At the estimated cost of $20,000 per day, the just-completed three-day Maryland General Assembly special session enabled Governor Martin O’Malley and his liberal Democratic allies in the state legislature to wrap up their work on the FY2013 budget. Through a combination of a $263.8 million tax hike which mainly falls on middle- to upper-class wage earners and a complex budget reconciliation, including the passing of the teacher pension burden down to the county level, the state has successfully framed the fiscal picture O’Malley wanted to paint for Maryland.
But for those of us who have observed Martin O’Malley’s five-year reign over Maryland, the result of this special session simply seems like deja vu all over again.
(continued at Examiner.com…)
