House Republicans Oppose Special Session on Gaming

Annapolis – House Minority Leader Anthony O’Donnell and Minority Whip Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio today sent a letter to Speaker of the House Michael E. Busch expressing the Caucus’ opposition to a Special Session to deal with gaming legislation.

“With annual 90-day sessions, it is our view that Special Sessions should only be called in times of true, rather than contrived, crisis”, reads the letter. “We do not see any crisis or emergency that would necessitate a Special Session, nor has any reason been given why this must be done now. Holding the debate until the regular session in 2013 may delay the question going to the voters until the 2014 election, but it will give legislators and voters alike the time to consider the issue thoughtfully.  No matter where one stands on the issue, the question of whether or not to expand gaming in Maryland deserves a full and thoughtful vetting through the regular legislative process.”

The letter was hand delivered to the Speaker’s office this morning.  Copies were also sent to Senate President Mike Miller and Governor O’Malley. The full text of the letter is available here.

A Special Session Is No Fix for Maryland Budget Woes

Governor O’Malley is poised to call the General Assembly into special session with the express intent to raise taxes.  The so-called “Doomsday Budget” that passed in the regular session a few weeks ago has been hailed as a “disaster” by some.  In reality, the budget actually increases spending over last year by 2 percent or $700 million.  This hardly constitutes drastic cuts and only in Maryland would such a budget increase, in the worst economy in 75 years, be considered a doomsday scenario.

This year’s budget fiasco is only the tip of the iceberg.  Maryland did not just wake up to a spending crisis.  In 1985, the state’s annual operating budget was $6.9 billion.  In 2012 it stood at $34.7 billion, an average increase of 5% each year.  After years of significant tax and fee increases, continuous raiding of dedicated funds, increasing the fiscal burdens of local governments, and excessive borrowing, we still can’t seem to pay the state’s bills.

How did such out-of -control spending become the norm?  After all, there is a Spending Affordability Committee (SAC) to “limit the rate of growth of State spending to a level that does not exceed the rate of growth of the State’s economy”.  In reality, the SAC is not at all effective in limiting spending in state government to that level.  Over the last several years of a dramatically declining economy the state’s spending has continued to increase at a rate not reflective of the economic downturn.   The SAC was first implemented in 1983.

The SAC process is nothing more than a feel-good measure, a gold star that Maryland’s leaders give themselves under the guise of fiscal prudence.  The process is a scripted show that plays out the same way every December, when SAC offers its recommendations.  A list of options are given, the proposal that appears the most moderate is selected (even though it generally expands spending to unsustainable rates), and any discussion of truly reigning in spending is met with a level of melodramatic zealous rhetoric usually utilized by those heralding the end of the world.

But you don’t have to take our word for it; leading non-partisan policy research organizations are also acknowledging the failure of Maryland’s SAC process.  In “The Appearance of Fiscal Prudence,” Eileen Norcross, lead researcher for the State and Local Policy Project at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and Mercatus Masters Fellow Benjamin J. Vanmetre, examine the 2010 recommendation by the SAC.  They go on to document the SAC’s ongoing inability to rein in spending, criticize the process and call for fundamental reform that limits spending to the objective measures of inflation and population growth.  The full report can be viewed at www.marylandjournal.org/publications/detail/the-appearance-of-fiscal-prudence.

We agree that the SAC process should be reformed because it is doing absolutely nothing to control spending to affordable and sustainable levels in its current configuration.  In many ways the SAC process is akin to allowing a repeat drunk driver to determine their own blood alcohol level.  The result has been a disaster and the only thing we have to show for the SAC’s efforts are consistent tax and fee increases and spending that is not supportable by the state’s economic realities.  The recommendation process of the SAC should be completed several months earlier than it currently is to be considered in early budget drafts.  We also agree that it should be tied to the rate of inflation and population growth.

Unless we fix the root cause of the problem, namely spending beyond our means, we will continue to see an endless cycle of expenditure increases not sustained by the state’s economy.  This is then followed by threatened budget cuts and inevitably tax increases clamored for by special interests.  These tax increases further damage the state’s economy.  This cycle will continue to repeat itself unless corrected by significant spending affordability reforms.

The Legislature should take a breather, live with the budget just passed in April, and begin the 2013 session with a new sense of purpose in January.  The next session of the General Assembly should be dedicated to truly bringing spending under control.  A priority should be to fix the SAC with a more effective process that truly protects Maryland’s priorities in the future.  It is time for realism to regain its place of honor in Annapolis.

Delegate Anthony O’Donnell, House Minority Leader and  Delegate Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio, House Minority Whip

 

House Republicans Shed Light on “Doomsday Budget” Discuss the Possibility of a Tax-Laden Special Session

Annapolis – House Republicans today shed light on what many have called the “Doomsday Budget” that passed last week in the final hours of the 2012 Legislative Session.

“For all the hand wringing and wailing that we’re seeing in the media, the bottom line is spending in this budget increases by nearly $700 million over last year” said House Minority Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell. “It was not a budget that we would have crafted, but it is does not demand a Special Session.”

According to the Department of Legislative Services, even with the cuts included in the “Doomsday Budget”, total state spending still increases by nearly $700 million over last year. Total state spending in FY 2012 was $34.7 billion, in FY 2013 total spending increased to $35.4 billion.

“When you look at the numbers it seems that ‘doomsday’ is certainly in the eye of the beholder,” said Delegate Kelly Schulz. “While cuts to education have been making headlines, the reality is they’re basically level-funded in FY 2013, and still receiving more than FY 2012.  While interest groups like MSEA are making hysterical cries for a Special Session to increase taxes, we think after years of record education funding, the taxpayers deserve a break.”

“Our caucus offered a well thought-out plan that reduced the budget and avoided tax increases but it was solidly rejected on party lines”, said House Minority Whip Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio. “Now we have the Democratic majority’s budget that was haphazardly crafted as a coercion tool for tax hikes – it was a bluff to force their more reluctant members to vote for tax increases. This scheme backfired and now they want a do-over.”

In fact, a special session could be quite a costly “do-over” for taxpayers. When the legislature convened for a tax-raising special session in 2007, it cost taxpayers over $20,000 per day and lasted several weeks.

“With today being the Tax Day deadline, it is important to keep in mind that nearly $3 billion in new and increased taxes proposed in the 2012 Session, said Delegate Mark Fisher. “While polling showed that 96% of Marylanders felt they paid enough taxes, Governor O’Malley and the Democratic majority were still positioning themselves to take more. The fact that Maryland’s taxpayers made it through the session with very few of those taxes passing borderlines on miraculous.”

“Even in the final days of the 2012 Session Governor O’Malley was still pushing for a gas tax increase and even floated the idea of another sales tax increase, said Delegate Haddaway-Riccio.  “This ‘Doomsday Budget’ is a contrived crisis to give them another bite at the tax apple. We do not need a special session that allows the tax-hungry General Assembly to make another grab for Marylander’s wallets.”

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House Republicans Issue “2-Minute Warning”

With the clock running down on the 2012 Session of the Maryland General Assembly, House Republicans today called on their colleagues to reject tax hikes and other expensive measures that the citizens of Maryland cannot afford.

 “As we move into the last hours of session many issues are unresolved, particularly in the area of tax increases”, said House Minority Whip Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio.  “With the budget bill and related tax legislation in conference committee the General Assembly still has a chance to make changes.  There is still an opportunity to protect the citizens of Maryland from massive tax hikes.”

Taxes are not the only unresolved issue as the General Assembly heads into its final weekend.  The Governor’s costly off-shore wind bill has not made it through the Senate.

 “We are in those last few days of session where chaos reigns supreme”, said House Minority Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell.  “As a body the General Assembly needs take a step back and look at the damage we could do by passing these costly measures.  There is still time to say no.”

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O’Donnell & Haddaway-Riccio: Democrats’ Tax-and-Spend Ways Hurt Marylanders

Governor O’Malley and Democratic leaders in the Generally Assembly are so disconnected from the needs and struggles of Maryland’s citizens that it is truly disturbing.

There is no clearer example of this disconnect than the millions of dollars in higher taxes they are ready to foist onto the citizens of Maryland. In the House of Delegates alone, there have been nearly $3 billion in new and higher taxes proposed, including more than $600 million in proposals from the O’Malley/Brown Administration and their cabinet heads. Perhaps they know that if they throw enough taxes at the wall, eventually something will stick. But no matter what the final total is, it will be much more than many of our citizens can afford.

Consider the following. Personal income in Maryland is still in a downward trend, even lower than the national average. Unemployment has improved slightly over the last few months, but there are still thousands of Marylanders unemployed or underemployed.

While our proximity to Washington DC has sheltered our state from the worst of the economic downturn, the unavoidable reductions in federal spending will have a devastating impact to our state. What little growth there has been in the US economy has been slow, and a double-dip recession is still a possibility. Additionally, if the Supreme Court upholds Obamacare, Marylanders will be on the hook for millions upon millions of additional costs.

We take no joy in any of these facts, and we wish that things were not this way. But, these are the realities that our citizens live with every day and it is our duty as elected leaders to make decisions based on these realities not a rose-colored idealistic view of what we hope for.

Multiple times over the last several years the Democratic leadership has pushed for a package of tax and fee hikes, promising they will solve the structural deficit and balance our budget without harming our citizens or economy. They push through these hikes only to turn around a year or so later making the same promises about another package of tax increases. The public trust is gone because the citizens of Maryland have caught on to this spend-and-tax scheme. Our citizens have seen and suffered because of the audacity of the Democratic leadership who raid funds and then make our citizens replenish them not once, but twice and in some cases three times.

The O’Malley/Brown Administration and the Democratic leadership have become so arrogant in their tax frenzy that they ignore the protests of our citizens and run roughshod over the objections of blue-dog Democrats in their own caucuses. While the O’Malley/Brown Administration and the Democratic majority in the House and Senate seem unable or unwilling to face Maryland’s fiscal realities, not all Democrats in Annapolis share this problem.

Even Comptroller Franchot has joined us in our fight against higher taxes. Having the benefit of independence from the group-think mentality that rules over the Democratic majority in the General Assembly, Comptroller Franchot has discovered what we in the House Republican Caucus have known for some time; that the high tax climate of the O’Malley-Brown Administration is making matters worse, rather than better and that another round of tax increases is the worst possible thing for our citizens.

What is most troubling about all of these tax increases and new cost-laden programs is the knowledge that their intent is not to make things better for the citizens of Maryland but rather to build Governor O’Malley’s political résumé. Fond of saying “the most important job we create is the next one”, the Governor’s personal mantra seems to be “the most important office I run for is the next one”.

We’ve see it all before. When he was on the city council he was positioning himself to run for mayor. When he became mayor he began positioning himself to run for Governor. Now it seems he has his heart set on a national office. This explains his urgent push for Maryland to be one of the first states to enact Obamacare. This is also the reason behind his fevered push for wind energy and his push for mass transit.

At the end of his term Governor O’Malley will leave office on a course for the next big thing, but it will be at the expense the citizens of Maryland who will be paying for his bad policies for decades to come.

The Minority Report “The State Budget”

House Republicans Shoot Down Hunting Fee Hikes

Annapolis – During yesterday’s session of the Maryland House of Delegates, the House Republican Caucus led a successful effort to kill HB 1419, legislation that would have drastically increased fees for hunting licenses and stamps.

“I am pleased that our colleagues on the both sides of the aisle were able to appreciate the impact this bill would have had to rural areas, said Minority Whip Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio who spoke against the bill during the debate. “Many people in rural areas rely on hunting season to feed their families and the increases in this bill would have been devastating to them.”

While smaller than the increases originally floated by the Department of Natural Resources who requested the bill, HB 1419 would have increased hunting license fees 63% and trapping fees by 96%. The bill creates a $40 deer stamp, increases the Migratory Game Bird Stamp 33%, and creates several new stamps.

“With all of the taxes hikes and fee increases the House of Delegates has foisted on to Maryland’s citizens over the last few days, I am relieved that they found one they could say no to”, said Minority Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell. “I am glad the House listened to our caucus members who spoke so passionately against the bill.”

In a chamber that holds the committee process sacred, a bill’s failure on the floor is a rarity in Maryland’s House of Delegates. Under the House Rules, a bill can be reconsidered and brought up for another vote within a small window of time. But with today’s adjournment of the House of Delegates, that window has closed and the bill is dead for the year.