not just income tax, it’s sales tax and service taxes that hit working families the hardest.”

“This is not just a case of Republicans simply being against taxes or just saying “no”. Rather, General Assembly Republicans have offered serious and substantive proposals to correct our long-term budget issues over the past three years. Governor O’Malley has ignored those good-faith proposals. For this reason, and many others, it is clear that Maryland needs fundamental change in 2010,” concluded Pelura.

I wholeheartedly agree that the GOP has presented a clear alternative to the tax-and-spend policies of the O’Malley regime; however, our more pressing problem seems to be coming up with a formidable candidate to run against Martin. In that respect, the elephant in the room is Bob Ehrlich, since he’s probably the best-known candidate statewide the Republicans have.

While we’re at it, Jim, why not give a nudge to our former Governor and say, hey, Bobby, what do you think you’re going to do next year? Would you mind clearing the field or giving our side a chance to get behind someone else?

The longer Bob Ehrlich takes, the less inclined I am to support him in the primary (and if the party is on the ball, there will be a primary). We need to start getting the ducks in a row because believe it or not we’re less than 18 months away from the 2010 general election.

It’s time to redouble our efforts at victory.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.