Have you ever felt like something was deja vu all over again? Well, that was the sense I got in hearing State Senator Rich Colburn speak at last night’s Wicomico County Republican Club meeting.
Once we got through the usual business of the Lord’s Prayer, Pledge of Allegiance, introduction of guests, reading of the minutes, and treasurer’s report, we got to hear Senator Colburn deliver the bad news: everything old is new again with both the Special Session and what’s likely on tap for 2012.
Hey, a Thursday night without some sort of Shorebirds update – whatever shall I do?
You know the drill: ‘odds and ends’ are those items I can’t justify a full post for, but are important enough for a paragraph or three.
Didn’t we already go through this whole government shutdown thing not that long ago? Well, here we go again.
Democrats in the Senate want to spend $6.9 billion on disaster relief, simply adding to the deficit. Meanwhile, the House rejected a plan which would have allocated $3.6 billion to disaster relief, part of which would be offset by cutting federal subsidies for electric cars. (This is the version Andy Harris voted for, although 48 conservative Republicans did not.)
I can understand where Harris is coming from, since some portion of that aid would likely come back to the northern reaches of our Congressional district. But I think the more conservative members who are holding out for more cuts are right, and Harris is wrong in this instance. I’m curious to know – how many of my readers are looking for a federal handout to assist them through cleaning up from Irene and Lee? Anyone? Bueller?
Let’s work our way back to the state level with a story told before – former beauty queen decides to get involved in politics decades after her days as a pageant contestant are over. If you answered “Sarah Palin” you would be correct but she’s not the subject of this brief portion of my post. Instead, this young lady was once Miss Delaware and was a semi-finalist for the Miss America crown in 1976. She now is Associate Director of the National Pro-Life Action Center in Washington, D.C.
Did I mention she is black? Or a Republican running for a vacated County Council seat in Prince George’s County?
Her name is Day Gardner, and she indeed fits all these categories. One thing I didn’t realize is that I have heard her speak at this rally, as she was also a Brian Murphy supporter. I remember she was a quite eloquent speaker, which makes sense if she was a pageant contestant in the old, pre-politically correct days. She’s even run for office before in 2002, finishing fourth of four in a House of Delegates race for District 23A.
Needless to say, when she gets 97 Republican votes in a primary that sees the Democratic winner pick up 3,570 – and he’s the near-namesake of a current member of the House of Delegates (Derrick Leon Davis as opposed to Delegate Dereck E. Davis) – Day Gardner has an uphill battle. But stranger things have happened, and it’s good to see Republicans competing in PG County. I admire her tenacity and willingness to avoid political platitudes to get elected; she can plant the seed for future GOP success there.
Eastern Shore drivers will get a one-month reprieve from Bay Bridge toll hikes – but it’s still likely the prices will rise steeply.
As originally envisioned, Bay Bridge tolls would jump to $5 come October and skyrocket to $8 in 2013. Instead, the MTA is expected to vote next Thursday on a proposal to increase Bay Bridge tolls to $4 on November 1 and $6 in July 2013. So we’ll “only” have a 240% increase instead of a 320% increase.
Still, this will take a larger bite out of our pockets and as a percentage (with some exceptions for Baltimore-area commuters, who now pay less than $1 to cross at various Baltimore-area points) those using the Bay Bridge will see the largest increase in tolls across the system.
While we all figured a toll increase was a fait accompli, I think the grudging preference among those who testified at our hearing (aside from Norm “Five Dollar” Conway) was that increases be phased in slowly and not with such a steep incline as to increase over threefold in the span of two years. We got a little bit of modification, but it’s clear the MTA is going to rely on Eastern Shore drivers to be the cash cow for years to come – although Baltimore-area commuters have a point in saying they’ll be unfairly targeted too.
On the other hand, the newest toll highway in the MTA portfolio will still be exempt from increases as the Intercounty Connector doesn’t see a hike. That highway is a little bit different in that there is no cash toll and drivers are charged on a sliding scale of anywhere between 15 cents and $3.94 per mile depending on time of day and number of axles. Yet they won’t have to bear any additional burden, at least for the time being.
So while we can thank the MTA for apparently listening to our concerns, it’s interesting to note that a comment in response to the story by David Hill in yesterday’s Washington Times on the toll hike concluded the increase to $6 was the plan all along and the $8 figure was just in place to make us feel like we won something at the end. And it is indeed tempting to think that the O’Malley administration would have been thrilled if no one showed up to complain about $8 at the Bay Bridge – remember, the Eastern Shore hearing wasn’t originally planned but added due to popular demand.
Yet they will still get additional millions out of the deal – maybe not the $77 million projected annually by the original proposal, but perhaps a number in the range of $50-60 million on top of what they already make. They won’t be hurting for money, but Eastern Shore drivers might be.
Well, if I happen to get a chance to speak to Governor O’Malley tomorrow I’ll have to thank him for granting our wish and selecting the two best candidates for the Republican seats on the Wicomico County Board of Education. Of the three we interviewed, we decided Michelle Wright and Carolyn Elmore were the better choices. As of last week, those two became members of the board for five-year terms.
Yet perhaps there’s an end game to this. Consider the following scenario: two people the Republicans didn’t interview and who may not even be Republicans are instead selected to the board. It’s a surefire method for fueling the drive toward an elected school board. Obviously the issue has a partisan divide, given the vote for County Council’s adoption of the resolution to ask for the introduction of the bill allowing the straw ballot was a 6-1 party-line vote and the person chiefly responsible for stopping it in the General Assembly – despite our testimony in favor – is Democrat Norm Conway.
On the other hand, picking the two we favor makes the question somewhat moot in that we got our choices selected, so why should we complain?
That’s not the point. Yes, I’m pleased that the Governor’s Appointments Secretary saw things our way in this instance. But this is about a principle – the idea that the people know better who should be the stewards of their tax money as members of the Board of Education than a governor in far-off Annapolis or even those party regulars select to represent their interests as a Central Committee.
I suspect the winners in a contested Board of Education district election here in Wicomico County would receive just as many votes as I did (2,139) to place ninth in a countywide election. (In the 2010 general election, all but one district council member did just that. The other won by two votes out of 4,072 cast.) And instead of just voters who declared a particular party affiliation getting the say, it will be up to everyone – Republicans, Democrats, minor parties, and unaffiliated voters each have their equal vote in a general election. Sure, as a Republican I’d love to see a conservative body elected because I think it would reflect the county politically. But others may feel differently.
In short, I’m not stopping the push for an elected board and I think my cohorts on the Wicomico County Republican Central Committee would agree. While I believe the selection of Carolyn Elmore and reappointment of Michelle Wright are victories for those who want a sound, fiscally conservative school board, I’d be willing to bet if they stuck their necks out on the line for election and won they would have a more sturdy platform from which to enact needed changes. (It should be noted, though, that not all of those we interviewed were interested in the post if it became an elected one.)
I was assured by Delegate McDermott a couple months back that the bill allowing our straw vote would be reintroduced earlier, if not prefiled. This time we want a clean bill with an up-or-down vote on whether the school board should be an elected body – none of that hybrid hokum. After the reaction to his stance the other night on the toll increases, it may behoove Delegate Conway to let that bill slip through unmolested.
You know, one would think that an administration which is trying to prevent Boeing from moving production of the 787 jetliner to a right-to-work state and has stacked the National Labor Relations Board with union toadies – through recess appointments if necessary – would have Big Labor’s seal of approval. But they’re greedy and chagrined that ‘card check’ didn’t pass when Congress was fully in Democratic hands.
And now Big Labor has to worry about things at the state level. It’s the focus of a report by the Capital Research Center’s Labor Watch project co-authored by Ivan Osorio and Trey Kovacs. And to bear this out, remember that even the union-friendly Martin O’Malley was booed at this supposedly friendly gathering because he wanted to tinker with teacher pensions.
Yet Big Labor suffers from the same problem that any member of a broad coalition of special interests runs into when the Democratic Party seizes power – everybody wants everything they asked for all at once, no matter how noxious. Abortionists want easier access to abortions paid for by Uncle Sam, the gay lobby equates their cause with the civil rights movement and wants laws passed accordingly, gun grabbers want to flout the Second Amendment even more, and so on and so forth. Unions just don’t like taking their place in a long line of liberal special interest groups.
And the key question is: where else can they go? Like those on the conservative side who occasionally express their disgust with the GOP and threaten to boycott the next election if so-and-so is nominated, Big Labor is pretty much stuck with the one who brung them to the dance. They’ve obviously alienated themselves from Republicans, a party they bash mercilessly despite the fact a significant portion of their rank-and-file members vote that way at the ballot box, so I don’t doubt they’ll eventually suck it up and drop millions into the Democratic coffers because there’s nowhere else for them to turn politically. And the fact Big Labor still confiscates huge sums of money for political purposes via union dues means that, somewhere along the line, they and the Democrats will mend fences. It’s all about the Benjamins to both players in that game.
So don’t be surprised to see Big Labor make a push for a more liberal strain of Democrats to replace the ones they feel betrayed them in both state and national races. After all, if they can continue to play the class envy game with any success they’ll always dupe a few useful idiots into pulling the lever for their allies in the Democrat Party, even if they’ll hold their nose a little in the process. As long as President Obama is in office, their goals will be advanced regardless of means.
I wouldn’t have expected New Jersey to take the lead on this, but under Chris Christie’s leadership they’re renouncing their membership in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative – this according to Tim Wheeler at a Baltimore Sun blog. I hope this is the start of a trend, with Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Maine racing to see who’s next to pull out of an organization which is unecessarily increasing electric rates in the name of combatting so-called global warming.
It’s interesting as well how Wheeler couches the $162 million Maryland has “raised” (read: extorted out of utility companies and job creators) from the series of auctions held over the last couple years. In truth, our state has helped to create yet another vast wealth redistribution scheme, with dollars flowing from “rich” companies to poor home occupants who need help paying their bills, which are increasing thanks to the state’s mandate. These increases aren’t helping the utilities’ bottom lines.
Yet before I praise Governor Christie for his decision to withdraw, it’s clear that he only believes the organization is “a failure” because his state has passed laws which more directly address the issue. Unfortunately he’s still swilling from the green Kool-Aid, and those who believe he could be the savior of the Republican Party’s 2012 chances had better know where he stands on this issue – it looks pretty well left of center to me.
Certainly Maryland can claim a similar set of regulations in addition to the RGGI statutes, but Governor O’Malley still believes that combatting so-called manmade global warming is “a fight for our children’s future.” At the rate Martin’s driving jobs out of Maryland, our childrens’ future will be spent in states like Texas, Virginia, or Florida anyway.
Besides, any decrease in carbon emissions may well be traced to the economic slowdown rather than any impact RGGI has created. There was a reason cap-and-trade died in Congress last year, and it was because the issue was properly couched as a job-killer and wealth redistribution scheme designed to favor particular “green” businesses at the expense of more tradtional, proven energy sources like coal, oil, and natural gas.
And notice what Christie has to say about coal in New Jersey: “(f)rom this day forward any plans that anyone has regarding any type of coal-based generation of energy in New Jersey is over.” Never mind that coal’s cheap, effective, and with proper management not all that polluting – Governor Christie is foolishly taking it off the table in order to be a “leader” in unreliable wind and solar energy. Perhaps there’s more hot air eminating out of Trenton than Annapolis, but the results of wind and solar power for New Jersey will likely be similar to those in Maryland.
In essence, those who are skeptics like me welcome Christie’s decision to pull out of RGGI but believe his reasoning is flawed. For us to expose these hucksters covering a wealth-redistribution scheme in green fig leaves, we need more bold leadership than Christie is exhibiting here.
And while O’Malley is critical of Christie, but for reasons way off base. The proper move is to scrap the mandates along with the membership, and hopefully some other state will lead the way on debunking the cap-and-trade scam once and for all.
Feelgood legislation is one thing, but securing a real, solid-paying job really makes one feel good. Stop listening to the scammers and start reverting to common sense.
Update: Isn’t it interesting how this AP story by Dina Cappiello highlights Christie as a 2012 GOP Presidential example, even though he’s not in the race? Yet it doesn’t bring up the points I make about the remainder of his comments last week and how environmentally friendly they were – must not be in the template.
On Thursday, Governor Martin O’Malley signed SB167 into law. Of course, that bill may be sent to referendum if enough signatures are applied to a petition seeking the vote of the people, and Delegate Neil Parrott is leading that effort.
Here’s what he had to say about the signing.
(On Thursday) Governor O’Malley signed into law SB 167, known as the Maryland Dream Act, that will provide in-state tuition benefits to illegal aliens.
MDPetitions.com, under the leadership of Delegates Neil Parrott and Pat McDonough, has launched a petition drive to bring the bill to referendum in the November 2012 elections.
Delegate Parrott, Chairman, indicated that “It’s no surprise that Gov. O’Malley signed this legislation. The people of Maryland anticipated this and that is why people across the state are going to www.mdpetitions.com to sign the petition so we can bring this bill to referendum.”
Delegate Pat McDonough, Honorary Chairperson of the Petition Drive stated, “Taxpayers are wasting millions educating someone who cannot and will not be hired legally. Politicians like Governor O’Malley have transformed Maryland into a ‘sanctuary state’ by becoming a Disneyland for illegal immigrants, attracting hundreds of thousands of them, and costing taxpayers about 2 billion dollars. This law will only make things worse.”
Delegate Parrott noted that “this bill barely passed during the night on the last day of the session despite Bi-partisan opposition to the bill. Given the choice, I believe Marylanders will reject this legislation outright.”
The outpouring of support for our petition drive should serve as notice to Governor O’Malley and the legislators in Annapolis that Marylanders are fed up with the rampant abuse of our hard earned tax dollars.
Certainly I’m as fed up with “rampant abuse of our hard earned tax dollars” and I was happy to place my John Hancock on the petition. And I also think Alex Mooney was right when he commented at the state GOP convention that “we need to use that petition to referendum more often.” Just wait until the Special Session, and the tax increases we’re sure to see.
Of course, much of that momentum will depend on how this particular petition drive goes – if it’s a success, then people will be emboldened to use the referendum route to overrule O’Malley and the Democrats in the General Assembly more often. But the last attempt to petition a bad bill into referendum (the speed camera law) failed when the organizers came up short at the 1/3 barrier in May 2009.
Obviously there will be a lot on the ballot next November, as the general election in Maryland only comes once every two years and there’s a long list of items which the General Assembly sends to the voters for final ratification. Three items were placed before voters in 2010, two in 2008, and four in 2006.
But according to this piece by Ann Marimow in the Washington Post, the last petition drive to succeed in making it to the ballot came two decades ago, and it lost at the polls. Insofar as this drive is concerned, the effect on the 2012 election will be interesting should it succeed – with Barack Obama a prohibitive favorite in the state, will downballot turnout determine the fate of the referendum? Also, since the ballot question could pit one minority against another, how will that shake out?
Perhaps one reason these drives tend to fizzle out is the lengthy timeframe between the referendum and the election. If the petition effort succeeds we’ll have 17 months before voters will decide. In many cases where the ballot question is determined by the General Assembly this doesn’t seem to matter, as most Constitutional amendments placed before voters pass handily. But this will be different and there’s a potential of legal wrangling before the voters get to decide whether to rescind the law.
Passing the bill in its fourth try (2007, 2008, and 2009 – notice they didn’t go for this in the election year of 2010 knowing it would be a hot-button issue) was ill-advised, so Maryland voters should get a crack at this. Some may argue that the referendum shouldn’t go through because it would bring more Latinos to the polls and they’ll both vote against the referendum and punish Republican candidates. But I believe this will help GOP turnout in a state that’s generally written off by the national GOP and maybe give the Republican nominee an outside chance of winning.
So if you get the chance, sign the petition. Let’s show the General Assembly and Martin O’Malley who’s in control of this state.
This just plain says it all, from the Maryland Senate Republican caucus:
For your full consideration, here is a condensed list of fees (which are the same as taxes) proposed by O’Malley and Democrat legislators to increase the tax burden of every Maryland citizen:
BUDGET RECONCILIATION & FINANCING ACT – O’MALLEY ADMINISTRATION
The BRFA of 2011 contains several fee increases where an assumption of additional special funds is accompanied by a general fund reduction.
· Payroll garnishment fee of $2 per payroll transaction; $50,000 contingent general fund reduction
· MHEC to charge fees to public and private institutions for academic program approvals; $253,208 contingent general fund reduction
· Nursing facility quality assessment increase from 4.0 to 5.5% of revenue; fee generates $35.1 million — $11.8 million (matched with $11.8 million in federal funds) is used to hold nursing home providers harmless for that portion of the assessment based on revenue from serving Medicaid clients; $10.3 million (match with $10.3 million in federal funds) to support an estimated 1.6% reimbursement rate increase; and $13 million to offset a contingent general fund reduction· Hospital assessment increases – to support Medicaid expansion (averted uncompensated care) and for general Medicaid operations, expected to generate $254 million in additional revenues; a $225 million special fund appropriation in Medicaid is contingent on the BRFA
The BRFA also institutes new and increased fees which are simply general fund revenues:
· Increase in the fee charged for the supervision of persons on probation (estimated by DLS to generate $2.8 million)
· Repealing IWIF’s exemption from paying the premium tax (estimated by DLS to generate $1.9 million)
· Levying a charge on drivers with a certain number of points against their license (estimated by DLS to generate $3.8 million)O’Malley fee increases as “revenue enhancements” already assumed in the O’Malley budget:
· Raising the cap on the user fees that are charged by the Health Services Cost Review Commission from $5.5 million to $7.0 million; the budget assumes an additional $0.4 million in spending in fiscal 2012
· Raising fees for court costs; the budget for the Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund increases by $2.0 million accordingly.TRANSPORTATION TAXES/FEES
Gas Tax
· 10¢ per gallon increase
· Increases state gasoline tax from 23.5¢ to 33.5¢ per gallon, 38% increase
· Indexes tax to Consumer Price Index (CPI) in 2013Vehicle Registration Fee
· Doubles current vehicle registration fees
· Car/Truck vehicle registration increase from $128 bi-annually to $178.50
· Motorcycle registration increase from $97 bi-annually to $132.00Bad Driver Fees – O’MALLEY ADMINISTRATION
· $1, 500 fine for driver convicted of driving 85mph or higher, twice in 2 yrs. This is in addition to the $1,080 already imposed for the same conviction.
· $100 per point over 5 points, charged for three years
· $500 additional charge per year for three years, for drunk driver convictionsTolls – O’MALLEY ADMINISTRATION
· MdTA has announced they will be raising fees on Maryland’s bridges, highways and tunnels by the end of the summer.
SIN TAXES
Alcohol Tax
· Tax on Beer: From .09 to $1.16 per gallon = 1,189% increase
· Tax on Wine: From .40 to $2.96 per gallon = 640% increase
· Tax on Spirits: From $1.50 to $10.03 per gallon = 569% increaseTobacco Tax
· $1 increase on a pack of cigarettes from current tax of $2 to $3 per pack
· $3 tax per cigar – a new taxSnack Tax
· Expands State sales & use tax rate of 6% to snacks – Potato chips, Pretzels, Cheese Puffs, Corn Chips, Pork Rinds, Nuts & Seeds
ENVIRONMENTAL TAXES/FEES
Wind Tax – O’MALLEY ADMINISTRATION
· Monthly increase to residential and commercial electric customers between $1.44 & $8.70
Electricity Tax
· Charge per kilowatt for electricity consumption beyond 1000kwh
· $2.99 additional charge for average consumption of 1,230 kwh per monthBag Tax
· 5¢ per disposable carryout bag a store provides to customer
· 5¢ credit for each bag provided by the customer
This is pretty useful because it summarizes, for the most part, what the majority party in Annapolis is trying to do to all of us. It wouldn’t surprise me if the total impact wasn’t over $1,000 a year on a typical working Maryland family. And what is the money being spent on? Certainly not primary functions of government:
Schools aren’t safe and just because Maryland is considered the best school system in the country; well, being the best of a bad lot isn’t much to brag about.
The roads are falling apart and traffic is terrible in many parts of the state.
Crime is rampant, Salisbury is a prime example.
One has to ask why taxes need to be raised so much when we could take the opposite tack, cut taxes, and allow increased business and job development to create revenue. Seems to me that worked for some guy named Reagan about a quarter-century ago. Even when he raised taxes a bit (while having faith that the other side would enact spending cuts which never happened) we still prospered because we were still ahead of the curve.
This time O’Malley’s not calling for the Special Session, but didn’t we tell you that 2011 would be the year of tax raising? I think we did…remember, fees are taxes too.
It’s more than just the regular hot air coming from Annapolis – in this case, they want to mandate that it turns a wind turbine.
Proponents of a wind farm off Ocean City say electric rates could ONLY increase $1.44 a month for residential electric customers, but others claim it could be more like $3.61 per month. Or it could be much, much more – what government-sponsored plan ever comes in on time and under budget?
Included in that group backing the rate hikes are Delegate Norm Conway and Senator Jim Mathias. They are respectively co-sponsoring House of Delegates and Senate measures that will force utilities to purchase power from a offshore wind farm which could be on line as soon as 2016, according to a recent Washington Post story by Aaron C. Davis and Steven Mufson. Never mind that:
Contrast this with O’Malley’s approach to extracting the proven and much less expensive natural gas reserves at the opposite end of the state, our small portion of the Marcellus Shale formation. He’s supporting a moratorium on natural gas permits until August, 2013. (A bill dubbed the “Marcellus Shale Safe Drilling Act of 2011” is also in both the House of Delegates and Senate; notably, none of the co-sponsors are from the affected area. Instead, it’s the usual gang of limousine liberals, mainly from MoCo.)
If it wasn’t already crystal clear, this is more proof that O’Malley and his environmentalist wacko friends are just a bunch of liberal do-gooders who would love to saddle the average consumer with much higher energy costs. Even if they wouldn’t love to do so, their actions will create the situation of making Maryland even less industry-friendly than it already is, if that’s indeed possible.
A far smarter approach would be to leave the wind farmers (who ironically are leasing territory originally intended for oil exploration) twisting in the wind and let the natural gas companies do what they do best out west in the Maryland panhandle. Considering unemployment in two of Maryland’s three far western counties was above even the national average in December, they sure could use the jobs that natural gas exploration would bring.
And I’d rather have jobs in the hand now than those pie-in-the-sky green jobs in the bush, perhaps three years down the road (if they ever come at all.) The electric ratepayers of Maryland, who already get about 3% of their power from natural gas, would be thankful as well.
As for the duo of Conway and Mathias, well, we see where their loyalties lie. Sure, there could be some temporary job creation as these windmills are built, but those rate increases are much more permanent. It’s worth noting that Delegate McDermott isn’t signed on so apparently he stands with the ratepayers and not the special interests and friends of O’Malley. But I repeat myself.
While he is a freshman in the Maryland General Assembly, Mike McDermott has had to deal with the O’Malley administration for the last four-plus years as mayor of Pocomoke City – he used the experience to move on to his current job.
So I found his response interesting and I asked Mike if I could use it here. (I took the liberty to fix a couple minor grammatical errors in the meantime.) I told the Delegate I agreed with much of it, although I have a few more comments after his.
Today, the full body of Maryland’s General Assembly heard from Governor O’Malley about his vision for Maryland, and his interpretation of the past year. The Governor stated in his speech, “Everything has a cost…” Well, the question Marylanders are asking is, “How much?”
His proposed budget holds our deficit at $1.2 billion while actually increasing spending by over $2 billion. There are several fund raids conducted from the Transportation Trust Fund ($120 million) and the Chesapeake Bay Trust Fund ($90 million) with additional tax increases to replace the raided funds. At the same time, the governor plans to increase our debt through the issuance of bonds. This will further push our debt ceiling to the edge.
We cannot afford bonuses for all state employees ($750.00), nor the five additional paid holidays he is offering. We cannot afford to continue cutting Medicaid reimbursements while, at the same time, taking our enrollment up over a million Marylanders (20% of our population). We simply cannot afford to extend ourselves at a time when the revenues from our citizens are contracting.
Today the governor spoke about the state creating winners and losers when it comes to business and industry. If you are about “green” jobs, you’re a winner; if not, you’re a loser. When the state predicates tax incentives and government backed funding sources to favored industry, it is akin to the king extending the scepter to whomever he wishes. Wind farms may be a great idea, but they need to stand on their own as a business endeavor. When the governor talks about “investments”, he should be talking about the private sector, not tax dollars.
We heard about the governors desire to place a moratorium on septic systems in rural developments, with no regard of the chilling effect this could have on land values, private property rights, and development on the Eastern Shore. He stated that “where we eat, sleep, and live…” is affecting our environment as if this, too, is something the government should control.
The governor stated we were “moving forward”, while his budget anchors us to our indebtedness. He called us a grand “experiment in self government”, while he offers only additional regulations, fees, and taxes on the business community. He says, “It’s all about jobs”, as if the government is the one who creates those jobs. The “ghost of disconnect” continues to haunt Maryland policy.
The bottom line is the governor expressed more visible outrage over the recent power outages in Prince George’s County than he did about the dismal state of our economy, and our failure to address critical budget areas when time was of the essence.
Governor O’Malley wants us to move toward a “knowledge based” economy. Well, that begins with a wisdom based budget, and that was sorely missing from the State of the State Address I heard today.
Obviously McDermott looks at the budget mostly from the standpoint of fiscal conservatism, but the part of O’Malley’s address which stood out to me was the effort to ban the use of septic systems. Yesterday, he bleated about those devices, which:
“…by their very design are intend to leak sewage into our Bay and water tables.
You and I can turn around this damaging trend by banning the further installation of septic systems in major Maryland housing developments. This is common sense, this is urgently needed, this is timely, and for the health of the Bay we need to do what several rural counties have already had the good sense to do.”
That “good sense” is actually law mandated by the General Assembly, and passed over the objection of Delegates and Senators from both parties. In fact, such a ban would essentially halt residential development within the Bay’s watershed unless a municipality extends sewer lines to the new plat. (Of course, that’s the overarching goal of those who advocate so-called “smart growth” anyway.) The state already can’t pay for all those who have septic systems but are forced by regulation to install nitrogen reduction units, even though they promised to help.
So “investment” (read: taxpayer subsidy) in “green” jobs in other countries (where they make components for wind turbines and solar panels) are okay, but home construction jobs on the Eastern Shore are verboten. Is that the way it works, Governor?
Then again, he and the Democrats tend to believe in the “One Maryland” theory while I contend there’s actually at least three: the Eastern Shore has more in common with rural Delaware while the western end of the state has a mindset like the rest of Appalachia. It’s those along the I-95 corridor between Baltimore and Washington who are arrogant enough to believe the rest of the state should be like them – on the other hand, it’s my impression those of us on the Eastern Shore wouldn’t be all that unhappy if the Bay Bridge suddenly collapsed into the Chesapeake. Policy dictated to us from on high in Annapolis doesn’t fly well here – wonder why?
While Delegate McDermott probably already knew all he wanted to know before taking the job, he’s getting a firsthand look at the situation now.
By the way, I was hoping to get a second perspective on Mike’s remarks but haven’t received it yet. I’ll either add the remarks here or make a second post, depending on how I think they’ll work best.
Just a bunch of short items tonight.
Let’s begin at the national level, where another prospective 2012 Republican presidential candidate was brought out of the closet by the Washington Post. They devote five internet pages to Fred Karger’s story.
The play on words was intentional; Karger is billing himself as the first openly gay presidential candidate. I actually mentioned him before when Herman Cain jumped into the race, but this is the biggest splash about him I’ve seen. Leave it to the liberals at the Post to promote him, since Karger isn’t exactly the flavor of the month among Republicans and TEA Party regulars.
Having said that, though, Fred opens up a big can of worms – since establishment Republicans recoil in horror at the thought of being portrayed as racist, imagine the cacophony when they’re deemed homophobes because Karger’s not considered among the top tier of candidates.
Once the Salisbury election is over, I’ll start linking to GOP hopeful websites and Karger’s will be one, assuming he’s still in the race.
How Maryland will affect that race is up for debate. Because of rules adopted by both parties, those states with “winner-take-all” primaries like Maryland have to push their primaries back to April of next year. (Traditional lidlifters Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina will be allowed to hold primaries in February and states which allot convention delegates proportionally may go in March.) Thus, the earliest Maryland could hold its primary in 2012 would be April 3rd, which is the first Tuesday in April.
Compare this to 2008, when Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia held a regional primary on February 12 of that year. (The primary process started in Iowa on January 3 of that year; currently next year’s Iowa caucuses are slated for February 6, 2012.) We still didn’t have a lot of say in the process since 2008’s “Super Tuesday” of primaries occurred the week before.
Also up for change is the date for the 2014 state primary, which needs to be backed up to comply with federal law regarding military ballots.
If it were up to me, though, the national primary process would mirror our state’s to a greater extent. Run Iowa and New Hampshire around the middle of June, hold a half-dozen regional primaries over six weeks in June and July, and have the conventions in late August. A nice short process. Primaries shouldn’t even begin until June as far as I’m concerned – anything before that makes the campaign WAY too long.
The next item comes from being on the strangest e-mail lists. Somehow I have ended up on Barbara Boxer’s e-mail distribution network, but this item piqued my interest.
This week I introduced the West Coast Ocean Protection Act, a bill to permanently prohibit new offshore drilling along the Pacific coast. I was joined by all the Senators from the West Coast – including my colleague from California, Senator Dianne Feinstein, and Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Patty Murray (D-WA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) – in offering this critical legislation to protect the 570,000 jobs and $34 billion coastal economy of our three states.
Additional offshore oil development along the Pacific shoreline would needlessly endanger irreplaceable natural resources and our vital coastal economies.
Boxer goes on to note that there’s no plans for development until at least 2017, but wants to make sure it’s permanent. Why do I get the sneaking hunch that our two Senators will either try and amend the bill to include Maryland or have the brilliant idea to do their own measure? Substitute the word “Atlantic” for “Pacific” and you’d sum up their sentiments.
Of course, the difference is that we know there’s oil off the Pacific coast while the jury’s still out on whether there’s marketable reserves under the Atlantic. But there are some reserves of both coal and natural gas deep underneath the Free State and it behooves us to allow exploration – unfortunately, we have a governor who is woefully short-sighted in that department. (In fact, wind farms, coal mines, and natural gas wells can coexist in the same area.)
In the meantime, I’d lay odds on our not-so-dynamic duo of Cardin and Mikulski helping Boxer’s bill along.
After all, they don’t listen to their constituents who want nothing to do with Obamacare, instead voting along like good little Democratic sheep. Mikulski even voted to keep the onerous Obamacare $600 reporting requirement. (Ben Cardin had the good sense to vote yes, although, more likely, he realized that 2012 is fast approaching.)
Finally, there’s a casting call for another arrogant Democratic party leader in Maryland – seems Susan Turnbull is leaving her post. Benefits include fawning press coverage from most newspapers and plenty of special interest money to spend come election time.
Applicants may suck up to Martin O’Malley for consideration.
Ostensibly this was a picture taken during Martin O’Malley’s inauguration last week, with the Maryland Senate Republican Caucus (the group supplying the picture) helpfully pointing out that, “only one-quarter of the chairs stretching across Lawyer’s Mall were filled. If you subtract the police, military personnel and state staffers being paid to participate in the event, the attendance appeared to be barely 400 people.”
Of course, we lack the context of a photo taken during Parris Glendening’s 1998 inauguration, which was the last time a Maryland governor kicked off a second term. But it is interesting that, in a time when O’Malley’s job approval number surged to 58% in the latest Gonzales Research Maryland Poll released earlier this week – Gonzales may have to rethink that target in their logo, by the way – there was so little interest in his second inauguration. At the very least I would have expected a sea of purple shirts there as evidence of his most fervent backers.
One could even compare this to the mob scene which hit Washington two years ago last week as President Obama took office.
But my speculation and puzzlement occurs when I consider just how long Governor O’Malley will keep that solid 58% approval rating given some of the shenanigans he’s once again pulling to balance the budget.
As a few examples, the House Republican Caucus states that O’Malley’s proposed FY2012 budget will:
And while O’Malley hasn’t openly pushed for any tax increases, it’s doubtful he’ll say no if increases – like a higher gasoline tax or the “dime a drink” alcohol tax – are pushed through the General Assembly. We’ll see what happens to O’Malley’s approval rating once these taxes begin hitting the working Maryland families he claims to care about.
