Birds of a Feather
Filed under: Corruption, Fiscal Policy, Maryland, Maryland Politics, Salisbury Politics
In the past I have commented that Salisbury Mayor Barrie Tilghman appears to consider herself some form of minor league Bill Clinton. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has wrapped himself in the Clinton banner, committing early to Bill Clinton’s campaign for First Lady. This morning, DuvaFiles pointed to something else that Barrie and the Guv seem to have in common - crooked land deals.
The Sun reports that O’Malley is going to spend our tax dollars (if you’re a Marylander) to buy land from one of his buddies at a price far in excess of its appraised value. Land purchased from a member of his transition team. In all honesty, I’m not horribly surprised. O’Malley truly is one of the “new Democrats”. You know, the kind that will not only steal from taxpayer but have the chutzpah to stand before the cameras and explain that what they’re doing is somehow “for the public good”. At least in the old days these guys would have done a deal and kept it out of the public eye.
I particularly love the explanations of Comptroller Peter Franchot and the representative of state Treasurer Nancy Kopp. It seems that it’s OK for the state to pay more than appraised value for land if the county receiving the land is willing to pony up a little to receive a lot (no pun intended). I’m also quite impressed with the Guv letting Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown sub for him at the PSC meeting; just in case the ax does swing over this in the future.
Mr. Duvall hit it right on the head with his comparison to Salisbury’s purchase of land for the fire HQ. The parallels are startling. Of course, never to be outdone, Barrie managed to mix tax fraud with wasting the taxpayers’ money. If you remember, the “Cranberry Bog” was purchased at approximately 3.5 times market value. However, Barrie’s deal was structured so that the owners made a huge profit on the land while also receiving a tax credit that wiped out their capital gain and then some. This was accomplished by booking the purchase price at over $600,000 while the city only paid $311,000 cash for the property (the balance was booked as a “donation”). Of course we all need to remember that the owners had just purchased the property four months earlier for $175,000. None of this even takes into account the fact that the former dump site is leaking methane. Perhaps Barrie has some scheme for going into the gas business.
The Guv can learn some valuable lessons. Sure, he has a bigger checkbook to pay with, but he’s got to get up pretty early in the morning to outdo Barrie when it comes to crooked deals.
Technorati Tags: Maryland, Salisbury, politics, marylandpolitics, salisburypolitics, corruption, landdeals, development, fiscalpolicy, MartinOMalley, BarrieTilghman, DelmarvaDealings
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It was indeed fitting that Marty the Magnificent designated Salisbury the “capital for the day” to push for higher state taxes. The good news is that he’s now gone, but the bad news is that we have Barrie 24/7-365.
Maybe Marty got the “Ole Lewinsky” from Salisbury’s “Head Crony.” Thus, the capital for a day, like I give a rats ***
So he’s threatening that if the state’s finances don’t get any better he’ll have to push it of on counties and cities, so what’s new Marty the Moocher? Can you make a stone bleed? One day they will go to the well and the taxpayers will be dry.
Do you know how much money we the employees of this state could yank back out of government hands if we all staged a one day without pay a month rebellion? I don’t really have that answer but it would be a nice lump of expected revenue they won’t get, that I do know.
It could be done over the course of a month and we wouldn’t be hurting the businesses we work for, like it would if everyone just took the same day off like staging a walk-out. It would be enough to make them think.
I can cut back to 32 hours a week and still get benefits, and at the end of the year get a lot more money back from being in a higher tax bracket and making a lower income. All I care about is what I take home. Right now I feel I’m just working an extra day for “The Man.”
Barry does come by it honest her wife Matt is quite the “businessman” and has made some sweet insider land deals himself ie… Fruitland WalMart & adjacent retail building This was gladly given sewer and water by Barry’s life long friend Rick Pollitt.