Tag: Maryland General Assembly

A new face leads a perennial movement

It’s been tried at least twice before in the previous two sessions, but a new leader has emerged in the fight to repeal the 2007 O’Malley sales tax increase.

With the ascension of J.B. Jennings to the Maryland Senate, a similar bill to the one he introduced in 2009 and 2010 is now being spearheaded by freshman Delegate Justin Ready of Carroll County. (Introduced today, the bill is HB465.) A good sign of progress is that Ready has gathered 32 other sponsors to the bill, a group made bipartisan by the inclusion of Democratic Delegate John F. Wood, Jr.

In a statement, Ready pointed out that Maryland is a state with relatively close borders. Thanks to the increased sales tax, “businesses in Carroll County are really taking it on the chin because of our close proximity to Pennsylvania,” said Ready.

However, Pennsylvania’s sales tax is 6 percent like Maryland’s – the key difference is in the services covered. In fact, three of the five states (or districts) surrounding Maryland match the state’s 6% rate – Virginia has a 5% rate and, of course, as we all know Delaware has no sales tax. So that portion of Ready’s argument vis-a-vis Pennsylvania may not hold water, but any advantage we can get here on the Eastern Shore means something to us.

A somewhat moderating feature of Ready’s plan is that we’d have to wait two years for tax relief, as the rate wouldn’t go into effect until 2013 – presumably the economy will be on more solid ground.

Passing sales tax relief will let Maryland families know that help is on the way while also giving the state three budget years to get our fiscal house in order. Taxpayers have sacrificed repeatedly over the past few years with higher taxes and fees. The sales tax hits poor and lower middle class people hardest of all.  Now is the time for government to sacrifice some spending and provide relief for our families and businesses.

(Yeesh…”help is on the way” – where have we heard this before? Obviously Justin doesn’t make the trip down here much or he’d know to avoid that phrase.)

Obviously I’m for the tax decrease, although the same idea didn’t do much to help Bob Ehrlich out. Still, I’m dismayed to see that two local representatives aren’t yet onboard as cosponsors. While Delegate Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio has lent her name to 32 bills thus far this session and cohort Delegate Charles Otto ten, neither have lent their backing to this common-sense bill as a cosponsor. One would assume they’d vote for the bill if it ever proceeds past the hearing stage (unlike the two predecessor bills) but I think that the party leadership – including the Minority Leader, Delegate Tony O’Donnell – needs to get behind this. So far he, too, is conspicuous in his absence.

If past history is any indication, the bill will get a hearing toward the end of the session in March and then be locked in the desk drawer of Ways and Means Committee head Sheila Hixson. It’s time to change that formula and give real tax relief to working Maryland families.

McDermott’s state of the state

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.

Is the MOM magic fading?

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:

  • pull $120 million out of the Transportation Trust Fund to pay for non-transportation projects. Many Democrats in the General Assembly would like to fill that hole the only way they know how – by raising the gasoline tax by up to 15 cents per gallon.
  • transfer $90 million from the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund to the General Fund, so your flush tax is being flushed down the drain of general state spending instead of cleaning up the Bay.
  • assume there’s $39 million to give state employees who qualify a $750 bonus and five days’ paid administrative leave.

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.

Maryland Senate GOP picks new leadership

The Eastern Shore is again represented in the upper echelon of Maryland Senate Republicans, for the first time since former Senator Lowell Stoltzfus walked away from leadership a few years back.

State Senator Nancy Jacobs, who was Minority Whip, was promoted to the leadership post yesterday in a vote among the Senate caucus. The new Minority Whip is State Senator E.J. Pipkin of the upper Shore.

A press release from the Senate caucus included reaction from the two:

“I am honored and humbled by the support of my colleagues in electing me Minority Leader,” said Jacobs. “While there are many difficult issues we need to address during this legislative session, I look forward working with my fellow senators to ensure Maryland’s success.”

“We have significant budgetary challenges facing us in the 2011 legislative session,” Pipkin said, “fortunately I feel that our caucus has a united sense of mission and passion in facing these challenges.  I’m ready to get to work.”

Now that the leadership question is settled, Republicans can get down to work being solid, conservative opposition. I’m especially looking forward to seeing how Pipkin can use his enhanced profile as a leader for sanity in the budgetary process.

The vote yesterday means the Eastern Shore is home to both Minority Whips as Pipkin joins Delegate Jeannie Haddway-Riccio of Talbot County in this leadership post.

Tax, tax, tax, tax, tax!

To some, the size of government simply can’t be large enough to redistribute wealth to those they consider “disadvantaged.” Take the group Progressive Maryland, which I prefer to refer to as Regressive Maryland. In either case, they’ve once again combined with the supposedly nonpartisan Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute to produce their annual “State of Working Maryland” report describing their wet dream of social architecture and handouts to those they deem deserving.

In their report, they gasp that, “(t)he danger Maryland faces is that most of the gains of the economic recovery will flow to the wealthiest Marylanders.” Isn’t that generally the way those who assume the most risk by investing capital are rewarded? Meanwhile, they also complain that, “(m)ajor deficit reduction should not be on the table until the recovery is firmly on track, that is, until unemployment has dropped and is on a downward trajectory.” So we are supposed to place our children and grandchildren into deeper debt because economic conditions aren’t very good? Well, the problem seems to be that our vast debt is leading to the economic doldrums, folks! How much money shoveled at the problem is enough?

Among the number of charts and graphs enclosed in the report, I found the “Maryland Job Count in Selected Industries” bar chart on page 9 fascinating. It seems Maryland’s growth industries over the last three years are (wait for it) education, health services, and – of course – government! Conversely, those taking the biggest hit over that period are manufacturing and construction. Isn’t that what they want, more government workers? This should be paradise!

But the last five pages of the report are where the rubber meets the road – they need to pay for their grandiose schemes somehow. Their wish list includes digging into the pockets of Maryland people and corporations doing business in the state to the tune of nearly $3 billion. (Consider that the state’s portion of our annual budget – not including monies passed down from the federal government – runs around $13 billion.) Apparently the pointy heads who created this report feel that working Marylanders need to cough up a little more.

These are some of the taxation schemes they’re trying to enact, with the amount they are hoping to raise:

  • Extend the ‘millionaire’s tax’ which expires at midnight tonight for another three years, to raise between $70 and $90 million. That is, it would if any millionaires remain in the state – many have already fled to more tax-friendly places.
  • The ‘dime-a-drink’ tax on alcohol. They actually quizzed candidates on this one; unfortunately, those who favored raising the tax tended to win at the ballot box (many were unopposed.) So those who like their Bud longnecks, their glass of white Zinfandel, or shot of Southern Comfort will be helping the state supposedly raise over $200 million. Way to tax the poor and middle class.
  • Raising the gasoline tax by 15 cents a gallon to raise $450 million. The idea is twofold: get people to drive less and perhaps clamor for more mass transit. That’s not working here on the Shore; we just take it in the shorts. The same people who scream about oil companies making maybe 4 cents a gallon profit are the ones who want to deduct an extra buck or two on each tankful (on top of the 23 1/2 cents a gallon they already charge) because it’s been 18 years since the tax was raised. So? For some people it’s been 18 years since they could afford a new car, and this won’t help them a bit.
  • Combined reporting for corporations will supposedly raise between $92 and $144 million, based on 2007 numbers. Of course, the numbers for 2008 weren’t as favorable for the group so they didn’t use them, claiming the year was an anomaly because it “reflects a low level of profits at the depth of the recession.” Well, guess what – driving business out of the state is going to keep us in a recession. If Maryland adopts combined reporting, business will find another loophole. Trust me on this. Even the Maryland Business Tax Reform Commission, a body mainly hand-picked by the Governor and other Democrats, couldn’t support this turkey.
  • And now the biggie – expand the scope of the sales tax to include more services, for “Maryland taxes 39 of 168 services included in FTA’s survey of all states.” Yes, only 39 of 168 – that simply won’t do for them. This could raise up to $2 billion. Of course, they’re concerned about “(t)axation of basic household services (which) would disproportionately burden low-income households” but obviously they don’t give a crap about the average working family who will get hammered every time they order a pizza or pay their cable bill.

Of these five, I give the best odds of General Assembly passage to the ‘dime-a-drink’ tax, followed by the ‘millionaire’s tax’, expansion of the sales tax to services and the gas tax increase. I think the General Assembly will heed the advice of the MBTRC and not consider the combined business tax this year, and the gas tax will be a tough sell because pump prices have surged dramatically since this summer. This is confounding experts who usually see prices decline once the summer driving season ends and refineries can revert back to a less expensive blend of gasoline that’s not formulated to fight smog.

Given the 133-55 advantage Democrats have in the General Assembly and our re-electing a governor who won’t say no if the General Assembly passes a tax increase, it’s pretty much a fait accompli we will be stuck with at least one of these increases, if not more. That’s why elections matter, and the fact that many Free Staters are tapped out doesn’t matter to many of those who were elected last month.

It’s not the tone I would have preferred to end the year with, but things are what they are. Since this is almost certainly my swan song post for 2010 (unless something really major happens and I can somehow update from my phone) I hope you all have a happy and prosperous new year in 2011 – despite the best efforts of liberals everywhere.

Ending the sanctuary state

In a little less than two weeks, after the calendar turns to 2011 and we return back to our post-holiday daily routine, our ’90 Days of Terror’ known as the General Assembly session will commence. And Delegate Pat McDonough is ready, with a 15-point package to counter the scourge of illegal aliens in the state. As he says in a release:

Everyone is aware of the fact that Maryland is a premier sanctuary state.

I intend to introduce the largest and most effective legislative action agenda in the history of the state.  Hopefully, fellow citizens and organizations who are concerned about the burdens created by illegal immigration will join us in this important effort.

I refer to my comprehensive plan as the “Citizens Protection and Rights Initiative,” in other words, CPR.

While fifteen bills seems like a lot, bear in mind that in an average session we’ll see over 2,500 measures introduced during the General Assembly session – it’s nearly 150 per member of the General Assembly. Undaunted, McDonough plans to address the following fifteen items:

  1. Arizona Style Law entitled the “Citizens’ Rights Act” mandating that state authority enforce the Federal Immigration Act.
  2. Sanctuary Policy Penalty provides complaint process against public officials who knowingly violate the Federal Immigration Act.
  3. Higher Education In-state Prohibition – This bill prohibits illegal alien college students from receiving taxpayer subsidized tuition discounts.
  4. Higher Education Legislative Scholarships Prohibition Regarding Illegal Aliens
  5. Federal 287 G Statewide Enforcement – This bill would mandate the enforcement of the federal criminal action section of the law addressing criminal illegal aliens and gangs.
  6. Division of Correction Immigration Status of Inmates – This bill would mandate reports and records of the immigration status of inmates in the Maryland prison system.
  7. Immigration Status Bail and Pre-trial Release – This bill would mandate that judges and other officials confirm the immigration status of defendants prior to release.
  8. Task Force to Study the Impact of Illegal Aliens on Maryland’s Job Market
  9. E-Verify State Procurement -This bill would mandate that all state contractors, venders, and employees must pass the e-verify test. 
  10. Consumers “Right to Know” Transparency Act – This bill would mandate that consumers have the right to know the immigration status of all employees performing work or services on their property.
  11. Prohibition of State Benefits to Illegal Aliens
  12. Charitable Organizations Prohibition of Acceptance of Contributions from Terrorist Groups, Nations, or Nations That Have Relationships with Terrorist States
  13. Foreign Language Costs Transparency Act – This bill would mandate that all state agencies provide an annual report detailing any funding provided to policies, programs, services or any functions that require the use of non-English languages.
  14. The Voter Fairness Act – This bill would mandate that election workers require identification from voters.
  15. The Montgomery County College Lawsuit and Criminal Complaints – I have partnered with the National Legal Foundation “Judicial Watch” to engage in a civil lawsuit against Montgomery County College in order to ban the unlawful practice of providing in-state tuition to illegal aliens costing taxpayers millions of dollars.  I am preparing criminal complaints against certain public officials to be submitted in the near future.

Obviously this is not a program for smaller government or less red tape; unfortunately, since the federal government has dropped the ball on enforcement of its borders and immigration law those of us in Maryland are left to pick up the pieces. Perhaps the one I most support would be The Voter Fairness Act, although I presume Pat would want to have a photo ID. Then again, since illegal aliens can get a driver’s license relatively easily in Maryland (by many accounts) there may have to be other additional restrictions.

(Personally I think the voter cards we receive should have a photo and the state should opt out of compliance with “motor voter” laws. If the federal government can let Maryland get away with flouting the rules about cleaning the voter rolls on a regular basis, we should be able to get around that law too. Make people go to the Board of Elections to register to vote – those who care to do so would probably be those who care about being informed on what they’re voting on.)

I’m very sure Republicans may split on provisions 9 and 10, since the Chamber of Commerce screams bloody murder whenever E-verify is brought up. This isn’t a cure-all since documents can be forged and occasionally the system spits out a false positive but it’s probably the best step we have currently available.

But with just 43 Republicans in the House of Delegates and all seven House committees firmly in Democratic control (including the notorious Delegate Joe Vallario in charge of Judiciary) the chances of McDonough’s agenda advancing are fairly slim. It seems that Democrats would rather listen to “New Americans” who aren’t even supposed to be voting over the interests of those who believe that illegal aliens are, well, illegal. Crossing the border illegally may only be a misdemeanor akin to getting a traffic citation, but forgery is a somewhat more serious offense and portraying yourself as being here legally sans documentation is the same as misrepresenting yourself for fraudulent purposes.

I welcome immigrants who come here and choose to pursue the American Dream through the legal means available. It’s those bad apples McDonough targets who are spoiling things for the rest.

Odds and ends number 24

Note: updates to the final news item are at the bottom. There is a link to a RNC whip count included too.

As one may expect, the combination of the snow and the season makes this a deathly slow news week – but here are some things I found interesting.

If you are a thinking conservative as I aspire to be, I came across a list of questions one can ask those of the liberal persuasion in a piece by Oleg Atbashian at Pajamas Media today. It always seems to me that those who have lived through statism as practiced around the world (in the former Soviet Union, Communist China, Cuba, former Eastern European Soviet satellites, etc.) and escaped to America have both a keener appreciation of the freedom we enjoy and the memory of just how their homelands arrived in the state they became.

I’m not sure if the book tour he describes will make it anywhere around these parts, but you can certainly tell Atbashian has embraced capitalism by looking at his The People’s Cube website. And you can certainly ask questions – after all, wasn’t the mantra of ‘question authority’ popular in the 1980’s? So why did we stop then?

Speaking of authority, the authority behind the Republican National Committee is at stake in an election held next month. Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post broke down who he considers the contenders and pretenders in a post which appeared late last night.

Seeing that we have a ‘favorite son’ of sorts in the race (Maryland’s incumbent Chair Michael Steele) it may be a shock to see Cillizza rank him among the three-person ‘second tier’ of contestants. I would presume Steele has the support of at least two of Maryland’s three-person delegation to the convention and most likely would get newly-installed state party Chair Alex Mooney’s vote as well. But I encourage all three to consider a second choice because I think Michael Steele has worn out his welcome, despite the successes of the 2010 campaign.

And unlike our recent state Chair election which relied on a complicated vote-tallying formula, every state and territory in the RNC universe will have an equal say – so the three votes Steele could presumably count on from Maryland are balanced by the three votes Saul Anuzis would get from his home state of Michigan, the trio of ballots Reince Priebus would secure from Wisconsin, and so on.

As a reminder, I looked at the other contenders a couple weeks ago. I suspect Maryland will have to deal with the post-Steele era in the RNC beginning next month.

Update: Heather Olsen alerted me to an ongoing whip count – judging by his comment our state Chair may be withholding his support for Michael Steele, at least for the moment.

Turning to state politics it’s worth noting that Delegate Michael Smigiel, who was re-elected in November, has prefiled two measures which were attempted last year – the eniment domain reform bill which was HB63 last year will be HB8 this time around, while the firearm licensing reciprocity bill known as HB52 in the last session was assigned to be HB9. Hopefully they will get out of committee this time around since there need only be four thoughtful Democrats necessary to bypass the committee and bring legislation to the floor (assuming all 43 House Republicans sign on.)

Finally, a weather-related note – the State of the County is snow-covered, thus Rick Pollitt has cancelled the State of the County speech scheduled for tomorrow morning. (This was announced today by county PIO Jim Fineran.) I have a question in to Jim regarding rescheduling, so if I find out I’ll amend the post to share the information.

Update: according to Jim Fineran, the speech will not be rescheduled. I’ll receive a copy for my review later today.

Update 2: Rick Pollitt released a statement with the annual report, which read in part, “Each year, I have published a printed ‘County Executive’s Report to the People’ in compliance with the terms of the Charter and then chosen to follow with an oral presentation from the council chambers. However, due to the current snow emergency and a variety of other significant items of business currently underway, I plan to publish the usual report as required but will postpone an oral presentation to a future date.” (Emphasis mine.)

No word on what the ‘significant items of business’ are. Later today I will have a review of the report.

The oddities of politics (well, at least a couple)

I’m still coming back off the Thanksgiving holiday which featured a goodly amount of food (including some good bread pudding thanks to Kim’s family and great pumpkin pie at Jim and Michele’s) and the news is still on the slow side – when the President getting busted on the lip by a wayward elbow in a pickup basketball game is breaking news you know things are slow.

Anyway, there are a few oddities I wanted to point out. One is a bit stale and the others arcane, but all seem crazy on the surface.

Up Baltimore County way, their Republican Central Committee chair is in a bit of hot water because he wanted the two Republicans on Baltimore County Council (along with his committee) to support a Democrat as the Council leader.

Unlike the other 23 jurisdictions in Maryland, Baltimore County elects its Republican Central Committee chair directly at the primary – it’s state law. Not only that, it’s unique to the GOP in Baltimore County as the rank-and-file Democrats don’t elect their chair – so what gives?

Even Tony Campbell himself doesn’t agree with the concept. So why is it in place? I have no idea when or why this was put into effect, but given his recent struggles I hope Campbell follows through with his promise and the General Assembly takes care of this oddity.

But wait, there’s more!

When we met on Election Day night, we selected our new county chair among the nine of us. Strangely enough, though, we didn’t officially take office until November 16, two weeks after the election. Yet the MDGOP had to do some business prior to this date and our chair (elected among us on November 2nd) represented the county at this meeting.  What’s really funny is that last term (which was my first) we weren’t sworn into office until the convention, two months after we were elected in the primary! Insofar as I know, this only applies to Republicans too.

In our case, there wasn’t much of a change since our chair is the former vice-chair and had attended state meetings before in place of the former chair when he was away. But what of a county with a lot of turnover? This could be really confusing and the potential is there for inadvertently tripping over the letter of the law.

I believe the time has come to clean up and synchronize election laws that need some pruning. Certainly let’s change the Baltimore County law, but why not set the Central Committee terms to begin on a date certain for both parties? If two weeks after the election is the day, then we should set our organizational meetings accordingly. (It may be a MDGOP slipup in this case.)

The other change from 2006 to 2010 that I would dearly love to see reversed is the elimination of the non-continuing account.

When I ran in 2006, I was able to close my financial books on the campaign once the results became official. Obviously at 5 bucks a month I didn’t want to keep the bank account going – especially for an unpaid volunteer position as mine is – and there were only a few transactions to account for on the financial report. All told there was less than $200 involved, mostly from my own contributions. (I also had to count monoblogue as an in-kind contribution.)

This time, my only two expenditures were the $10 filing fee and this website. I promised my new treasurer I’d make it as easy as possible for her! Problem is, I now don’t have the option of a non-continuing account since I’m done for four years and don’t see a need for a campaign warchest!

Compare this to my days in Ohio politics where being elected to the Central Committee positions required no filing fee, there was no need for a treasurer or associated bank account, and the only requirement to get on the ballot was a petition signed by 5-15 registered party members in the precinct. Yes, there was a difference in scale between a precinct of a few square blocks and running countywide, but the idea should be to encourage involvement, not make it more difficult. I beat enough of a field of 13 to make it this time so bring them on!

I can understand the need for these laws for state and local elected officials who are paid for services, but for an unpaid party position? I say bring back the non-continuing account for those positions only.

Obviously others may have their ideas for election and campaign finance reform, but there are a start. It’s worthy to think about this now when there’s just 44 days before the ’90 Days of Terror’ begins.

Will 2011 be another 2007?

With Martin O’Malley as governor, I’m afraid the answer is yes.

Brian Griffiths at Red Maryland questioned why the Maryland Business Tax Reform Commission, which was created as part of the 2007 Special Session, suddenly decided to begin meeting and taking public testimony in the wake of the election – where were they over the last several months, he asks.

In part this is thanks to a bill introduced last year which changed the original law and decreed the MBTRC has to complete its work by the end of this year, so the accelerated pace may be a natural outgrowth of that prospect.

But Griffiths naturally assumes that Martin O’Malley is going to use whatever they say as a pretense to club Maryland businesses with a tax increase. After all, if O’Malley wins he’s a lame duck who’s going to spend the latter half of his second term attempting to position himself as a contender for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, whether as successor to Barack Obama or challenger to a Republican president.

Of course, one selling point for him will be the shape Maryland is in when he leaves office and he’s extremely fortunate to have the job creation machine of the seat of federal government right next door. Is is any wonder the battleground of this election is MoCo and PG County? What happens to the the areas of Maryland outside the I-95 corridor will be barely noted and not long remembered by the MOM spin machine. We don’t need those icky chicken farms in our state anyway.

But as long as the federal government is hiring, it places businesses in a position where they have to grin and bear whatever tax increases are created just as long as they can access a relatively affluent market in MoCo and PG. It’s the rest of the state, particularly the areas close by state borders, where employers will be effectively told to pound sand.

Of course, there won’t be a need for a Special Session this time around because O’Malley won’t have the surplus he was handed in 2007 to cushion his first budget. They’ll get right to work in January attempting to chisel more revenue out of the state’s producers and redistribute it to the illegals and so-called working families. (That term only seems to apply if the worker toils in a union shop – all others need not apply.)

I’m not going to say that things will be easy if Bob Ehrlich wins – that is unless we have an unprecendented shift in the General Assembly which would see the GOP gain 34 House seats and 10 Senate seats to place themselves in the majority for the first time in, well, ever. But at least Maryland businesses would have a fighting chance.

It’s time for (more) accountability

If you liked what I had to say before about the Eastern Shore’s version of the Three Stooges – Rudy Cane, Norm Conway, and Jim Mathias – then you should like this piece.

I was shocked to go to my mailbox today and not find a full-color 4-page mailing from Jim Mathias expounding his so-called independence and love of us peon taxpayers. But a phrase on the first mailing belies his true intentions:

In the State Senate, (Jim will) push to cut wasteful government spending and reinvest the proceeds in small business jobs and the Eastern Shore.

Certainly that sounds innocent enough when taken on the surface. But that doesn’t mean government spending will be any less. Instead, Jim seems to believe that the problem isn’t that government is Maryland isn’t too large or overbearing; the problem is that it just spends money in the “wrong” places.

That may be the reason why he and his cohorts have voted for every O’Malley budget. And when floor amendments are made to cut wasteful spending, these three regularly vote against them:

Even in the 2007 Special Session, where Jim Mathias stood against his party on tax increases, he still voted for the budgetary shell games (which included a prospective tax increase at the county level) and not to make more meaningful cuts. Meanwhile, Norm Conway voted to increase income and corporate tax rates in that session, and in 2008 all three voted in favor of the millionaire’s tax, which drove capital out of the state.

And as far as accounting for the stimulus dollars that Governor O’Malley has desperately needed over the last two years as a fix to his junkie-style spending habit, our merry trio voted against an attempt to put the funds under the normal budgetary process and have Governor O’Malley report where the money was spent.

So when Jim Mathias, Norm Conway, and Rudy Cane try to sell their fiscally conservative soap at your door, it’s easy to find the real truth if you know where to look. We can do much, much better.

By the way, I’m not done yet. More at a later time.

It’s time for accountability

You know, I didn’t begin the monoblogue Accountability Project for my health. When the cycle came back around to the point where our General Assembly came up for election I wanted the actual vote tallies to tell you what our legislators are REALLY voting to do. It’s especially apt when you get a full-color mailer telling you that “Jim Mathias is one of us.” (We’ve received two in the last week; the other said he was small business-friendly.)

Before I go on, allow me to say that Norm Conway and Jim Mathias are nice guys; I can talk to them and in most cases we agree to disagree. But there comes a time to be held in account for the votes they’ve taken and I’m not going to let them get away with talking conservative in the district but voting against its interests when they are in Annapolis.

For example, how many of you like the electric rates you pay? Well, the state mandates the utilities get a portion of their electricity from “renewable” sources or fines utilities who don’t comply. In the last four years both of these Delegates voted for legislation that would charge utilities up to 45 cents per kilowatt hour if they fell short of goals.

Speaking of goals, the pair also believed the hype about greenhouse gases and foolishly signed on to a job-killing measure to reduce greenhouse gases to 75% of 2006 levels by 2020. I’m sure they’ll say that there is an “out” within the law if the economic price is too high (which there is) but why would someone agree to this pig in a poke in the first place? By that same token, these two stuck it to utilities through mandates regarding energy conservation. (This is why companies like Delmarva Power have to push their programmable thermostats.)

And thanks to them our new cars now have to be compliant with the more expensive California emissions standards.

These two even played smoking Nazis when they both voted to ban indoor smoking. Mathias even voted for an amendment to ban tobacco statewide.

And is it small-business friendly to vote every chance you get to empower unions? Over the last four years this dynamic duo (along with Rudy Cane in many cases) have gifted Big Labor with fees from child care providers, gifts to the teachers union, a double dose of mandated breaks (each voted for one version of the bill), binding arbitration (regardless of the cost to local governments), and making those who wish to opt out of the union still pay union dues (as Delegate Conway did in committee.) If it were a vote to amend prevailing wage or beat back the repeal of ‘living wage’, Jim Mathias – yes, Mr. Business-Friendly himself – was there.

How about fans of paperwork? Anyone? Well, these esteemed Delegates put recordkeeping mandates on business, adopting federal mandates for an unemployment bailout after Rudy Cane and Norm Conway helped put the system in a bind by making part-time workers eligible. Even the half-hearted effort to help them this year comes with a number of strings and paperwork attached.

So when these Democrats try to pull the wool over your eyes and tell you they’re business-friendly, you may want to ask them why they voted for these measures. The next installment I’ll do over the next few days looks at just how fiscally responsible these local Democrats are (insert derisive snort here.)

District 38A hopeful gathers gun endorsements

AFP co-chair Julie Brewington read from remarks she prepared and preposted on her website.

One can’t quite call her Maryland’s answer to Sarah Palin yet, but District 38A hopeful Julie Brewington is holding her own with the boys insofar as getting endorsements from Second Amendment groups goes.

The most recent ones in her bag come from a coalition of groups including Maryland Shall Issue/Citizen’s Defense League of Maryland, and the Maryland State NRA Rifle and Pistol Association.

(continued on my Examiner.com page…)

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Now for the remainder of my take on this.

I’m certainly glad that Julie is a defender of Second Amendment rights and I have little doubt about her conservative credentials considering who she supports and the body of her work on her blog Right Coast.

But it doesn’t always work that way among people who vote single-issue. For example, the same group which endorses Julie is also endorsing Delegate Joseph Vallario, Jr. (D – District 27A) and Delegate Rudy Cane (D – District 37A). Vallario chairs the House Judiciary Committee, where bills like Jessica’s Law went to die until a vast outcry finally forced him to relent and bring the bill out. Cane regularly votes with big-spending I-95 corridor liberals on economic issues, which outweigh the limited good he does on Second Amendment-related items. (For my money I think Cane challenger Dustin Mills would likely be as good or better for Second Amendment stalwarts and certainly more friendly to our local business interests.)

However, I did notice that the coalition specifically states:

Our vote recommendations are based upon 2nd Amendment positions only. When both candidates would benefit the 2nd Amendment community, we suggest that each voter consider other criteria in the Primary Election. These critia (sic) would include the voter’s personal knowledge of the candidate, candidate’s experience, past performance, and especially the candidate’s “electability” in the November General Election.

I would hope that this coalition comes to its senses regarding other issues once November’s endorsements roll around, and perhaps in cases where there is no primary they simply omit the candidate in question until then.