Talk about putting all your economic eggs in one basket:
On January 11th, 2010 Martin O’Malley announced the creation of the Federal Facilities Advisory Board to find ways for federal facilities to hire more Maryland workers. The advisory board is tasked with going out, listening to people and finding out what they need.
“On jobs, Martin O’Malley still doesn’t get it,” charged Hogan. “For three years, Martin O’Malley has pushed through some of the most anti-business policies in the country, driving many small businesses out of the state or worse, out of business altogether. And now, O’Malley forms yet another commission and this time tasked with figuring out how to receive a federal jobs bailout?”
“From balancing the budget to tackling unemployment, Martin O’Malley has only one strategy to get our state out of it’s fiscal crisis – federal bailouts,” charged Hogan. “Marylanders deserve better.”
“We deserve a Governor who understands that spending more government money isn’t the solution, but rather the problem,” Hogan said. “It’s time we had a governor who will stop talking, roll up his sleeves, and get to work helping Maryland’s employers and the unemployed.”
“O’Malley has already been down this road. In the fall, he formed a small business commission to listen to what people needed. The solution came in the form of a minority small business training session about how to secure government contracts,” said Hogan. “It didn’t work.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics most recent monthly report, Maryland was just one of eight states where unemployment rose.
Please reread that first sentence again, I’ll wait.
Okay, what O’Malley wants is for more Marylanders to live off the taxpayers by taking federal jobs. If it weren’t for an accident of geography he’d really be in trouble. A place like Kansas doesn’t get the benefit O’Malley does of having the seat of government so close, within commuting distance. Thus, they actually have to work at job creation and attracting businesses instead of depending on his political brethren to create some new bureaucracy and using the tax dollars siphoned from Kansas and the other 49 states to pay for them.
Perhaps that’s part and parcel of O’Malley’s background of doing limited work in the private sector (I suppose getting gigs for his band may qualify so I’ll grant him that much) but not creating jobs in the real world tends to translate into not creating jobs when given a position of authority.
Maryland has a number of assets in its favor, but if you threw out the geographical advantage of proximity to the practically recession-proof nation’s capital you’d likely find that our state is pedestrian at best in terms of economic indicators. Certainly as a whole we’re not a basket case like Michigan but if you drive up and down the Eastern Shore you might think things aren’t going swimmingly based on the number of homes for sale, vacant storefronts, and shuttered industrial buildings. Each of these former businesses represent a dream dashed and once-thriving employees having to scramble for a new livelihood.
And that’s not to mention the key local industries which seemingly have had a target on its back over the last three years – aquaculture (i.e. watermen) and agriculture.
If Governor O’Malley is reading this, what the people need is simply for you (and your friends in Washington) to get out of the way and stop reaching into our wallets every chance you get. Let’s prioritize what services, land acquisitions, and programs are truly necessary, fund those, and allow those things not as critical to sink or swim on their own merits. Families across Maryland have done this, so it’s state government’s turn to do so as well.
Cuts can be made without being too painful, and making a show of cutting the items people scream about most in order to make a point is beneath good governance. Then again, it’s a tactic we’ve come to expect from Annapolis.