I’m not sure just how many outlets got this ‘letter to the editor’ but State Senator E.J. Pipkin lays out his case that Governor O’Malley has indeed declared a War on Rural Maryland. I’ll excerpt from his letter here:
Despite protests to the contrary from the O’Malley Administration, it has been clear for the past few years that the Administration’s programs, policies and proposed legislation constitute an assault on rural economies and property rights. Whether the War on Rural Maryland is intentional or not is beside the point. The fact remains that implementation of the Administration’s policies and legislative proposals, from the proposed septic system ban to higher tolls, taxes, and fees will strip rural Maryland of any real opportunity to create jobs and boost its economy.
The O’Malley Administration denies that there is a war on rural Maryland, by touting the millions of state dollars spent on rural education, school construction, health care, etc. Of course, the state has not completely abandoned rural Maryland. Constitutionally, it cannot. Nevertheless, it is clear that state funding for rural Maryland is just about last on the Administration’s list.
Pipkin goes on to list a number of areas where we in the hinterlands are getting the short end of the stick: subsidizing mass transit that we won’t use (to the tune of 45% of the highway budget), subsidizing the Inter-County Connector with tolls collected from Eastern Shore residents who cross the Bay Bridge, and of course a lengthy tirade (deservedly so) against PlanMaryland, which Pipkin calls “an unprecedented intrusion upon local land use control.”
But E.J. could have gone much farther in his criticism – for example, he skipped the proposed septic ban, the onerous environmental restrictions on agriculture, and the lack of investment into job creation for rural parts of the state. Instead, it seems like the state’s goal is to force everyone to move to the I-95 corridor except for the few people needed to run the tourism industry in Ocean City.
The rest, to them, is what I call “flythrough country” – they fly through it at 70 to 80 miles per hour and try not to stop until they’re on the boardwalk. Notice that the primary highway investment in this part of the state goes to keeping U.S. 50 smooth – meanwhile, we could use a couple more lanes on the two-lane portions of U.S. 113 and State Route 90 in Worcester County and State Route 404 in Caroline and Talbot counties. Long-term, I believe we need to upgrade the U.S. 13 corridor through Delaware to interstate highway status; of course, that’s mostly up to the First State.
People tend to believe that if Delmarva grows at too fast of a pace we will be just like the I-95 corridor in ten years. Well, I have news for you – that ain’t gonna happen. Even in fifty years I believe the area will have its rural character, even if we resume the growth spurt which occurred nearly a decade ago. (As it stands right now we may get even more rural in 20 years; the type of rural where you see trees sprouting from abandoned houses in disrepair. PlanMaryland would accelerate that process.)
So Pipkin states the obvious. Of course, the biggest problem we have is that the Eastern Shore sends but a tiny fraction of the state’s legislative delegation to Annapolis. At least back in the pre-Voting Rights Act days the Maryland Senate was mainly composed of rural legislators because each county sent two members, regardless of population. Once members from the Eastern Shore comprised 3/8 of the whole Senate – but no more. The big city representatives got fed up and changed the system.
That leaves us with just being squeaky wheels and hoping we can convince enough Democrats that rural Maryland residents aren’t getting a fair shake. Unfortunately, we don’t get a lot of victories that way and we’re down to the point where a standstill would be considered an achievement. So just keep this in your pocket until 2014, when perhaps a needed change will come.
