Ehrlich: ‘I told you so'
Ehrlich: ‘I told you so'
Gazette.Net
by Blair Lee
Friday March 25 2011
Defeated gubernatorial candidate Bob Ehrlich (R) is off to Washington working for a big-time law firm, hobnobbing with his friends in the Republican Congress and auditioning as a national media "talking head."
Which only proves poet George Herbert's axiom, "Living well is the best revenge." But a close second is being able to say, "I told you so."
Tax 'n' spend
Ehrlich warned that Maryland's ongoing, one-party, tax 'n' spend culture would result in more spending fueled by more taxes.
Sure enough, the budget emerging from Annapolis increases this year's spending by 10.6 percent ($1.4 billion) while leaving next year's projected spending $1 billion beyond projected revenues (the structural deficit).
Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) and the General Assembly balance this year's budget by cutting state aid to the counties, raiding reserve accounts, robbing transportation and environmental funds, borrowing into the future at historic levels, relying on accounting gimmicks and raising taxes.
Oops, did I say taxes ? The Democrats say they aren't raising taxes, just fees. When Gov. Ehrlich raised fees, O'Malley and the media called them taxes. (Remember O'Malley's "fees are really taxes" TV ads ?) But now, when the Democrats raise fees, they're just fees, not taxes.
Same thing happened with slots. Ehrlich's slots were evil; O'Malley's slots are "an investment in our future." Likewise, O'Malley excoriated Ehrlich for raiding transportation and environmental funds, then did the same after he became governor.
This year's new taxes (fees) include a $260 million tax on hospitals that you'll see in your health insurance premiums, the doubling of vehicle title and property recordation fees, hikes in MARC and Metro fares and a 50 percent sales tax raise (6 percent to 9 percent) on alcoholic beverages.
A 5-cent plastic bag tax is also working its way through the legislature and, possibly, a $1 to $9 per month "wind tax" on your energy bills to finance O'Malley's $1.5 billion offshore windmill farm. A 10 cent-per-gallon gasoline tax increase is stalled only because, facing $4-per-gallon pump prices, lawmakers aren't suicidal.
O'Malley crows about "leading Maryland forward by making tough choices." But balancing your budget by screwing local governments (cutting state aid), screwing our grandchildren (borrowing beyond future debt limits) and screwing the legislature (leaving the tax hikes to them) isn't "making tough choices."
Can't have it all
During last year's campaign, Ehrlich said building the state's two light-rail projects ($2.5 billion) was unaffordable, as is the ongoing, mandated K-12 education spending.
Immediately, Montgomery and Prince George's county executives slammed Ehrlich as anti-mass transit and anti-kids, while O'Malley vowed to build the light-rail projects and continue education spending. Yes, we can party like it's 2005!
Yet this year, O'Malley and those two county executives are, themselves, cutting education spending while light-rail's future looks unpromising.
Maryland's transportation fund is empty (O'Malley looted $2 billion), Metro is falling apart, our roads and bridges badly need repair (46 percent of Baltimore-area roads rated "poor," with 31 percent in the D.C. area) and the tea party U.S. Congress is cutting mass transit aid. The light-rail cult is colliding with the realization that there's no room for two more low-ridership, operating-deficit mass transit projects.
‘Jobs across Maryland'
O'Malley ran as the "Jobs governor," dubbing his taxpayer-financed re-election campaign "Jobs across Maryland," while taking credit for the 25,000 new jobs created in Maryland during 2010. But now the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us that those 25,000 new jobs were really only 4,500 new jobs (sorry Bob, must have been an election-year miscalculation).
Meanwhile in January, Maryland lost 7,100 more jobs, the fifth-largest drop in the nation. Today there are 110,000 fewer jobs in Maryland than three years ago. O'Malley should have called his re-election campaign: "Snow Job across Maryland."
The anti-business state
Ehrlich warned that economic recovery and job creation depend on business expansion. As governor, he'd reverse Maryland's business-unfriendly reputation, over-regulation and overtaxation. If the Democrats won, he predicted, business would continue as the State House whipping boy.
Sure enough, preening for future national office, O'Malley reverted from "Jobs governor" to "Labor governor" and "Green governor." For instance, he wants to ban septic tanks in developments of more than five homes (i.e., all developments) because they cause nitrogen runoff into the Bay.
This would kill Maryland's already-crippled housing industry, but O'Malley testified, to general astonishment, that now is a good time for the septic ban given the lull in housing starts. Huh ?
Meanwhile, the legislature's anti-business proposals include a ban on employers using background credit checks on job seekers, a bill requiring employers to notify any employees who are eligible for earned income tax credits (even though employers have no way of knowing who's eligible) and a "sunset" on all the state's business tax credits.
Every five years the state's 29 business tax credits, worth $3.7 billion, will terminate unless reauthorized by the legislature. These credits include enterprise zones, bio tech, job creation, disability hiring, green buildings and others. So, businesses lured to Maryland by such credits couldn't rely on their reauthorization.
Just imagine the outcry if Maryland's education, welfare, Medicaid, stem cell and social spending grants were terminated every five years subject to reauthorization ?
Last year, Maryland's voters ignored Bob Ehrlich. Now they're stuck with the mess that he predicated and that they deserve.
LINK:
http://www.gazette.net/stories/03252011/polilee200028_32547.php