Down came the final curtain with a resounding thud

by David Grand
April 12, 2006

No, I'm not talking about a Broadway play that died on opening night, but about this year's session of the General Assembly, which drug on for 90 torturous days before the curtain mercifully descended.

Editorials will no doubt pan this year's performance with a vengeance, what with partisan politics, posturing and showboating dominating the session more than heretofore, and with  enough mudslinging to muddy the adjacent Severn River.  

But understandably so, since this an election year and the governor wanted to show voters that he was still their knight in shinning armor, who is deserving of remaining in the saddle for another term; while the Democrats wanted to show how tarnished his armor was, and why he should be toppled off his high horse.

The only theatrics, as such, was when the Republican senators left the senate floor to demonstrate their contempt for a bill revising state voting laws; and with senate clerks having to slide 15 bills the senate had rushed to pass by a set deadline under the bolted door of Ehrlich's legislative office. Hiding behind a locked door (like kids playing hide-and-seek) speaks poorly, not only of those directly involved in such boorish behavior, but the governor as well for not condemning it, instead of tacitly condoning it by his silence. (The attorney general put the kibosh to that locked-door gambit.)

From the opening gavel, the Democrat's battle plan was as transparent as water in a goldfish bowl, beginning with their overriding 17 vetoes from the 2005 session (and about half that many right before the session ended); plus killing nearly all of Ehrlich's proposals, except for his proposed investment of $15 million  to fund embryonic stem cell research.

But rare as it was for them to agree on anything, rarer still was our delegation deserting their leader for the first time to my recollection in opposing the bill. Miracle of miracles!

As in previous sessions, there was no tax relief for Marylanders, whose tax burden has grown like "Jack's Beanstalk" over the last four years, which when coupled with the forthcoming quantum leap in electric bills is enough to make a maggot puke. 

While Ehrlich boasts, that he'd turned the $4 billion deficit he inherited into a $2 billion surplus, Democrats claim "he should give credit to the taxpayers he got to pay for it," with revenues from increases in the property taxes ($781 million), corporate fees ($188 million), car registration fees ($519 million), toll fees ($298 million), and the flush tax ($155 million), which when added to other miscellaneous fees brings the four-year total to $3.1 billion, averaging out to $1,500 per household.

And his proposed budget for 2007 was (said the Democrats) "so large that it would leave $3 billion in deficits for the winner of the November election." But as they say, "figures often lie and liars figure."

There is, though, no disputing the fact, that having slots at the tracks (which didn't even come to a vote at this session) represents the best and expedient way for not only keeping the state's finances on an even keel, but for filling its coffers to overflowing with the revenues it'd produce. Last year alone, about $600 million was siphoned out of Maryland by states with slots at the tracks, termed "racinos."

However, the worst is yet to come, now that the Quaker State is gearing up to place 61,000 slots at 14 racetracks and free-standing sites by fall, which it estimates would generate $3 billion in revenues annually, and thereby allow property taxes to be sharply reduced.

Meanwhile, our legislative body remains (as it has for six sessions) unable (or unwilling) to reach a consensus on whether the state should have a "cash cow" of its own to milk. Even an ostrich doesn't bury his head that deep in the sand.