Michael

Maryland in stereo

I think this is better than the usual Friday document dump.

You may not know the name Nathan L. Gonzales, but the Deputy Editor for the Rothenburg Political Report introduced himself to me in early June. His reason: he wanted to include monoblogue as the conservative representative site in Maryland for a project he rolled out last December called Politics in Stereo. It took him a few weeks to set up the Maryland home page – although I have linked to it for some time on my sidebar, today it became accessible from the national page. Maryland’s inclusion brings the site up to 19 states.

When you go to the site, you’ll notice that I am one of three featured websites, as I represent the right side of the political spectrum. David Moon’s Maryland Juice is the surrogate for the left, while the Washington Post‘s Maryland Politics blog is deemed to be the representative from the center. (So I think it’s 2 against 1. Hope they can handle me.)

Actually, I was skeptical at first when Nathan contacted me because of my experience with Red County, another hyperlocal political site which tried to do politics on a local and state level. The site is still around but has never really made great inroads to the political conversation outside its original California base. But the advantage of Politics in Stereo for me is that I don’t have to do any more work to place content there – unlike Red County or any of my Examiner pages, they just bring my feed to a wider audience. No muss, no fuss on my part – I like that. I have enough writing to do to keep one site and my various clients happy, not to mention a forthcoming e-book. (Did I mention I’m finishing up work on an e-book? Look for it in the next few weeks.)

But I think it’s also important to note the fact that, out of all the good conservative political sites in Maryland (including well-known ones like Joe Steffen’s Global Rhetoric and Richard Cross’s Cross Purposes, not to mention the multi-contributor Red Maryland) mine was selected. Truly I don’t think there’s a “S” (for sucker) painted on my forehead – since the work on my part is minimal aside from creating the content I normally would anyway – so I suppose I must be doing something fairly well.

So I appreciate the confidence Nathan has in me for growing his site, as well as the increasing readership those of you on your end are providing to me lately. It’s my job to justify both.

Update: Maryland’s arrival today is joined by California and South Dakota. At least one seems appropriate.

Shorebird of the Week – July 19, 2012

After a one-day detour to pitching-short Norfolk, Zach Fowler is back within the Delmarva fold.

While his cup of coffee with the Tides was nothing spectacular statistically (two runs and five hits in three innings pitched against Rochester) it didn’t take away from the solid season Zach is having with Delmarva.

One of the older pitchers on the staff, Fowler has parlayed his experience into success over his two-year Oriole minor league career. The 23-year-old lefty is a product of Texas Tech, and despite his low draft status as a 34th round selection in 2011, Zach has pitched to a career ERA of 2.33 with an outstanding 56:18 strikeout:walk ratio. In fact, with Delmarva Fowler is averaging just barely under a strikeout per inning (35 Ks in 35 1/3 innings.) And while he only has two saves, Zach is leading the team with 14 games finished – this seems to be a year where our squad has no set closer, so there have been a number of three-inning saves.

It’s not unknown for the Orioles to strike it rich with a low-round prospect, as 2011 Shorebird Jacob Pettit was a late-pick lefty from 2010 who’s advanced all the way to Bowie. And as long as Fowler can keep his WHIP in the range of 1.0 to 1.1 at each stop up the ladder there’s no telling just how far he will advance. He wasn’t ready for the International League quite yet, but in a couple seasons Zach may make a triumphant return.

36th Annual Tawes Crab and Clam Bake in pictures and text

I know a lot of people have been waiting with bated breath for this, so let me tell you that if a picture is a thousand words this will be a post upwards of 32,000 words. And I didn’t think I took all that many pictures.

Nor did it seem like this year’s edition had the crowds that previous recent Tawes gatherings did. Perhaps this falls in the category of anecdotal evidence, but I climbed up to the top of the bleachers and took this panoramic photo just before 1 p.m. – a time you would think there would be huge, long lines.

And it also seemed like fewer businesses were there this year, too. Of course, you had the regulars:

Both of these entities are there every year, with Eddie Heath providing the tent “fencing” for another longtime client, the Hebron Savings Bank. And it goes without saying that this event is an important part of Somerset County’s economic development.

But I spied a couple new entities I was unfamiliar with, too.

The Great Bay Wind Energy Center is being pushed by Somerset’s economic development team, as they seek a 65-turbine complex. Despite its name, the wind farm is planned for an inland site near Marion Station.

The second could be an exciting development on the entertainment front.

The first concert at The Amphitheater at Heron Ponds will be a free show featuring local ’80’s bands on August 24; a shakedown cruise if you will for its first major event featuring country singer Kellie Pickler on August 25.

They also win the creativity award for keeping the beer cold.

If you’re scratching your head as to why I found it humorous, here’s a wider view.

But the reputation of the Tawes Crab and Clam Bake was built on the perception that it was the place for Maryland politicians to see and be seen. Despite the smaller crowds, this year was no different.

Of course, you had the two party tents. I’m biased, so the GOP goes first.

The Democrats had a smaller rendition, but I think part of the reason is, as I found out, there’s only two counties represented there. (The Republicans generally pool Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester into theirs.)

One advantage the Democrats had was a little grassy area for easy sign placement.

They had the usual fare: Obama, Cardin, Rosen, Conway. Norm Conway? He’s not up this year, is he?

Nor is Blaine Young of Frederick County. But he is planning a 2014 run for Governor on the GOP side so he secured his own tent.

But the granddaddy of all political tents didn’t belong to a party or a candidate. Instead, it belonged to a lobbyist.

It even had fans stationed along one side of the perimeter.

Unfortunately, you cannot read the cards, but various politicians had reserved tables inside the tent. These two were saved for Delegate Cheryl Glenn and State Senator Joan Carter Conway. They weren’t the only ones.

However, I must say that Bereano is bipartisan – a goodly number of the pictures below were shot in front of his tent, which was conveniently across from the GOP tent.

And as I said above, those who wanted to see and be seen were in Crisfield, the southernmost city in Maryland. (Bet you non-locals didn’t know that.) I have a lot of these photos, so I suppose I’ll begin with statewide races and work my way to local ones.

Since I already revealed Blaine Young had a tent for his 2014 gubernatorial bid, I’ll start with him enjoying his lunch within.

To be honest, this was the biggest splash his nascent campaign has made, as he has a little catching up to do with two of his fellow presumptive GOP contenders. Larry Hogan (right in photo below) was in the house, sporting his Change Maryland logo with Red Maryland blogger and state YR head Brian Griffiths.

Griffiths is apparently an equal opportunity gladhander, since he’s also here with Harford County Executive David Craig, the unofficial-official candidate for Governor in 2014.

On the other side, Howard County Executive Ken Ulman is thought to be considering a run for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. He’s on the right, Wicomico County Executive Rick Pollitt (who introduced me) is to the left. I’m also told Peter Franchot, who may run in 2014, was there as well but I didn’t see him.

There was one other statewide candidate there, at least that I’m aware of.

Let’s just put it this way. I arrived at 11:00, and Dan Bongino was there 15 minutes later (note that the event officially started at noon.) The photo below was the second one I took. He stayed and sweated it out (literally) until almost the bitter end.

And while I show him by the GOP tent in this picture, he was all over the Somers Cove complex getting votes.

And they didn’t forget to get more volunteers, as the Bongino signup sheet was prominent on this table.

An advantage Bongino and other challengers had was the fact the incumbents were working today in Washington. So Ben Cardin couldn’t walk the grounds gathering votes, and nor could Andy Harris in the local First District race. But Harris had a good volunteer turnout.

Opponent Wendy Rosen had her own small posse of backers, too.

I had never met Rosen before today, so I wanted to put a face to a name. She’s a nice enough lady, but when she remarked something along the lines of Republicans selling their souls to the Koch Brothers, well, let’s just say the class envy card isn’t accepted here.

The Second District could have much better representation with this lady, who obviously approves this message.

It was nice to see her get some airtime, although the local TV station isn’t in her district.

I wish I had gotten a better photo of Third District hopeful Eric Knowles (on the right) but this will have to suffice.

While most state and local politicians aren’t on the ballot for awhile, there is one exception. Salisbury Mayor Jim Ireton is up for re-election in early 2013. Here he’s on the left (which seems to be the norm) but being bipartisan is Delegate Charles Otto, on the right.

General Assembly members from near and far came to participate. Delegate Mike McDermott was rolling up his sign as the day wound down.

State Senate Minority Leader E.J. Pipkin had one of his supporters in tow.

Here’s that Brian Griffiths guy again, in front of the Bereano tent with Delegates Kathy Szeliga and Justin Ready. Truly, though, it’s better Griffiths be in front of the camera and me behind it than the other way around.

And maybe politics is in the future of these two lovely young ladies – after all, they’ve won one contest already. The outgoing Miss Crustacean and Little Miss Crustacean will turn over their crowns at the Hard Crab Derby in September, but Hannah Adkins (left) and Jessica Wilson (right) seem to be having fun with their titles for now.

They definitely have winning smiles.

And by next week those who normally frequent the Somers Cove Marina can have their facility back.

So with that another Tawes Crab and Clam Bake is in the books. Next year should be a little more active since the 2014 campaign will be in full swing.

Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some of my local blogging cohorts there. Since Jackie Wellfonder was busy coordinating Dan Bongino’s effort she may not put anything up on her Raging Against the Rhetoric site, but Julie Brewington of Right Coast Conservative was snapping a number of shots for herself while Jonathan Taylor of Lower Eastern Shore News has his observations as well.

Out and about

The nice thing about having a tourist mecca nearby is the opportunity to get a political message out. While the Worcester County Republicans already have a billboard in place along the most busy north-south highway on Delmarva (U.S. 13) they’re also getting a lot of thumbs-up from people on the Boardwalk in Ocean City.

And Dan Bongino volunteers seem to be leading the charge!

I have a couple of observations on these two photos.

First of all, I wish Don Stifler, who forwarded these pictures to me, had added a helpful guide so I know who these women are. I presume they’re among the best and brightest that Worcester County Republicans have to offer, but I can’t give credit where credit is due because, quite honestly, I’m not good with faces and names. That’s why I write.

Secondly, I have to ask where the guys are? Come on, this IS the Boardwalk and I think there’s plenty to look at. Maybe that’s what they are doing.

But in the note which accompanied these pictures I’m told that they received accolades or thumbs up from at least one person hailing from all 23 of Maryland’s counties – along with Baltimore City, of course – and even one visitor from Key West, Florida.

Yet there is a wider point or two to be made among all these pictures. While I didn’t see any visitors at the table, it appears that the GOP is drawing interest from Republicans and thoughtful unaffiliated voters or members of other parties around the state who are presumably happy to see representation along the Boardwalk. Honestly, I don’t know if they had a similar location in 2010 or 2008 but what counts is that the two statewide campaigns as well as Andy Harris are flying their flag, so to speak, in this location. (I also don’t know if the Democrats are doing the same thing on the Boardwalk, if they are chances are it’s more of a low-key presence based on another Worcester County event.)

Obviously the conventional wisdom is that Maryland is such a dark blue state that being a Republican consigns you to a lifetime of electoral misery. But in order to change that, someone has to show we have not been buried upside down and will return before the ten-year statute of limitations decreed by Mike Miller. Wouldn’t it be sweet to win a couple statewide races and remind him of those words?

That’s what we’re working for. It may take some time, but as Dan Bongino says, “we cede no ground.” I don’t either.

Odds and ends number 53

One could almost call this a feature I used to do once upon a time that I allocated from an old Eastern Shore blog called Duvafiles. The late Bill Duvall used to do “Sunday Evening Reading,” and for the most part this post will have quite a bit of that element in it. But my e-mail box is brimming full of interesting items that I think at least deserve a mention, if not a couple paragraphs.

Saying it’s costing these funds $1.5 billion a year, the folks at the Center for Immigration Studies decry the shortfall they claim is being created in entitlement trust funds by foreign workers exempt from certain taxes. Obviously the Ocean City tourist economy is one fueled by those who take advantage of student visas to come to the United States and work for the summer. But employers also save by not having to pay the 8.45% payroll tax on these workers, pocketing the difference.

Next is a Friday the 13th horror story from the Heritage Foundation, which revealed that “welfare as we know it” isn’t going to be dead after all. While the actual language of the directive itself doesn’t seem so bad, there is one sentence which should give us pause:

As described below, however, HHS will only consider approving waivers relating to the work participation requirements that make changes intended to lead to more effective means of meeting the work goals of TANF.

And, while the states can posit any approach they wish, authority on implementation is left up to the HHS Secretary, not Congress:

The Secretary will not approve a waiver for an initiative that appears substantially likely to reduce access to assistance or employment for needy families.

In other words, let’s place more people on the dole!

You might also notice that this is an internal HHS directive because, unlike the 1996 law President Clinton reluctantly signed in the heat of a re-election campaign, Congress didn’t approve these new regulations. Perhaps because Friday afternoon document dumps of politically unpopular news and directives have become de rigueur these days, maybe Thursday is the new Friday around the Obama administration.

Executive abuse of regulatory authority isn’t just for the federal government, though. Senate Minority Leader E.J. Pipkin called out Governor O’Malley for making his own changes, stating, “The Governor, using the MDE regulatory authority as a front, has decided to circumvent legislation passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by his own hand.”

The changes have to do with legislation passed in 2009 to regulate septic systems, which was originally intended only for certain areas lying in the Coastal Bay and critical areas around waterways. But recent Maryland Department of the Environment regulatory changes expand the regulations statewide, according to Pipkin.

“Once again the Governor displays a breathtaking arrogance to change the law. He has an environmental agenda. And he is not about to let a mere 188 elected lawmakers get in his way,” Pipkin said.

It’s interesting to see as well that Pipkin has revamped his website. Perhaps it’s being primed for a statewide run?

In the national run, while Barack Obama has been whining about being outraised and outspent by Mitt Romney, the Republican is running a contest to meet him and his vice-presidential candidate (for a $3 donation, of course.)

But while Obama’s whining about a lack of funding, as blogger Bob McCarty notes the president’s seen over 400 banks fail under his watch, including the recent closure of the Bank of the Eastern Shore in Cambridge. Obviously most of these weren’t too big to fail, although most of the failed thrifts were acquired by other institutions.

And of course, there’s the people who claim they saw all this coming. Sometime this fall a documentary film will come out detailing the transgressions performed by the federal government in creating our hard economic times. The film will be called “The Bubble” and this is the trailer.

Now I don’t go in for grand conspiracy theories, but as long as the players stick to the basic issues and – more importantly – explain a little bit about the ideas they think can reverse the trend, they may have a winner on their hands just in time for the election. Not saying it will be a help to Mitt Romney or necessarily hurt Barack Obama, but it could make people think.

The film is based on the book Meltdown by Dr. Tom Woods, who contends that:

Americans have been fed a cartoon version of what has happened to the economy over the past several years. They believe the government was merely an innocent bystander, while the real culprits, egged on by so-called deregulation, are to be found in the private sector.

Guess what? He’s right. And his film will argue we may be blowing up yet another one, which will likely implode in 2013 or 2014.

The bubble on this edition of odds and ends bursts now, though. Yes, my e-mail inbox is nice and cleaned out once again.

Friday night videos – episode 73

I understand tonight is Friday the 13th, but I’m not going to bust out a hockey mask and go all Jason on you. (That is the correct pop culture reference, isn’t it? I’m no slasher film buff.)

Instead, I’m going to toss out some stuff you may not have seen, and, as I alluded to last week, feature my three most watched music videos on my YouTube channel. They’re some of the many I’ve recorded and uploaded since 2009.

But first I wanted to feature a good new band, with a song that put them on the map with me. This is Red Angel.

Another band I heard first through the Local Produce show was bigtimeshipwreck. I chose this song because to me it represents the hard work that goes into making a live show so special. Maybe they weren’t looking for it to be seen but I saw it anyway.

I’m not a huge fan of covers, but sometimes there’s one which catches my ear. So it was with this version of ‘Addicted’ by local favorites Vivid Season.

Another, less conventional cover was done by a band which is no longer among us, as Order 6D-6 apparently went their separate ways. I think I have this song as one of my videos as well, but this version of ‘London Dungeon’ is probably better quality.

Another band I miss, one that was active in the area around the middle of the last decade, is Philadelphia-based Not Alone. This is an acoustic version of one of their more popular songs, ‘In Angel’s Arms’.

As I promised last week, there are some quite popular and well-watched videos from my YouTube page. Because I featured #4 last Friday, I’m going to do the top three in reverse order here, beginning with number 3 from Petting Hendrix. It was recorded at the same 2009 Save the BreastFest show I recorded Chrome Donut at.

In at number 2 are local favorites Lower Class Citizens, which I recorded as they wrapped up the inaugural Good Beer Festival in Salisbury back in October, 2010.

And now my most popular music video, also recorded outdoors but at a different venue. From the 2010 Pork in the Park festivities, Smokin’ Gunnz reprises the Lynard Skynard classic ‘I Ain’t The One.’ But it is the one with the most views.

Next week I think I’m going to meander along the path I established with Not Alone and see what else I can dig up from bands which are no longer with us but in video form. Hey, it’s my series.

Until next Friday night, have a great week and rock the summer!

Shorebird of the Week – July 12, 2012

If he wasn’t in uniform, there’s a pretty good chance you could mistake Zach Davies for the batboy – that’s what happens when a slender, baby-faced 19-year-old plays professional baseball. But since he made his professional debut with the Shorebirds in April, last year’s 26th round Oriole pick – who was all ready to go to Arizona State before signing at the last minute last summer – has made South Atlantic League batters aware that he’s all grown up, with a change-up to match.

The versatile Davies began the season in the bullpen, but the promotion of another Shorebird hurler placed Zach into the starting rotation, where he’s thrived. Nowhere was that more apparent than in his last appearance Tuesday evening, where he threw a career-high seven innings in shutting out the Savannah Sand Gnats. Unfortunately, he got no decision in a duel which was lost by the Shorebirds’ bullpen 2-0.

But while Davies has only started nine of his 17 appearances, he finds himself leading the team in innings pitched with 75 1/3, to go with a 3-2 record and 3.70 ERA. Zach has struck out 56 and walked 29, which gives him a WHIP of 1.34. That’s quite respectable and better than the league average; bear in mind much of his peer group is pitching with 2 to 4 seasons of college experience. He may have been a low draft pick because of perceived signability issues in that he was committed to Arizona State, but the Sun Devils’ loss seems to be Delmarva’s gain and as Zach fills out a little bit he could add a few ticks to a mid-to high-80’s fastball.

As is the case with many high school pitchers, it will be interesting to see what the plans are for Zach during the remaining seven weeks of the season. Many high school pitchers run against an innings limit of around 100 innings in their first season, which means Zach may only have 4 to 5 starts left. So if you want to watch SAL batters try to match wits with the master of changing speeds, you may want to hurry.

Entitled to their own facts

There are two sides to (almost) every story, and after being raked over the coals by a Change Maryland study which received national attention and offended the sensibilities of our governor – you know, the one who’s already mentally measuring the drapes in the Oval Office? – the empire struck back today with a meaningless bunch of mumbo-jumbo about “partisan organization,” “decisive actions taken,” and “third lowest state and local tax burden adjusting for income.” Shoot, at least I parsed the actual study instead of picking out items which have little to do with Change Maryland’s point, although I thought it was telling that the O’Malley retort conveniently forgot to mention that those 2007 tax increases came with millions of dollars of additional spending.

Now that I’ve managed to get a breath in after that first paragraph, allow me to decipher what this really means: it was a direct hit to the O’Malley 2016 battleship. Obviously, the Change Maryland piece making it to CNBC – which, coincidentally, today put out their annual ranking of the top business-friendly states where Maryland only ranked 31st (a decline of 2 spots from last year) – had to be interpreted as a shot across the bow by O’Malley and Maryland Democrats. That’s why they had to make sure to paint Change Maryland as a “partisan organization.”

Yet it’s no surprise that Virginia and North Carolina, two states that Change Maryland highlighted as recipients of Maryland’s tax base loss, ranked #3 and #4 respectively in the CNBC survey. (Texas and Utah were first and second, while North Dakota rounded out the top 5. I also found it telling that right-to-work states comprised the top 7 in the rankings, 9 of the top 10, and 14 of the top 16; meanwhile, closed-shop states comprised the bottom 4 and 7 of the bottom 10.)

But there’s something that Governor O’Malley and his administration cannot paint over, and that’s the mounting frustration of many of Maryland’s working families who continue to see tax and fee increases to support higher and higher spending on those they see as not contributing to society, especially illegal immigrants. All around them, they see their cost of living going up with one exception: the value of their homes, which continues to plummet.

Maybe it’s not so acute in other parts of Maryland, like downtown Annapolis, but out here there’s a lot of worry. And the numbers don’t lie: on much of the Lower Shore – where good-paying jobs are hard to come by in a roaring economy, let alone the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) economy we’re under now (h/t to Tom Blumer of Bizzy Blog for that acronym) – those who left Wicomico, Dorchester, and Somerset counties had higher incomes than the arrivals did. I would also bet that if the northeastern quadrant of Worcester County (Ocean City, Berlin, and Ocean Pines) were excluded that county’s numbers would be similar.

My fellow Salisbury blogger Julie Brewington took less than 3 minutes while driving back from Ocean City to explain the quandary many thousands of not-so-Free Staters find themselves in. She well represents the producers of this economy:

I would guess that she and her husband, if they left, would tilt the income scale of the outgoing a little bit upward from the $37,000 or so figure that I gleaned for Wicomico County from the Change Maryland study. And it’s not just that, as her family has fairly deep roots in the area.

But if people don’t feel economically welcomed to a place, they will leave. Of course, that’s only my opinion but it seems to be an option more and more of those private-sector job creators in Maryland seem to be considering, to the detriment of those of the rest of us who choose to stay and fight. Who can blame them, though?

A close shave for redistricting petition

They only turned in about 10,000 “spare” signatures at the June 30 deadline, but those behind a petition drive to bring the recently-enacted Congressional districts to referendum felt confident they would have just enough signatures to place the matter on the November 6 ballot, and preliminary numbers seem to bear them out.

Out of the 65,722 signatures given to the state Board of Elections, 44,310 – or roughly 2/3 – have been verified by the state. At this point the drive sits at 39,516 validated signatures, which means just 16,220 out of 21,412 of the remaining names need to be acceptable. The history of these recent referendum petitions suggests that only about 10 percent of the signatures have been ruled invalid; if that trend holds the drive will end up in the range of 59,000 valid signatures and would be on the ballot.

(continued at Examiner.com…)

Friday night videos – episode 72

There was a little more of a break than I envisioned when I did my last episode at the tail end of last year, but the good news is that FNV is back for the summer!

Since summer is the silly season of politics and I like my bands when I can get them, I’m bringing back this series each Friday night through August. So for the next nine weeks rock out the summer with some new stuff and old classics I’m bringing back.

The first song is a tribute of sorts to a supporter of local music – the ‘Live Lixx at Six’ series on Ocean 98 (WOCM-FM). The background song comes from The Permilla Project, who’s featured at the end of this video.

Another Live Lixx video goes back to the early days when DJ BK and Leslie did the show as a tandem, and features The Aaron Howell Band.

Moving out of the Irie Radio studio, I included this song because the singer’s husband never sees Too Much Fun. It’s an old classic rock chestnut from a group which used to be known as 8 Track Flashback, but it’s good anyway.

Keeping with the female vocal theme – but switching back to original music – this is a band called 14-5 out of Pocomoke. You know, I’m not digging the unkind comments on the video (if you look at the YouTube page) unless they’re willing to go out and try it themselves. I know I can’t carry a tune in a bucket.

Another female vocal, from a group I’ve probably featured more than any other, Semiblind.

To close out, I wanted to give you a brief history of this series. It originally started out as a weekly review of some of the many political videos I was receiving back in 2009, with my first episode put up July 24 of that year. It wasn’t until episode 8 in October that I did music videos, and this was the very first one I selected.

For a long time, the Chrome Donut video was the most-watched video on my channel and it’s still #4 among music videos. This leads me to a good idea – next week I’ll feature the top three as I look back, while adding some new stuff as well.

Until next Friday night, have a great week and rock the summer!

Shocker: capital leaves a high-tax state

I would have argued for a release which wasn’t on a holiday week – a point I made to spokesman Jim Pettit – but on Tuesday Change Maryland released a fascinating study about the migration of capital from Maryland to other states; a study which also looked at the effect on each of Maryland’s 23 counties and Baltimore City.

In the release, Change Maryland Chair Larry Hogan is quoted as saying:

A growing tax base is the ultimate win/win situation in public policy. It eases the pressure to raise revenues, and conversely, a shrinking tax base often leads to a troublesome tax-and-spend downward spiral as actual revenues fail to meet estimates.

Welcome to Maryland, huh? How many gimmicks has the state tried over the last half-decade or so to address a yawning structural deficit? We were told the tax hikes in 2007 would do the trick, but if that wasn’t the case we would be rolling in dough from all the casinos we would build to keep those Free Staters wagering at home instead of traveling to Delaware or West Virginia to play those one-armed bandits. And so on, and so forth – meanwhile, the state continues to increase spending at a rapid clip, daring revenues to try and keep up in a losing race. The Change Maryland group also has a handy list of the 24 tax and fee increases we have endured since Martin O’Malley came into office inheriting a budget surplus in 2007.

So when I received a preview of this study on Monday, the first thing I naturally gravitated to was how it affected my home county of Wicomico, which has had its own budgetary struggles over the last couple years. Those of the liberal persuasion – a number which includes our County Executive, Rick Pollitt – blame a voter-imposed revenue cap for part of the problem, but a larger issue is the rapid decline of property values that, through property taxes, make up a significant portion of county revenues.

Whatever the reason, the Change Maryland numbers show a stark difference between Wicomico and neighboring counties on the lower Eastern Shore. Using the factors of those coming and leaving, our overall income tax base declined 0.77% while each of the three surrounding counties (Dorchester, Somerset, Worcester) increased at 0.47%, 0.16%, and 2.07% respectively. Worcester’s gain was the largest in the state, with Kent County on the Upper Eastern Shore second at 1.55%.

While the Change Maryland analysis focuses on larger counties, Hogan also had encouraging words for the rural parts of the state:

I’m very encouraged by how well we’re doing in the rural and outlying counties. These small economic engines are powering the state forward by attracting new residents. Clearly where we need to see improvement is in our largest jurisdictions. Baltimore City is losing its tax base at unacceptable levels and Montgomery County’s stagnant tax base will further tarnish its business reputation as elected officials seek more revenue to make up for budget shortfalls.

Yet there are three exceptions to that rural/urban rule, as Allegany County in the western panhandle lost quite a bit of its tax base as did Caroline County (also on the Eastern Shore.)

I think the problem can easily be addressed for Allegany County by allowing the extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale which lies underneath; meanwhile, Caroline County is such a small number to almost be an anomaly. However, Caroline is a very rural (and landlocked) county lying somewhat off the beaten path and attracting jobs and residents can be difficult in those cases.

On the other hand, the obvious point Change Maryland is making about the lack of encouragement to business growth is most reinforced by the tax base declines in Baltimore City and County along with the close Washington D.C. suburbs of Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. Their tax base may be shrinking, but combined these entities make up about 60% of Maryland’s roughly 5.8 million residents.

So that leaves poor old Wicomico County, which is flailing just like the big boys. But why?

The liberal and Pollitt argument would go something like this: because our budgets were made artificially tight by the revenue cap, we couldn’t “invest” in quality-of-life aspects of government like education and recreation to attract people to live here. But the key attraction to an area to businesses is generally how receptive the location will be for the bottom line – even though Perdue is located in Wicomico County many of its workers choose to live in other areas for various reasons, whether lower property taxes, better housing or schools, or just liking a place to live enough to make the extra commute worth it.

If you look at the actual Wicomico County numbers, it’s interesting to see that the number of filers declined by just 45, out of a total of over 2,000 on each side – it’s not a statistically significant change. But add in the dependents and the number swells to an outflow of 215. It’s a suggestion that families with kids are leaving the area; naturally those on the Left would quickly indict the lack of spending on schools and quality of life as a culprit.

But the income difference is stark enough to suggest that it’s truly a lack of good job opportunities that is costing Wicomico County – there’s about a $5,000 income differential between those leaving and those coming in. In other words, good-paying jobs are being lost and replaced by ones which aren’t as lucrative. It’s one thing that I wish Change Maryland had included, but instead I did the simple math.

The first number in these upcoming series is the income (in thousands) per filer coming into each county and Baltimore City. The second number is the income (in thousands) shown from outgoing filers, with the third plus-or-minus number being the difference between the two:

Allegany: 31.48, 37.73, (-6.25)
Anne Arundel: 51.74, 53.22, (-1.48)
Baltimore City: 37.81, 43.83, (-6.02)
Baltimore County: 42.44, 46.28, (-3.84)
Calvert: 57.61, 53.71, +3.90
Caroline: 35.12, 31.22, +3.90
Carroll: 55.14, 47.76, +7.38
Cecil: 45.86, 45.53, +0.33
Charles: 48.52, 48.89, (-0.37)
Dorchester: 34.13, 35.40, (-1.27)
Frederick: 53.55, 50.64, +2.91
Garrett: 48.45, 32.48, +15.97
Harford: 52.17, 48.51, +3.66
Howard: 61.39, 59.05, +2.34
Kent: 48.79, 36.24, +12.55
Montgomery: 58.62, 59.00, (-0.38)
Prince George’s: 40.18, 40.85, (-0.67)
Queen Anne’s: 58.41, 49.64, +8.77
St. Mary’s: 50.51, 49.36, +1.15
Somerset: 26.74, 27.00, (-0.26)
Talbot: 53.00, 46.96, +6.04
Washington: 39.12, 38.59, +0.53
Wicomico: 31.44, 36.88, (-5.44)
Worcester: 49.67, 34.53, +15.14

Looking at the numbers through this lens, you can see that Wicomico is right there with Baltimore City and Allegany County in bleeding good-paying jobs and attracting what might be considered the working poor. Oddly enough, both Wicomico and Allegany border the two best performers on this particular comparison as both Garrett and Worcester counties are attracting new and much more affluent tax filers.

My theory on this stark differential is that these wealthier newcomers are retirees who wish to live out their years by the beach or up in the mountains, not necessarily those drawn because of good-paying jobs. A combination of retirees and people who wish to live in more rural areas, perceiving a better quality of life there, and don’t mind a long daily commute might explain the success of Eastern Shore counties like Kent, Queen Anne’s, Talbot, and perhaps even Caroline.

And then there’s the group that simply threw up their hands and moved out of the state entirely. The Change Maryland study points out Virginia was a major beneficiary of Maryland’s losses, which makes sense considering those who work in Washington D.C. can just as readily commute from Virginia as they can from Maryland. Dan Bongino – who’s familiar with working in Washington as a former Secret Service agent protecting the President – has mentioned the fact that many considered him “crazy” for selecting Maryland over Virginia when he moved here from New York (because of the tax burden) on the campaign trail. But “I saw Maryland first and I fell in love with it,” said Dan.

Unfortunately, there are too many other pragmatic thinkers who may love Maryland but are deciding to vote with their feet and depart for greener financial pastures. It will be the job of those like Hogan and Bongino to shake up the state and place it back in a positive direction for job growth by encouraging business investment instead of considering wealthy people cash cows to milk until these producers crumple over from exhaustion.

Shorebird of the Week – July 5, 2012

For the longest time, it appeared Brenden Webb would be one of those guys who had a very good eye at the plate but wouldn’t be good at making contact. In 1,063 professional at-bats (here in the States) Brenden has drawn 181 walks but fanned an amazing 305 times, including 152 strikeouts in 487 plate appearances last season. With that in mind, consider that Webb’s 64 bases on balls is second-best in the entire South Atlantic League but his 81 strikeouts are fourth-most. It is an improvement, though, considering Brenden had the second-most strikeouts in the league (152) last year – the leader had 172 but also had 110 more plate appearances than Brenden did.

But in his second time through the league Brenden has improved his average by around 40 points, and the winter spent playing professionally in Australia couldn’t have hurt. In fact, Webb is enjoying a breakout season considering he’s never hit above .227 in any of his three previous seasons and has also established career highs in doubles (17), home runs (8), RBI (33), and stolen bases (16) in barely a half-season this year. After last night’s game he was batting .255 – improving 17 points since the league’s All-Star break with a 13-for-39 streak.

Strangely enough, Webb is one of the few minor league players who’s played four minor-league seasons without experiencing a mid-season promotion or demotion – but there’s a pretty good chance that streak may come to an end before all is said and done on 2012. While his average could be a little higher, the 22-year-old out of California’s Palomar College has probably exceeded the expectations of a 30th round draft selection and may get a chance with Frederick given the season-long turmoil in the Orioles organization. Brenden’s certainly earned it with his hard work and desire to improve by spending the winter playing in Australia.