Liberals never learn.  They cling to the discredited belief that all you need to do to raise government revenue is raise tax rates.  Wealthy Marylanders are showing Gov. Martin O’Malley that they have options too.  They can move to a more tax friendly state.

In 2007 O’Malley and his leftist pals in the legislature instituted the so-called “millionaires surcharge”.  Montgomery County is learning that if you raise taxes they will leave:

County officials estimate next year’s budget deficit will be more than $761 million. Much of the shortfall is tied to a few residents who have either lost money in the economy, died or fled Maryland’s new millionaire tax.

County records show Montgomery lost $4.6 billion in taxable income between tax years 2007 and 2008. The number of income tax returns above $1 million declined by 27 percent during that time.

Despite this “shocking revelation” of basic economics, those stalwarts of fiscal sanity – the Democrat majority of the Maryland General Assembly – are considering extending the “surcharge”, which is set to expire next year.  Perhaps O’Malley should call newly elected New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and ask him how many high earners abandoned the Garden State under the tax and spend policies of Christie’s predecessor – Gov. John Corzine.

Go ahead Marty – dance while Maryland burns.

Today, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley will deliver his annual “State of the State” speech.  Brian Griffiths and Red Maryland have put together a “prebuttal” to O’Malley’s address:

Ironically, O’Malley has chosen to deliver his address on Groundhog Day.  Griffiths draws an appropriate parallel between O’Malley and the Bill Murray film Groundhog Day.  If you remember, the premise of the film is that Murray’s character lives the same day over, over, and over again.

Under O’Malley, Maryland citizens have endured the same things over, over, and over again.  We have suffered the same:

• Excuses
• Calls for Tax Increases
• Calls for Expanded Government Services

While O’Malley is expected to call for a sweeping new jobs program.  Yet, thousands of Marylanders lost their jobs because of O’Malley’s historic tax increases.  Why should our fellow citizens be expected to pay for a problem caused (in part) by the very policies O’Malley has foisted on us during the last three years?

O’Malley is expected to call for a freeze on tax increases.  IT’S AN ELECTION YEAR!  Did we expect O’Malley to hit up the taxpayers again?  Of course not.  However, we should expect a litany of tax increases NEXT YEAR if O’Malley is re-elected.  A vote for Martin O’Malley is almost surely a vote for:

• HIGHER Income Taxes
• HIGHER Sales Taxes
• HIGHER Gas Taxes
• HIGHER Alcohol Taxes
• HIGHER Cigarette Taxes

in 2011.

Griffiths is absolutely correct.  Rather than a handout to the usual special interest group (unions, public employees, etc.), Maryland citizens deserve a hand up by allowing them to keep more of what they earn.

Griffiths may be shocked to find out that the Washington Post, of all publications is in agreement with him when it comes to education.  Maryland parents and children deserve:

• School Choice
• Merit Pay
• An End to Teacher Tenure

What have we received from O’Malley and his liberal cronies?  The same rhetoric – over, over, and over again.  Griffiths is right.  We deserve better.  While Griffiths may be too young to remember, he asks the appropriate question from Ronald Reagan’s one and only debate with Jimmy Carter:

Are You Better Off Now Than You Were Four Years Ago?

We should all ask that question and then demand LEADERSHIP:

• Leadership that takes responsibility
• Leadership that does the right thing
• Leadership that spends our money wisely

Griffiths is right.  2010 is TIME FOR A CHANGE!

Like his pal Barack Obama, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley pledged to run the most transparent administration in history.  Well, we all saw those health care negotiations on C-SPAN – right?  Now the O’Governor is keeping media outlets that don’t tow the party line from attending State House press conferences. Oh yeah – WE THE PEOPLE are excluded as well.

As O’Malley’s poll numbers have dropped over the past year, the Governor’s press office has excluded media and citizens from press conferences in the Governor’s Reception Room. They have also established new barriers for obtaining press credentials for the State House press corps.

Reporter Hassan Giordano of the Baltimore Independent Examiner describes his frustration with the Governor’s interference of an open and transparent government in Maryland and, specifically, the lack of access to the Governor unless you are one of the few favored media representatives known to write or produce pro-Administration pieces:

"While certain members of the Press, including myself, have been stalled and consistently delayed our press credentials, due to some new process the O’Malley administration has put in place, many are questioning why now? As if not already known as the liberal oppressor of all things conservative, Governor O’Malley is now playing games with certain reporter’s credentials, who are too closely tied to conservative publications."

Maryland voters shouldn’t be surprised.  Sunlight has always been considered a powerful disinfectant.  When you are playing fast and loose with the taxpayers’ dollars, as O’Malley has been doing for three years, sunlight is the last thing you want.

What is really depressing is that the liberal Maryland media is putting up with this.

H/T:  Maryland Senate Republican Caucus

It doesn’t appear that Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley will be able to skate to next November’s general election unscathed.  According to Julie Bykowicz at the Baltimore Sun’s Maryland Politics Blog, O’Malley will have a primary challenge – former House Majority Whip and Secretary of Veterans Affairs George W. Owings, III.  Both Bykowicz and the Gazette’s Alan Brody report that Owings will officially announce his candidacy on January 6th in Prince Frederick.

Will Owings present a formidable challenge to the lefty darling O’Malley?  It’s too early to tell.  However, Owings, a Calvert County Democrat, will be able to draw support from a sizable number of moderate – conservative Democrats who share Owings’ disdain for the fiscal shenanigans Marylanders have witnessed under O’Malley’s (lack of) stewardship.

Self identified “progressives” love O’Malley and seem to think that everyone opposed to his Obamanite policies is some right wing Republican.  If they bothered to talk to a few folks in groups like Americans for Prosperity or even at Tea Party rallies, they might be shocked to discover how many are registered Democrats.

Wicomico County Executive Rick Pollitt took his anti-revenue cap show on the road this morning.  Speaking before a Salisbury / Wicomico Economic Development (SWED) meeting, Pollitt and a member of his finance staff argued that the county’s existing revenue cap is simply unsustainable.

I would agree that the revenue cap is unsustainable without a genuine re-structuring of the county government.  This point has been argued for several years by Wicomico Councilwoman Stevie Prettyman.

However, instead of moving to re-structure the government we see a “nibbling around the edges” approach.  Perhaps this approach is being taken by Pollitt in the hope that the cap can be repealed in the near term?  However as long as 53% of every county tax dollar is funneled to a board of education that holds the taxpayer in utter contempt, and Pollitt refuses to hold these bureaucrats accountable, Pollitt is left with his current approach of slowly starving taxpayers of services until they might agree to repeal of the cap.

Pollitt, and readers, may argue that modifying the cap or replacing it with a rate cap is the answer.  It isn’t.  One need only look to the soon to be bankrupt state of California for evidence of this.  Thanks to Prop 13 California has enjoyed a rate cap for over 25 years.  However, two things have occurred as surely as the sun rising in the east:

1. Tax bills have continued to climb due to rising assessments.
2. The government continues to grow spending at a rate faster than assessments rise.

Whenever you hear Pollitt, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, or Wicomico Councilman Bill McCain talk about a “structural deficit” that is what you are witnessing – government simply wants to spend more money than it has at its disposal.  Wicomico County government will never have enough money.  Whatever is available, the bureaucrats will want to spend more.

The meeting will be broadcast tomorrow or Thursday on PAC-14.  Watch it.  Then, think hard.  Do you want your tax bill (or rent) rising by 5%, 10% or more each year?  Do you want to watch county government continue to waste money each year?  If so, support repeal of the revenue cap..

If you want to see your tax dollars wisely spend, attend the public hearing on November 10th and demand that the county council make genuine, structural changes to the county government – AND that they demand the same from the WCBOE.

In the words of that great scholar Gomer Pyle, “SURPRISE! SURPRISE! SURPRISE!”.

The Maryland State Teachers Association (now traveling under the moniker “Maryland State Education Association”) has endorsed Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and Rep. Frank Kratovil for re-election.

Why would this, or any other supposedly non-partisan group, endorse these candidates over one year before the election?  Money.

We need to remember that the MSEA is no more about education than the United Auto Workers.  They are a union, plain and simple.  Their purpose is to get more teachers hired and negotiate higher pay for those teachers.  Their job is make sure that teachers can’t be fired for poor performance and to ensure that teachers’ work as little as possible.  That said, they are no more concerned with providing quality education than the UAW is with making sure that GM, Ford, and Chrysler build quality cars.

To do so, they need to tie themselves to Democrats.  Wait!  I thought that the MSEA was supposed to be non-partisan?

Today is Labor Day.  On Friday, while on the road attempting to earn a living, it seemed that every five minutes it was announced on the radio that Friday was the first “furlough” day for state employees.  Pretty interesting that it turned a three day weekend into a four day holiday.  However, it got me thinking …

If Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley was serious about saving the Maryland taxpayers a little of their hard earned cash, why does he have to “furlough” state workers at all.  He could have started by eliminating a few paid holidays.  Just think about it:

• Martin Luther King Day
• President’s Day
• Memorial Day
• Labor Day
• Columbus Day
• Veterans’ Day

Did I miss any?  There’s still Independence Day, Christmas Day and New Years Day that state employees could be paid for without having to work.

One thing that I know for sure, if the state can get its work done (I know, a BIG IF) while furloughing workers on regular work days, then the state has too many people on the payroll.  That’s common sense.  The state could really save some money by eliminating positions.

Another great way is to cut back on benefits.  How many sick days and personal days does the average state worker get?  Compare that to the private sector for starters.  They also get more as their seniority grows.  Think about it.  Do you have more relatives die with each year of service?

Of course, if ObamaCare (with public option) passes, all state workers should be placed on the public option.  It’s supposed to be so much cheaper, don’t you know.

In case you were wondering; no, I’m not being facetious.  I grew up in area dominated by federal workers.  I was always hearing people whine that “they should be paid comparably with the private sector”.  When asked if they would give up their retirement packages, benefits, and job security (inability to be fired) for a small bump in pay, they laughed.  Currently federal workers earn more than their private sector counterparts.  While I admittedly don’t know, I’d bet that state workers in Maryland fair near as well.  Yet, they produce nothing.  They create nothing.

If Martin O’Malley were serious about saving money, he would be cutting jobs while increasing service to the taxpayer.  Don’t think that it can be done?  Contact George Allen.  His team managed to do it while he was Virginia’s governor.  Ever since, Allen’s successors have been attempting to justify their growth of the state payroll.  Services sure haven’t gotten better.

Now I realize that we need government.  We need people to staff that government.  However, that does not mean that we can’t have a government that provides essential services in an efficient manner.  It surely doesn’t mean that public sector jobs are sacrosanct while the average taxpayer is fighting to pay his or her bills and handle an increasing tax burden.

The state’s payroll is only part of the answer.  Limiting state government to provide a climate for economic growth is another large part.  However, if the state limited itself, and was efficient at the services it did provide, the state’s payroll would shrink dramatically and  I’m willing to bey O’Malley would have a surplus – even under today’s tough economic conditions.

County officials learned one thing at Gov. Martin O’Malley’s address to the Maryland Association of Counties (MACO) – in a choice between the powerful teachers’ union (MSTA) and localities, the teachers union wins every time.  Light on applause, lighter on facts, and heavy on platitudes, O’Malley’s address provided little for county officials to plan for next years’ budgets.

Instead, they received a multitude of platitudes about the partnership of state and local governments weathering the tough storm of a national economic recession. O’Malley repeatedly expressed his appreciation for the partnership of local government during these “tough times,” “challenging times” and “important, transformative and difficult years.”

While O’Malley continues to cut aid to localities and raising taxes on consumers and business, the O’Malley approach to state government continues to dictate terms to localities from land use to their budgets:

Despite the professions by the Governor of a state-local partnership, local officials expressed concerns in closed-door meetings with the Governor over the manner in which he is dictating local government budget policy. O’Malley has carved out K-12 education as a priority area not to be cut. He has also rejected requested waivers from local government to defer “maintenance of effort” requirements that mandate increases in local funding to the county boards of education.

With a state increasingly dependent on the generosity of Uncle Sam, both in jobs and aid, O’Malley’s guitar playing approach to governance reminds us of Nero’s fiddling.

Remember last week when Gov. Martin O’Malley told us that he was saving Maryland taxpayers $12,000 by cancelling this year’s reception at the summer Maryland Association of Counties (MACO) meeting?  O’Malley just didn’t bother to tell us how much more or your money his administration would be throwing away at MACO.

According to the Maryland Senate GOP Caucus:

However, the media failed to report that the order to reduce participation levels was issued belatedly to have any meaningful effect.  Even though the Baltimore Sun editorialized such cutbacks were meaningful, O’Malley’s cutback was too little, too late – by the time the directive was issued, state agencies had already spent their state budget funds on hotel rooms, booths, freebies, crab feast tickets, etc.

I’m sure the counties will appreciate it.  These are the same county executives, council members and commissioners who have shilling for O’Malley’s wasteful spending and tax increases.  My own county executive, Rick Pollitt, has been right up front as a leading O’Malley shill.

While money gets wasted on little things like MACO, and helicopter rides to the Tawes Clam Bake, O’Malley continues to put the screws on county and municipal governments throughout the Old Line State.  The ultimate insult to taxpayers will come next year, when many (if not the vast majority) of the same county and municipal officials will be hawking for O’Malley’s re-election.

When Jim Ireton was running for mayor many folk asked how I could support a flaming liberal like Jim Ireton.  The answer was simple.  Jim Ireton never hid the fact that he was (to be kind) left of center.  Yet, like councilwoman Terry Cohen, Ireton professed a responsible approach to city government despite his spendthrift attitudes towards state and federal fiscal policy.  That said, Ireton doesn’t get a free pass for attacking average citizens in order to shill for “his friend”, Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-MD).

Appearing on Delmarva Talks with Bill Reddish this morning, Ireton ridiculed average citizens who gathered last week to share their concerns about ObamaCare with Kratovil at several town hall meetings.  Ireton accused voters of “having marching orders” and shouting down Kratovil.  Ireton specifically cited Kratovil’s meeting at Mardela Jr. / Sr. High School.  Here’s some video:

That older gentleman really was SCARY!  Wasn’t he?

If Ireton wants to use his office to shill for Kratovil, Obama and the DNC that’s his right.  Unfortunately, Ireton and his “advisors” need to learn how to read an election return.  Ireton seems to be under the mistaken impression that it was a group of college students and liberal yuppies that elected him mayor.  The numbers show otherwise.  He was put in office by the same people that usually dominate city elections – seniors and families, predominately homeowners.  These people care far more about crime, taxes, city services, and wasteful city spending than they do about hugging trees.  Those same people that are opposing ObamaCare are the same ones that put Ireton in office!

Given his lackluster performance to date, Ireton needs to focus on the issues that are important to those who elected him.  What is most disturbing to me is that Ireton refuses to adequately address those who are attacking him and his allies on council while believing that it’s OK to attack people who elected him.

It’s time for Ireton to realize that he was elected mayor of Salisbury.  Salisbury taxpayers are not paying him to promote the policies of Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, or Maryland governor Martin O’Malley.  He wasn’t elected to campaign for the re-election of Kratovil, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, or Gov. Martin O’Malley.  If he can’t forget his position as Democrat Central Committee member while attempting to perform his mayoral duties, perhaps Ireton should resign that post.