Michael

Odds and ends number 50

Half a hundred now of these items which deserve a paragraph or three, and in this rendition several are of national interest.

I wanted to start out with a rather comprehensive look by Accuracy in Media at voter fraud. In truth, this is less of an expose than a confirmation because we on the Right had been thinking about this for years, and some of these accounts have filtered down to a local level.

Now I’ve heard people claim that voting should be a privilege reserved to property owners or to those who pay taxes rather than receive goodies from the government. I don’t agree with that approach, but I think that perhaps if local election boards are running into a problem with last-minute registrations scant weeks before an election, the simple solution would be to simply move back the deadline. Honestly, if people wish to register to vote they’re going to do it well in advance of the election. This would also do away with the open invitation to fraud known as same-day registration.

But I also agree we should do away with motor voter laws and eliminate early voting. If people are serious enough to vote they already have the right to get an absentee ballot. To me it’s a waste of taxpayer money to spend thousands on multi-day elections when just 2% of voters participate.

And don’t even go there and tell me I want to suppress turnout, because I don’t. I want prospective voters to take their responsibility more seriously. The left always screams “voter suppression” whenever some common-sense idea like photo voter ID or those others above are introduced, but they are all in favor of oppressive campaign finance laws. Isn’t that monetary suppression? Hypocrites.

The report is well worth a read.

Along that same line, writers Peter J. Boyer and Peter Schweizer ask why certain corporate interests can go scot-free under the Obama regime while others are hounded by the Justice Department. That’s not to say that Wall Street is a batch of crooks by any means, but in politics perception is reality and the fact that Wall Street gave far more to Barack Obama than John McCain leads to the thoughts of pay-for-play and cronyism.

Speaking of entities which give Democrats a lot of money, Matt Patterson and Trey Kovacs of the Competitive Enterprise Institute asked in the Washington Times why unions just won’t let go if a bargaining unit doesn’t want to stay with them. Well, the answer seems pretty simple to me – as they write:

There is a reason why unions are fighting to hold workers against their will and challenging laws that bring greater freedom to the workplace. Union leaders need a monopoly on labor in order to bankrupt governments and corporations, and they require unfree markets to maintain their own power and wealth.

That goes in the category of “duh,” workers be damned.

And this is a video worth sharing, even if I don’t necessarily agree with the point.

Personally I would prefer Medicare eventually be phased out or devolved to the states, but I realize that’s a decades-long process. Having said that, though, it’s obvious that Obamacare is the wrong direction to go despite the fact it cuts Medicare. Paul Ryan’s not pushing seniors off the cliff.

Finally, I wanted to bring up the attention being paid to a national issue by our own Congressman, Andy Harris. In a recent release, he decried the abuse of taxpayer dollars by those here illegally:

Illegal aliens are filing false tax returns claiming numerous fake child tax credits. Once our tax dollars are in the hands of illegal aliens, it’s impossible to get the money back. Once I learned about this outrageous loophole that allows billions of dollars per year to be stolen from US taxpayers, I knew I had to act.

In November of 2011, I joined Rep Sam Johnson in introducing H.R. 1956, Refundable Child Tax Credit Eligibility Verification Reform Act, to close this loophole. The bill is necessary because the IRS claims that they are simply following the law. We had hoped that the IRS would act without legislation.

One would think that the White House would instruct the IRS to stop giving away tax dollars to illegal aliens scamming our tax system. This is an urgent and immediate problem, especially as we’ve passed the tax filing deadline of April 15th.

The child care tax credits have grown from $924 million in 2005 to $4.2 billion last year. H.R. 1956 will curb the fraud in this program by requiring the IRS to only allow this tax credit for children with a social security number. H.R. 1956 was assigned to the House Ways and Means Committee and I am waiting for the hearing to be scheduled any time. (Emphasis in original.)

So my question is why there’s been no hurry to move this bill? I guess one would have to ask Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) because it’s his committee. Perhaps his contributors would like the waiver to stand?

In truth, though, I think this is another in the series of ill-advised cautions by the Republican establishment to not risk alienating the Latino vote. Never mind that they turn off millions of voters who are concerned about the illegal alien problem – I’ll grant it’s less of a concern now that migration by illegals is now a net outflow due to a poor economy, but once conditions improve we may become a magnet once again.

Well, that cleans out my mailbox for the most part. Glad you stopped by for some original monoblogue content – I can’t put all my good stuff on Examiner because in all honesty I’m not sure their format would lend itself to such a post. That’s why I maintain this independent, conservative site!

But by all means you should subscribe to my Examiner page to get notice of when I do post there. I’m having fun juggling all these writing plates! Haven’t broken one yet.

And a happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there. I wrote this yesterday so I could devote a little time to the moms in my life today, so enjoy.

Picket line and dueling rallies to punctuate Maryland Special Session

Editor’s note 5/27/2022: I have brought this home from the dead Examiner.com pages.

One participant only expects it to last two days, but the upcoming Special Session of the Maryland General Assembly may have just as much action on the outside as it will on the inside.

As currently scheduled, events outside begin with a “picket line” being organized by the “We the People” group of Carroll County at 9:30 a.m. That effort – complete with “union dues” which will be collected for donation to the Maryland Food Bank – will give way to a noontime press conference by the Maryland chapter of Americans for Prosperity at the State House in Annapolis.

Later on, dueling – but not simultaneous – rallies will inhabit Lawyers Mall outside the capital late Monday afternoon. First will be a “Last Chance Rally for Tax Fairness” hosted by Progressive Maryland, beginning at 5:30 and lasting about an hour. They will be urging the General Assembly to pass the tax hikes necessary to forestall the so-called “doomsday budget” which only increases spending by $700 million over last year’s expenditures, as opposed to the $1.2 billion spending hike originally envisioned by Governor Martin O’Malley. Along with a significant increase in tax rates on high-income earners progressives would also like an increased tax on non-cigarette tobacco products, a toll which was included in the budget reconciliation bill which died along with the regular session at midnight April 9.

After the liberal side yields the field, once again those who oppose the prospect of tax hikes and believe the state can do more with less will begin their affair, the Rally Against the Doomsday Session. The event is scheduled for two hours, and is slated to start at 7 p.m. Obviously there could be a few counter-protestors at each event who stand in opposition to the side then holding court at Lawyers Mall.

While it was expected the legislature would reconvene at some point in the wake of the confusion of the Maryland General Assembly’s last regular session day, Governor O’Malley presented his case in his announcement regarding the Special Session: “There is too much at stake not to move forward. I’m confident we can…complete this most important work for the people of our State,” claimed the governor.

But other voices beg to differ. Senate Minority Leader E.J. Pipkin, a Republican, criticized O’Malley as having “shown a breathtaking inability to manage the fiscal matters of state” in his six years as governor. He also complained that legislators won’t have time to review new spending bills before their hearing, noting “there is no legislator in the world capable of reading and analyzing this mass of material in a few hours.” Said Pipkin,“The unheard speed with which this legislation is being forced to passage makes it clear the powers-that-be do not really want to give legislators time to study the proposals,” adding this was a “cruel mockery” of the normal legislative process.

Even some Democrats dislike the idea. State Comptroller Peter Franchot, a likely 2014 candidate for Governor, called the Special Session a “black eye” that takes the state “100 miles per hour in the wrong direction.”

Most who will attend the latter rally Monday night would tend to agree with Pipkin and Franchot. This sentiment was also echoed in remarks made by Delegate Mike McDermott at a Wednesday meeting in Wicomico County, where he stated the belief Democrats “have already cut the deal” on a tax increase in closed-door meetings last week, making the Special Session perfunctory.

A prospective 2014 GOP gubernatorial candidate also questioned the need for an income tax increase, pointing out the state already has a high reliance on its income tax. Larry Hogan, speaking on behalf of the group Change Maryland, said that the state’s Department of Legislative Services reported the news at length prior to the 2012 session. “One has to wonder if the Governor, Senate President, and House Speaker are reading the reports provided for them,” said Hogan.“This report raises red flags about Maryland’s over-reliance on the income tax to support state spending.”

Polling also suggests those who oppose the “doomsday session” may have the public on their side. In January House of Delegates freshman Republicans commissioned a Gonzales Poll, a survey which found 63% of Maryland respondents believed their taxes were too high, with an additional one-third describing them as just enough. (The specific poll questions and results are not available online.) Those who responded in the negative regarding taxes weren’t given options as to what spending would need to be trimmed in order to match any revenue shortfalls, though.

But it’s likely the hundreds who show up from around the state on Monday for the Lawyers Mall events will have their own sets of solutions for the General Assembly to consider.

Resign yourself to paying more taxes, Maryland

Editor’s note, July 2019: This was originally an article intended for Examiner.com, but since that site no longer exists I have taken the liberty to update this post.

The original slideshow will be at the bottom, although captions are updated.

On Wednesday night the Wicomico Society of Patriots met under dire circumstances, at least in their point of view. Once Dr. Greg Belcher, a local chiropractor who conducted the WSOP meeting, led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer he turned the meeting over to political activist G.A. Harrison.

Harrison welcomed the forty or so who comfortably filled the room at a local eatery to Wicomico County, the “former home of the revenue cap.” After declaring it “effectively dead,” Harrison pointed the blame to two local members of the Maryland House of Delegates: Rudy Cane and Norm Conway. They were the only two from the Eastern Shore who voted in favor of Senate Bill 848, a bill which allowed the state to trump locally-imposed taxation limits like Wicomico’s revenue cap, provided the funds went to education.

~~(continued at Examiner.com, including a slideshow…)~~

By the way, if you had subscribed to my old Examiner sites you need to switch over to the new one. If you didn’t subscribe before, now is the perfect opportunity. Just click the “subscribe” button at the top and follow the prompt.

Yet even Harrison admitted the county wouldn’t dare raise property taxes the staggering 19.9 cents per $100 of valuation to fully fund maintenance of effort, better known as MOE. It would be “our doomsday” if that occurred.

But while Wicomico will be forced to raise property taxes to the maximum extent allowed, G.A. declared the county’s FY2013 budget was a “fiction…premised on the hope the General Assembly will reverse Senate Bill 848” in the upcoming Special Session. Nor would the county get a MOE waiver, continued Harrison, without the approval of both the county’s Board of Education and teachers’ union. Both have denied the county’s waiver request, with the proviso that they may change their mind if $2 million more is allocated toward educational needs. The word “extortion” crossed the lips of several attending upon hearing that news nugget.

With that initial salvo, Harrison critiqued the entire Wicomico budgetary process. What’s available to the public “doesn’t tell you a whole lot,” said the presenter, adding “you are not allowed to see the budget detail.” Even County Council is only allowed to make cuts to nonspecific “pots of money,” with the County Executive who sets the budget under no obligation to make the specific cut the Council may desire. Meanwhile, other counties which have revenue caps are more prepared for any eventuality than Wicomico is, contended Harrison.

To address this in the short term, Harrison suggested demanding a more detailed line-item budget be made available and using it to request specific cuts. We also should ask that the county auditor perform an audit of the educational budget, which makes up 46% of county general fund expenditures, G.A. added.

In the long term, Harrison believed County Executive Rick Pollitt “needs to accept there’s a new paradigm,” one which includes persuading him to support the adoption of an elected school board. Wicomico County is one of just a handful of counties where the local school board is still appointed by the governor. Most distressingly, though, G.A. conceded that we need to resign ourselves to the fact we will pay higher taxes, particularly as legislators on the Western Shore are “convinced we are undertaxed.”

“Annapolis is gonna lay a big whoopin’ on us,” concluded Harrison.

Among the audience of about 40 were a number of local politicians and candidates. But the one who stole the show was Delegate Mike McDermott.

Due to redistricting, McDermott no longer represents Wicomico County. But in response to a question from a fellow attendee, the Worcester County-based Delegate and gifted extemporaneous speaker devoted a lengthy monologue to the entire set of issues county governments need to come to grips with: the usurpation of their power by the state government in Annapolis. “The real problem is why do we have a state dictating to us,” said McDermott.

He also blasted fellow Delegate Norm Conway, stating that Conway is always “ticked off about the failure of Wicomico County to raise taxes and increase spending on their own,” hence, Conway’s support of Senate Bill 848. McDermott also believed “(Democrats) have already cut the deal (on a tax package),” said Mike, predicting a brief two-day Special Session.

But Mike also felt the General Assembly “let the state of Maryland down” and deserved to be “thrown under the bus.”

“It’s going to get bloody and ugly in Maryland,” McDermott concluded.

Also in attendance was Libertarian First District Congressional candidate Muir Boda, who added that “it’s a shame that (government has) come to robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

There’s no question the news at the meeting wasn’t what those who came wanted to hear; however, these activists have become accustomed to bad news coming from both Annapolis and Washington. Yet they continue to speak out, with many spending the post-meeting time discussing how to maximize their numbers in Annapolis and making carpool arrangements for a planned protest rally there next Monday evening.

The tax and spend die has apparently already been cast, though, as the state will throw out the previously approved and balanced budget in favor of something bigger – but not necessarily better.

An audience of about 40 looks on at the Wicomico Society of Patriots meeting on May 9, 2012. The subject was the state’s effect on the Wicomico County budget.

Local blogger and political expert G.A. Harrison narrated a presentation on the ‘fiction’ that is the FY2013 Wicomico County budget as it currently stands.

Local chiropractor Dr. Greg Belcher moderated the Wicomico Society of Patriots meeting in Salisbury, May 9, 2012.

Delegate Mike McDermott was an outspoken critic of Annapolis policies, and was warmly welcomed by the Wicomico Society of Patriots audience.

Shorebird of the Week – May 10, 2012

It’s highly unusual for a player just out of high school to make his pro debut with a full-season team. In the case of the Orioles, kids out of high school are generally ticketed for the Gulf Coast League Orioles, where the games are played during the day in front of sparse crowds.

But this year the Shorebirds are counting on three players who have made the jump from high school, and this week the position player of the group, Nicky Delmonico, is the Shorebird of the Week.

Delmonico didn’t sign until the last possible day in 2011 as he weighed the choice between taking the Orioles’ offer and playing at the University of Georgia. He opted to turn pro, but once he signed the Orioles saw little point in sending him to a minor league team for just a couple weeks so he’s making his debut here at Delmarva.

And since Delmonico comes from a baseball family – his father Rod was a coach at the University of Tennessee and his brother Tony is a Dodgers farmhand, with a second brother, Joey, playing at Georgia – it’s obvious the Orioles felt he could handle the full-season debut.

So far Nicky has done fairly well. After a bit of a slow start, his bat heated up to post current numbers of .264/2/18 with an OPS of .776 and 16 walks to go with 25 strikeouts. Plate discipline was thought to be one of Nicky’s strong points and he’s shown a decent eye at the plate for a raw rookie. Last year’s 6th round pick is just 19 (he’ll turn 20 in July) and the Tennessee native is holding down the first base position reasonably well considering he was drafted as a third baseman and projected as a catcher.

Those positions may well be in his future yet in all but three games he’s played in the field this year he’s played at first, with the remaining games at second base.

Obviously the Orioles don’t have to be in a hurry to move Delmonico up and unless he suddenly blooms into a .330 hitter it’s likely he’ll spend the 2012 campaign with the Shorebirds. Expect to hear a lot of ‘Crazy Train’ around Perdue Stadium because Delmonico selected it as his plate introduction song and he’ll be playing a lot.

Bowing out gracefully

Editor’s note 5/27/2022: I have brought this home from the dead Examiner.com pages.

In 2010 Brendan Madigan was one of the youngest statewide candidates in the country, making headlines as the first Republican to file in the race for Comptroller. While he didn’t win the nomination, he still garnered 25% of the vote in a three-way primary and finished second.

Now a student at the University of North Carolina, Brendan has remained active in politics – enough so that he felt it “appropriate” to release a statement on his political future given the early entry of 2010 GOP Comptroller nominee William Campbell into the 2014 fray.

“After taking a realistic look at the race over several months, I made the decision not to seek the office of Maryland Comptroller in 2014,” said Madigan. “While I will not be seeking the office of Comptroller of Maryland, I remain interested in pursuing lower office in 2014, namely the Delegate seat in my home district of 5B where Delegate (Wade) Kach has made a number of anti-family votes.”

Madigan reserved a formal announcement for later in 2013, but given some of the rumors around Annapolis that Kach switched his original vote against same-sex marriage with the expectation of securing a state position, it’s quite possible the veteran Baltimore County legislator may not run again, opening the seat to new contenders in a reconfigured district. Kach’s former District 5B has been reconstituted into District 42B, taking in a smaller portion of Baltimore County.

At a time when most college graduates are out looking for a job Madigan could be in the final stages of a primary battle, perhaps against a Delegate who’s been in office for Madigan’s entire lifetime. Brendan has established himself as a young Republican to watch.

Good for Indiana (and North Carolina, too)

The TEA Party’s political obituary may have been written a little too soon, despite the presumed nomination of moderate Mitt Romney as the GOP Presidential standardbearer.

Senator Richard Lugar will be ‘Back Home Again in Indiana’ come January as he was defeated in their Republican primary. After 36 years in office, the 80-year-old Lugar became a poster child for establishment, RINO Republican insider and out-of-touch politician. State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, a TEA Party favorite, defeated the incumbent and will likely be elected come November. While Obama won the state in 2008, his campaign concedes Indiana will likely be a Republican win six months from now and Mourdock has twice won a statewide campaign.

Mourdock and other conservative Republicans have important races in the eyes of the TEA Party, with the hope being they would drag Mitt Romney to the right if he’s elected. (Of course, if Obama is re-elected the composition of Congress may not really matter.)

North Carolina voters also performed a valuable service, showing Maryland how it should be done and enacting a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage by a comfortable 16-point margin. This should hearten Maryland advocates of traditional marriage, who now claim to be past the halfway point in gathering the required number of signatures to place the state’s same-sex marriage legislation on the November ballot. Supporters of gay marriage remain 0-for at the ballot box, although many believe Maryland could break their slump. (Let’s hope not.)

I’ll grant that not all TEA Party supporters are interested in social issues, believing they detract from the necessary push for fiscal conservatism that is the backbone of the TEA Party movement. But I believe that social conservatism goes hand-in-hand with fiscal conservatism, and this is an easier sell with a society based on traditional values. I really don’t care who sleeps with who, but I believe bending the definition of marriage in that manner would only lead to other problems and even more odious partnerships, like adult-child relationships or polygamy.

We’re about six months away from perhaps the most pivotal election in our history, and a chance to perhaps steer the country back in the right direction after four years of runaway spending, consolidation of executive power, and corporate/government cronyism gone rampant. Needless to say, we would have to have several elections in a row fall in the correct manner to undo all the damage done over the last century but 2012 has to be the first step on the journey. Let’s see whether the trends continue in the right direction.

The state takes over

Editor’s note 5/27/2022: I have brought this home from the dead Examiner.com pages.

Tonight the Wicomico Society of Patriots (WSOP) will hold an “emergency meeting” to discuss impending state action on the county’s budget, making the claim that “your property tax cap is dead!” One may ask why the budgetary woes of a comparatively small county on the Eastern Shore are relevant to both the functions of the state and to those reading this piece. To answer that question, a little bit of history is required.

In 2000 the Wicomico County Council, which at the time held both the legislative and executive functions of county government, enacted a huge property tax increase – a whopping 46 cents per $100 of assessed valuation – on county homeowners. Angered by the surge in both taxation and spending, county residents enacted a revenue cap later that year at the 2000 election. This cap limited the revenue from property taxes to an amount no more than 2 percent over the previous year’s take.

Four years later, Wicomico County voted in an executive form of government and reduced County Council to a strictly legislative body. In 2006 Wicomico County voters elected Democrat Rick Pollitt as the first County Executive. Pollitt was no fan of the revenue cap, and for the first few years of his initial term created a shadow budget illustrating how he would have spent the additional revenue he would have liked to use had the cap not been in place. However, by tempering his opposition to the revenue cap and deciding it wasn’t a fight worth having during difficult economic times, Pollitt was re-elected in 2010. While several other local politicians have expressed frustration with the restrictions on property tax revenue put in place by county voters, no serious bid to change or remove the cap has occurred in the eleven years since it was enacted – at least not locally.

The bill which the WSOP is fretting about passed in the 2012 Maryland General Assembly session as Senate Bill 848, which has the innocuous title “Education – Maintenance of Effort.” Its function, however, is to allow the state to withhold general fund money from each nonconforming county and instead send it directly to a county’s Board of Education if an MOE waiver isn’t approved by the state. More importantly, the bill waives any voter-enacted revenue cap and allows county governments to increase property tax rates in excess of those limitations, provided the proceeds go to the county’s Board of Education.

The passage of this bill, essentially on a party-line vote with most Republicans voting no, placed a gun to the head of the seven counties which did not fully fund their MOE for education. By the numbers, the most significant shortage occurs in Montgomery County, which fell $127.2 million under its target number. Based on their local education budget of nearly $1.5 billion, though, Montgomery County is less than 10 percent short of its target amount. (This is according to the fiscal statement for SB848.)

But Wicomico County finds itself in a much more drastic situation, as it’s nearly $14 million short of the $50.1 million the state says the county should provide. Prior to the passage of SB848 Wicomico could have taken advantage of state law to eventually bring their MOE to a more realistic portion of a general fund budget which is just $113 million for FY2012. As a comparison, the county’s educational budget for the same period (from all sources) is just over $180 million. In the past, Annapolis-based critics of the Wicomico revenue cap have expressed their frustration with the county’s lack of willingness (or revenue) to more completely fund education, leaving the state to fill in the gaps. Delegate Norm Conway, a Democrat representing Wicomico County, was a co-sponsor of a House bill similar to SB848.

Because of the passage of SB848, though, the Wicomico County Council – which is dominated by Republicans, 6-1 – will find itself in the unpalatable position of having to pass at least one tax increase as the county’s income tax will have to rise to the state’s maximum of 3.2% in order to reduce the shortfall. They’ve also conceded the property tax rate will have to rise by the full extent allowed under the current revenue cap.

But Wicomico’s problem is indicative of a larger intrusion, showing the lengths the state of Maryland is willing to take in butting into county affairs. In another area of government, the enactment of PlanMaryland angered local officials by taking away much of the leeway they were allowed in making planning and zoning decisions. SB848 similarly reduces the jurisdiction of county governments, with the ultimate goal of Annapolis seemingly one of making the individual counties and Baltimore City little more than lines on a map.

Obviously the state is concerned about public education, and they provide billions of dollars to the state’s 24 local jurisdictions to achieve their goal of a well-educated workforce. Yet when the state unilaterally decides that the will of the people, expressed at the ballot box, is invalid because a county isn’t providing the funding which the state’s opinion believes is necessary – that’s a frightening line for them to cross. The Wicomico Society of Patriots has ample reason to believe this is a step too far, and I plan on covering the meeting. Look for a report Thursday.

Rage against the machine

Editor’s note 5/27/2022: I have brought this home from the dead Examiner.com pages.

As I wrote Sunday, the Maryland General Assembly holds a Special Session beginning next Monday to address what Martin O’Malley and majority Democrats consider a revenue shortfall in the FY2013 budget. Despite the fact a budget was passed during the regular session, the $700 million increase wasn’t to the liking of educators, unions, and others who were expecting another $500 million or so in the budget to address their wish list.

While Republicans won’t have the votes needed to stop any tax proposal put forth by O’Malley and his Democratic allies, they can use the occasion as a cudgel to spread their message of fiscal responsibility. On Monday evening a planned rally will give voice to the opposition message that increasing taxes is the wrong solution to a budgetary problem that doesn’t even exist.

Sponsored by the House of Delegates’ TEA Party Caucus, the ‘Rally Against the Doomsday Session’ at Lawyers Mall will commence at 7 p.m. and last about two hours. Presumably several members of the Caucus will rally the troops against the proposed tax increases, which will begin to take shape that day once the Special Session gets underway.

Conventional wisdom holds that the leading new revenue stream will be an increase in the income tax for wealthy Maryland residents, but O’Malley and General Assembly Democrats have also floated the ideas of an increased gasoline tax, raising the sales tax, and expanding sales taxes to more services as possibilities, too. Any or all of these could be in play next Monday, along with unfinished business from the regular session on how to spend any additional revenue. It’s worth recalling that while the 2007 Special Session called by Martin O’Malley in his first term led to the largest tax increase in Maryland history, millions in new spending was also enacted during that meeting of the General Assembly.

It’s more than likely the TEA Party rally won’t be as large as the 2011 union-led rally encouraging the state to spend more money, but those who show won’t be getting the free meals or other incentives Big Labor passed out for attendees. Instead, their payoff will likely come in two years as TEA Partiers create a campaign issue of the “tax and spend” attitude pervasive in Annapolis.

Small business: it’s not just taxes, but regulations and training too

As a prominent member of the media (or more likely someone on a particular e-mail list) I received an advance notice of a study being released tomorrow; one which pinpoints some of the root complaints of small business owners around the country and, more importantly, grades states on how willing they are to help small businesses start up and prosper.

The study, which was a joint effort between the Kauffman Foundation and Thumbtack.com, a company which bills itself as “a place where you can hire help locally,” surveyed over 6,000 small business owners with some of the main goals being to find out:

In general, how would you rate your state’s support of small business owners?
Would you discourage or encourage someone from starting a new business in your state?
How would you rate your company’s financial situation today?

In all, the study counted up 21 different metrics, ranking each state and 40 cities across the country in their business-friendly attitudes. Locally Maryland graded out as a C- overall, which translated into a ranking would put them between 31st and 33rd. There were two other states with a C- and 12 states which had a D or F grade; meanwhile, six states did not receive a grade – Alaska, Hawaii, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Presumably they didn’t get a large enough survey sample from these smaller states. (The same holds true in our little corner of the state, as there were no responses south of Talbot County and only four on the entire Eastern Shore.)

Our state, surprisingly, did best on training programs with a B+ grade. I wasn’t shocked to see a low D+ grade on licensing, though. (The complete methodology and analysis is here.)

What did surprise me, however, was the fact Delaware only ranked as a C. But their tax code was given an A+ grade. Other adjacent states received overall grades of C (Pennsylvania) and A (Virginia.)

So why is this important?

Every so often, particularly when a new administrator takes over, we hear the government promise to make life easier for businesses by streamlining the process. But it seems that these words are just so much lip service in most cases – sure, you may see a “one-stop shop” but there are still reams of paperwork to fill out, license fees (read: government revenue) to collect, and other non-productive busy work for a prospective business owner to do. Obviously, a city or state which makes it easier to go through these hoops will eventually accrue an advantage over adjacent areas – it’s most painfully obvious in Maryland, which seems to lag behind neighboring Delaware and (particularly) Virginia in job creation.

The Founding Fathers had a vision of each state being its own laboratory of government, competing in how best to serve the public good. With respect to business climate, it’s obvious some are better than others and that’s one reason why some states are more prosperous.

However, with that being said, one also has to examine the goals of each state as well. If a state is interested in promoting job creation under the belief that a rising tide lifts all boats and their prosperity comes from the people doing well and contributing a small share of that wealth to the public coffers through reasonable taxation, that’s one philosophy I tend to agree with. On the other hand, if states figure that those who embark on business are cash cows to be milked until old Elsie crumples over from exhaustion, they do reasonably well until word gets out and people become fed up. The corollary effect of this philosophy is one where the public finds only large-scale businesses such as chain stores can be successful, because they have the overhead necessary to deal with these government-created issues whereas a mom and pop operation does not. Eventually that stifles competition, leading to collusion and a system of corporate cronyism.

Maryland seems to fall into the latter category, and there’s only one key reason they can get away with it. If it weren’t for having the seat of federal government power close by Maryland would be an economic basket case much like most of the Eastern Shore, with little industry or development to speak of. That’s because business policies are set to take advantage of the economically captive audience of the I-95 corridor. Martin O’Malley and other Democrats speak of ‘One Maryland’ but in reality there are at least three, and perhaps four: the western section, which could prosper if allowed to exploit its natural resources, the center of the state which relies on government to succeed economically, and the Eastern Shore, where agriculture and tourism reign supreme. Southern Maryland is sort of a blend between the latter two because of Washington, D.C. and its sprawling growth down the Potomac River.

Granted, there are local economic factors in play as well: while Virginia is a relatively prosperous state as a whole, I wouldn’t characterize their Eastern Shore as thriving. Localities are the same way – as businesses open up around the outskirts of Salisbury, the downtown area dries up. Needless to say, government policies are far from the only reason people decide to locate a business where they do. But they can make a difference in whether an enterprise succeeds or not. If taking eggs from the golden goose is all government seems interested in, don’t be surprised when the goose starves to death.

Small startup businesses already have a difficult time getting established in this economy, and the question becomes whether their efforts are helped or hindered by government. Over time, localities have tried a number of different approaches to attracting business like setting up infrastructure for industry on a speculative basis, establishing tax abatement policies, becoming a lender of last resort, and so on. All these can be helpful, although they aren’t exactly making the playing field more level.

Taking the step into entrepreneurship is already stressful enough, so the goal of government should be one of making the process as simple and painless as possible. Fortunes have been built in America based on good ideas, and government should take its place in line for its rightful share instead of taking advantage of those who have a dream.

What to expect from next week’s Special Session

Editor’s note 5/27/2022: I have brought this home from the dead Examiner.com pages.

On Friday Governor O’Malley made it official: the Maryland General Assembly will be called in beginning May 14 for a Special Session to deal with the state’s budget. While the Maryland legislature passed a budget prior to the close of the regular session April 9, O’Malley and majority Democrats complained the so-called “doomsday budget” didn’t fund all the items on their wish list – this despite being $700 billion higher than the budget for fiscal 2012, which ends June 30. The one measure which will be scheduled for consideration will be along the lines of legislation Annapolis regularly passes each spring to adjust the ongoing budget year, a bill called the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act, or BRFA.

It’s worth noting, however, that there is no restriction on bills which can be introduced in a Special Session. Last fall, at a gathering called to deal with Congressional redistricting, over 50 bills were introduced between the House of Delegates and Senate – a roster which included bills addressing tolls, environmental issues, and taxes. While few of these bills ever progressed beyond first reading, there’s always the chance that something could come in under the radar.

Republicans and conservative groups like Americans for Prosperity, however, feel the Special Sessions – a second one dealing with gaming issues is proposed for later this summer – are not necessary because the General Assembly did its appointed job and passed a state budget, even if it’s one not to the Governor’s liking. AFP claims that thousands have signed an online petition which expressed the desire of Maryland taxpayers to leave well enough alone.

Conversely, the Maryland State Education Association teacher’s union posted a ‘doomsday clock’ on its website, claiming dire consequences from $200 million in budget cuts, including a $100 cut in per-pupil aid. Law enforcement could also be affected in certain jurisdictions as the state grants local governments have grown dependent on are on the chopping block under the budget that passed.

The hue and cry from various special interest groups has become so loud that it’s presumed the budget holes will be patched with still further tax increases which will affect Maryland’s working families. If they’re not tagged by income tax hikes, it’s still likely Free Staters will be hit with a gas tax increase or new fees on services. Democrats in probable 2014 swing districts will likely join Republicans in opposition to tax hikes, but most of the majority party hails from areas which have become used to state government largesse and will feel they can safely vote yes to higher taxes.

Thus, these proposed new revenue streams will receive a handful more than the requisite 71 votes in the House of Delegates and 24 Senate votes to advance to Governor O’Malley’s desk, where he will be waiting with bated breath to sign another round of tax hikes as he did in 2007.

In all honesty, the only three questions about next week’s session are these:

How many majority Democrats will be allowed to take a pass and stand against tax increases? Look for those who represent more conservative areas of Maryland like the western panhandle, Southern Maryland, and the Eastern Shore to be among the few who say “no.”
Which tax hikes will take effect, and who will be the winners and losers? The smart money says it will be wealthy taxpayers taking the bullet, but a recent decline in gas prices may make an increase in the gas tax more palatable – particularly if the General Assembly can push its enactment back to this fall, after tourist season and the 2012 elections.
If the tax hikes are placed into effect, will the promise of a second Special Session to address gaming be reneged upon? Senate President Mike Miller was adamant that the prospect of a sixth casino in Prince George’s County be addressed as part of solving the budget crisis, but promising a Special Session this summer when the immediate issues will be resolved next week may mean his proposal is now on the back burner.

Since it costs Maryland taxpayers upwards of $20,000 per day to host a Special Session, it’s thought this rendition will be a brief one, perhaps two to three days. But the final cost to already overburdened Maryland taxpayers may be far greater once they are finished.

Senate hopeful Bongino calls incumbent Cardin Maryland’s ‘blind date’

Editor’s note 5/14/2022: I have brought this home from the dead Examiner.com pages.

A time-tested political approach for opponents of an entrenched incumbent politician is to question his record, and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dan Bongino is doing just that.

In a statement to supporters, Bongino claimed incumbent Ben Cardin “has maintained political office for an astounding 45 years by taking Marylanders on an endless series of blind dates.” This was part of a bid to have a series of monthly debates between the two during the remaining six months before the November 6 elections. However, incumbent politicians up for re-election will rarely give opponents the time of day, let alone take the chance on committing a verbal faux pas on a statewide stage.

And Bongino is aware of this. “Given Ben Cardin’s history of being asleep at the wheel I would not be surprised if he ignores my debate request,” said the Republican contender,”but I am relentlessly pursuing real change to our government and will not be ignored.”

While the pre-prinary Washington Post endorsement of Cardin called him a “substantive, responsive, and doggedly effective public official,” the average Marylander would be hard-pressed to name one significant legislative accomplishment Ben has achieved over his six years in the Senate. Part of that comes from being in the shadow of Maryland’s other U.S. Senator, the popular Barbara Mikulski, but Cardin has also developed a reputation for being such a reliable liberal vote that it’s rarely questioned which side of an issue he’ll be on. As an example, there was no need for giving Ben a “Louisiana Purchase” or “Cornhusker Kickback” on Obamacare, as was the case with wavering Democratic Senators Mary Landrieu and Ben Nelson, respectively. Whether the vote was in the best interests of Marylanders or not, Democratic leadership knew they could put Cardin’s vote in their column.

And while Cardin managed to poll just under 75 percent in a primary victory over a host of underfunded opponents in last month’s primary, his original 2006 election to the Senate was by just 10 points over former Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele. Moreover, Ben barely won the 2006 primary over Kweisi Mfume, sliding through with a three-point plurality over the onetime NAACP head. Although they may vote for him out of party loyalty, minority voters haven’t necessarily warmed up to Cardin.

In an attempt to exploit this perceived weakness, Bongino believes education may be a key wedge issue for minority and working-class voters. Instead, he contends that Ben Cardin has given “staunch support of special interests over parents’ rights in the struggle for educational opportunity.” Supporting that argument is the fact that, before the ink on Ben’s 2012 filing papers had a chance to dry, he already had the endorsement of a leading teachers’ union in his pocket.

But unless he upsets conventional political wisdom and agrees to the series of debates proposed by Bongino, the incumbent Senator seems content to use his current vast financial advantage to pepper the airwaves with 30-second feelgood spots later this fall rather than defend a voting record which rarely strays from the most liberal of Democratic lines. To his campaign it appears an uninformed voter can be a Cardin voter.

The real life of ‘Julia’

In a blatant pitch to woo female voters – presumably the base of the Democratic machine – the Obama re-election campaign came up with the “Life of Julia” concept. Poor Julia is seen suffering through a life of government dependence from age 3 when she’s enrolled in Head Start (I suppose by Julia’s unseen parents) to age 67, when she “retires comfortably” on Social Security.

Of course, this little slideshow has been unmercifully (and rightfully) parodied by Lee Stranahan into the Life of Rover, given a conservative rebuttal by the Heritage Foundation, put under a libertarian remix, and become fodder for endless Twitter shots using the #Julia hashtag, some of which are featured at the tail end of this article by Meredith Jessup in The Blaze. It seems like every time Obama tries to go viral with a hashtag, conservatives have a ton of fun with it.

My question, though, is why Obama’s so worried about the female vote. One thing the President has going for him is a fair amount of personal likability, as the First Family has been carefully scripted to appeal to women as a happy nuclear family. Granted, the Obama children are far younger than President George W. Bush’s twin daughters, but it seemed like every time one of the Bush twins misbehaved it was made into news – on the other hand, a recent Mexican trip for Obama’s older daughter Malia had its accounts scrubbed and sanitized after word got out about the 13 year old’s journey south of the border.

But women have been hard hit by the poor economy, and oftentimes the female handles the bills in the family. Whether they’re a single mom or part of the rapidly disappearing nuclear family of Mom, Dad, and two kids, women have found that over the last three years it’s been getting harder to make ends meet.

And there’s also intention behind making ‘Julia’ a single mom – you may notice that there’s no husband in the picture when she has ‘Zachary.’ (Does that sound like a focus-grouped name or what?) Of all the women who voted in 2008, it was single women who came in most heavily for Obama – a 70-29 margin. If he loses even 10 percentage points on that total, Barack Obama has to know that his re-election bid is toast. But single women haven’t been exempt from the stagnant economy, either.

In reviewing the ‘Julia’ slides, there’s also no question that the Obama campaign is playing the class envy card to the hilt, even in this example. At 17 Julia could lose her public education funding to “pay for tax cuts to millionaires,” for example. And Julia’s life is doomed if we even cut one penny from these bloated federal programs or dispense of Obamacare, as several slides warn.

But would it? What if Julia’s parents didn’t send her to Head Start but took the time to read to the child – or better yet, made the investment of time and effort to homeschool her – even as they sacrifice the tax burden of helping to support the public education they aren’t using? Chances are Julia would still be able to enroll in that college. (I’m also curious: if Julia’s going into web design, is a four-year degree even required? It seems like she could acquire those skills in a two-year associate program at a community college.)

And perhaps her parents, if they raised her right, would instill in Julia the work ethic to get her to avoid taking out thousands of dollars of student loans because she would have learned to be responsible for the results of her own education while working her way through college, along with the moral compass to wait until the right stage of life to marry Zachary’s father before they have the little rugrat. Until that point she would pay for her own contraception, thank you. (Needless to say, abstinence is free.)

That work ethic would come in handy when Julia opens her own business because she will have to work twice as hard to overcome the roadblocks in her way – not because she is a woman, but because of all the red tape an overbearing bunch of pencil pushers throw in her path. She would also have the pride to not accept work simply from the set-asides given to a female-owned business, but because she does a damn good job of it. It’s the only way she would know.

And Julia would retire comfortably because she lived a reasonable but frugal lifestyle, investing wisely in her future despite government’s best efforts to confiscate every dollar she made. Julia and her husband of over 40 years would enjoy the sunset of their lives despite never receiving a Social Security check from a bankrupt system.

But perhaps my favorite parody of Julia came from the Facebook site AttackWatch:

The Gaps of Julia

At 1 year old: Under President Obama, Julia’s posts “I hate Obama!” on her Facebook page. She is investigated by the Secret Service for threats against the President. (That’s one precocious child!)

At 16 years old: Under President Obama, Julia goes goth and changes her religious affiliation to “Wicca.”

At 18: Under President Obama, Julia realizes she’s learned more on her own than she ever has at public school and registers as a Republican voter.

At 19: Under President Obama, she realizes her Pell grants don’t cover anything but a small tuition, so she takes out student loans to supplement her income.

At 23: Under President Obama, Julia begins her career as a web designer. Despite what Obama said all those years ago, she’s still paying hundreds a month on her student loans. She makes her payments on time, but rising taxes have made it difficult to eat much more than rice, beans, and ramen. She’s happy to know she can sue for wage discrimination, except that she’s making more than her male coworker who regularly attends Occupy Wall Street meetings. Since he’s known to go into work stoned, she’s inclined to believe the pay difference is because of her performance.

At 25: Under President Obama, Julia has worked as a web designer for the past four years. She’s chosen to be responsible with her health and family planning, and doesn’t want to drain the system by using other peoples’ money for her sex life.

At 31: Under President Obama, Julia and her husband decide they’re financally secure enough to have a child. Julia wishes she could be a stay-at-home mom, but she can’t because men’s wages have been stagnant for 50 years now and they can’t live solely on her husband’s income. She slips and lets the tax payers pick up the tab for her maternity leave. Both her and her husband’s taxes go up the following year. They consider selling their house to move into a condo half the size.

At 37: Under President Obama, Julia’s son Zachary starts kindergarten. She’s there to see him off at the bus stop because she quit her job, deciding the slight bit of extra pay wasn’t worth it since taxes and highly-regulated child care costs were so high. She and her husband fight more than they’d like, but remain close. Zachary eats better than they do, they make sure of that.

At 42: Under President Obama, Julia decides to start her own at-home business to try and bring in at least a meager extra income. She finds that Obama’s tax cuts for small businesses help, but his extra excise taxes on manufacturers and healthcare and income do not. It’s not a zero-sum game; she’s losing money. She wants to help people, so she hires another worker, but has to lay him off after a year because she can’t afford the healthcare costs.

At 65: Under President Obama, Julia submits an application for Medicare. She’s eagerly granted acceptance.

At 66: Under President Obama, Julia develops a brain tumor. She submits an application to Medicare, which is denied. “Due to age,” and “See Quality of Life (QoL) Regulations” stick out through her watered eyes. She chokes and sobs. She hugs her 70 year old husband when he returns from work. They cry together, in bed, just holding each other. “We tried,” Julia whispers to her husband.

At 67: Under President Obama, Julia passes in her husband’s arms. Full of anger that his ailing wife was denied care from the Obamacare Government because of costs, he takes his wrath to Facebook. He writes, “President Obama, I can’t stand everything you’ve done!”

At 71: Under President Obama, Julia’s husband is investigated by the Secret Service for threats against the President.

President Obama has now been president for at least 67 years.

You might laugh, but the sad fact is that millions of gullible voters will lap up the Obama Kool-Aid and believe he’s only trying to help the middle class. He’s helping them, all right – helping them become poor and dependent on government handouts of some sort.