Rick Pollitt Wants Your Money … and Your Vote!

Despite the Louise Smith-esque references to “government in the sunshine”, Wicomico County Executive Rick Pollitt delivered a fine “State of the County” speech on Tuesday.  As was to be expected with such speeches, most of the word count was spent giving thanks to myriad groups and individuals as well as “polishing the apple” – telling all what a great job Pollitt and his folks are doing.  C’mon, it’s an elected office.  What else would you expect?

As predicted, Pollitt devoted a portion of his speech to some shirt tearing over the county’s revenue cap.  You can’t blame a guy for trying.

As an opponent, on principle only, of the cap this would normally not bother me.  Unfortnately, Pollitt’s semi-impassioned plea against the cap is falling on deaf ears in my neck of the woods.  Why?  Pollitt has displayed a complete lack of leadership on the key issues facing the county while showing a willingness to treat the taxpayers as a “revenue source” rather than what they are – hard working men and women who willingly part with their hard earned money and expect good stewardship from their county leaders.

A Shill for the O’Malley Administration

Deeply disturbing was Pollitt’s assertion that state aid would decline due to Wicomico County’s revenue cap:

Nor would the state provide much in the way of help, as Richard (Pollitt) insinuated that those in Annapolis would be less likely to assist a county which had a revenue cap in place. We had to “come to grips with the burden on our back.”

This from the man who shilled for Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s tax increases.  This from the man who was a leader in the concept of the “doomsday budget” which is now a standard MACO recommendation for counties to deceive their voters into paying more taxes.  This from the man who advocates compensating county employees in excess of the private sector.  This from the man who was all too willing to pay inflated prices for park land, until the public vigorously fought the notion, because it was to be paid for with “state money”.  No Rick, it was to be paid for with TAXPAYER DOLLARS.

You reap what you sow.  Even a fierce opponent of the revenue cap, like myself, retreats from discussion of repealing the cap when you are convinced that the only result will be more spending quickly followed by higher taxes.

Where’s the Leadership?

Perhaps I’m a bit old fashioned.  I like to see a little leadership with my elected officials.  While I am an unabashed partisan, I respect liberals like Barney Frank, Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin who take a stance and attempt to follow through.  While I may like Rick personally, I am consistently dismayed at his fence straddling on every issue of import facing the county.  Two examples were present in Tuesday’s speech – PAC-14 and the downzoning of farm land.

The PAC-14 issue is relatively minor, admittedly.  However, if you are a regular reader you know that it is an issue near and dear to my heart.  While Pollitt was complicit in some of the early controversy, he has stayed clear (at least publicly) ever since.  When it was announced at a Salisbury City Council meeting that the county (Pollitt) would be meeting with several members of a group attempting to break all taxpayer accountability, Pollitt denied this.  However, it appears that such a meeting did take place.  I happen to believe that Pollitt has every right, and duty, to meet with constituents.  Hiding from the facts makes “government in the sunshine” look more like the Barrie Tilghman / Louise Smith variety.

Rather than lead on this issue, Pollitt has been publicly silent until yesterday.  His current stance is to encourage citizens to call their representatives on council.  Fair enough.  It just isn’t leadership.  The fact that PAC-14′s Mike Goodson and the so-called “Friends of PAC-14″ are attempting to garner public support through deception is a side issue.

Pollitt’s remarks on the current land use controversy are more telling.  Pollitt spoke of “compensating” farmers for taking away their current development options.  This would seem fair.  However, as Pollitt has repeatedly pointed out, the county doesn’t have any surplus revenue for such compensation.  As his friend the Governor has pointed out, the state doesn’t either.  I fully expect the “grand compromise” to be some scheme where farmers will be eligible for compensation on paper, while the cash money never materializes.  Perhaps Pollitt is attempting the manipulate farmers into supporting his repeal of the revenue cap?

Politically, Pollitt’s lack of leadership pays dividends.  By refusing to take a stand he pushes the county council (and Councilman John Cannon in particular) into taking meaningful and sometimes unpopular stands while Pollitt comes in after the fact, sticks his finger to the wind, and then decides what to do.  Cannon, who was Pollitt’s strongest potential rival, has been emasculated by this approach.

The land use issue is a prime example.  Because Pollitt won’t lead, Cannon (who by nature is always looking for a compromise) is usually left in the unenviable positon of being the swing vote on any controversial issue.  Most of the enviros backing the proposed downzoning don’t know where the Republican line on the ballot is.  If Cannon votes for downzoning (and Pollitt signs such a bill), he will lose a material block of votes if he challenges Pollitt in the next election while picking up few votes in return.  If he votes against the proposal, Pollitt hopes that motivated enviro support will help to push him over the top against a nominal Republican with no passionate support from the GOP activist base.  Under the latter scenario, Pollitt also gets the additional advantage of never having to take a public stance on another controversial matter.  Cannon either needs to emerge as a REAL leader or hope that Pollitt will continue to be a lazy campaigner (this is definitely NOT a weakness of Cannon’s).

All in all, Rick Pollitt gave a good speech.  However, if he is really serious about repealing the revenue cap he needs to become a LEADER rather than just a good local politician.  By doing so, he may find that there are enough votes out there.  Until then, those of us who are opposed to the cap AND fiscally conservative will never agree to risk the whirlwind of a powerful Democrat County Executive with no meaningful controls taxes.

Sphere: Related Content