From the office of Sen. Nancy Jacobs:
Marylanders, hold on to your wallet. The Governor’s hand is reaching in once again! Martin O’Malley has just admitted he wants to raise taxes to solve our state’s projected billion dollar budget deficit. Why can’t O’Malley see the repeated failure of his logic? Putting a further financial burden on Marylanders already knocked out by the recession and punishing business is not the answer. Companies might just take their remaining jobs and move to Virginia where Republican Governor, Bob McDonnell is getting national attention for making his state even more business friendly. Not only that, Virginia has posted budget surpluses two years in a row.
Since taking office in 2010, Governor Bob McDonnell has totally reversed Virginia’s economic picture. When the Republican came into office he faced a 2.2 billion dollar shortfall left by his Democrat predecessor. But in less than two years, Virginians have seen surpluses and no taxes have been raised. The most recent savings top 545 million dollars. Yes, politically difficult decisions were made and the cuts were no doubt painful. But the poorest Virginians are still unharmed and business is thriving there. Virginia reports it has added 48,200 new jobs. CNBC recently ranked Virginia the “Best State for Business”.
During the same time period Maryland Democrats raised taxes and increased fees across the board. Needed cuts weren’t made. Perhaps that’s because they were too politically unpalatable to Democrats who worried they would alienate groups known to get out their vote. Now on top of it all, the federal government has pulled the teat on Maryland. Stimulus money is history and our state has lost 2300 government jobs, many of them federal. Predictions are as many as 150,000 federal jobs could disappear in here in the long run. The lack of foresight by state leaders now leaves us in a real bind.
Governor O’Malley needs to look south to Virginia for lessons on what really works and help bring Maryland back to prosperity. New taxes are clearly not the answer.
As a former Marylander, who moved over the line to PA, our new Republican governor and legislature moved to erase our budget deficit by making some tough cuts and ended up the year with a small surplus. The Democrats immediately wanted to spend, but the governor said no. Jobs have been created in our natural gas industry in the Marcellus shale, and they are helping our economy. Now we hear rumbles that PA may become a Right to Work State.
O’Malley is just like Obama; increase taxes, and in this depressing economy, it just doesn’t work. Pennsylvania has been voted #3 in the country as one of the best places for retirees to live. If you can’t abide living under the Democrats, just move across the line as thousands of Marylanders have already done. All you have to do is look at the PA plates pouring into Maryland each morning. People vote with their feet, and haven’t you people had enough. Leave Maryland to the welfare recipients and the liberals and move to VA or PA. You can still commute to work.
Cathy,
Good for you … Maryland voters are not the brightest and those who vote for these clowns deserve every cent they are taxed. Unfortunately, the many that voted for the likes of O’Malley, Busch, Miller, and other tax and spend libs pay little or no taxes (and benefit the most from these jokers). Too bad there is not a way for the rest of us (mostly taxpaying citizens outside certain jurisdictions) to be exempt from their antics. You guys in PA got rid of Rendel . . . smart move.
When will Maryland voters wake up?
When will Maryland voters wake up? If they haven’t by now, and they haven’t, then there is little hope.
The tax and spend dem/lib/progressives when confronted with lowering taxes all want to talk about schools and police and fire and the elderly and the sick and those who can’t work as if all of the money we pay and they spend goes only to them. It doesn’t, not by a long shot. That argument doesn’t fly anymore. Those in power in Maryland spend the money to make sure they stay in power. That’s why most of the money goes to Montgomery and Prince George’s and Baltimore City. And take a look at who the largest lobbyists are and more importantly who their clients are.
The wealthy who can leave the state are doing so. Those who can avoid the sales tax by shopping in PA and Delaware are doing so. The businesses that might consider coming to Maryland are not because Maryland is the least business friendly state in the area. The large employers who were here are now gone.
Tell me, you former United Auto Worker union members whose union always gave heavily to the Democratic machine, how goes it with you? Beth Steel workers? How did that work out for you? Eastern Stainless? Continental Can? Black & Decker?
Obviously the union had no involvement in the corporate decision to go overseas where the profit margin was higher because environmental protections and other inhibitions on mad wealth generation at the expense of working people and the environment.
It was a business decision. And when it comes time to take your job somewhere else that pays less they will appreciate your loyalty to their cause and your desire for fewer services, protection and lower taxes.
The union had no involvement? Hogwash!For years management warned the union that their demands were creating an untenable situation for the company that would end with labor pricing itself out of the market. The union didn’t heed the warning and priced themselves out of the market. The company is still in business and is buying the labor it needs elsewhere. The union laborers are not employed.
The unions representing Verizon labor should take heed. I don’t particularly care for Verizon as a company but the union members are in very grave danger of proicing themselves out of the market as well.
Once-a-month “bulk” shopping trips across the MD/DE line are becoming a regular occurrence for our family. We save money. We enjoy a “poor man’s” family outing. And as we cross the state line we all raise a hearty middle finger to “honor” Gov. O’Malley, Casa de Maryland, and the rest of O’Malley’s “den of thieves”.
Here is a good result of the O’Malley, Miller, Busch tax grab(for them anyway). If they raise the gas tax 50% and the tolls 50% and the tag and title fees by 50% no one will be able to afford to go to work. If they raise the sales tax another 20% and the booze tax again and the salty food and beverage tax we won’t be able to eat or drink. Then all of the citizens of the Peoples Republic of Maryland can become wards of the state, just like the Dems and O’Malley want. We’ll all get welfare, food stamps, section 8 or HUD housing, WIC, free breakfast, lunch & dinner @ school and the illegals can run things. Sounds like a liberal utopia to me.
The last time I crossed the state line I played the slots in Dover. I won a little and then went shopping for and bought a computer in Delaware (no state tax). Coincidently, I did the same thing crossing back into Maryland, the ole wave of the hand (and finger) to O’Malley, Miller, Busch, and the rest of the useless liberal tax and spend dems.
Now who could possibly give me a “thumbs down” for wanting to save money? I’m sure it is someone who supports O’Malley and his gang of thugs and surely one who benefits the most from tax and spend liberals.
Seems to me that most of the time you get a thumbs down around here without a reply it’s because you have affronted someone’s world view and though they don’t like what they’re reading, they can’t really articulate a reason you’re wrong.
But in this case, if I had to guess, it could be your crude behavior.
Sen. Jacobs is just repeating national Republican talking points about Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and his supposed accomplishments but – as often with the GOP – the facts tell another story. McDonnell’s illusionary “surplus” is the result of deferred bills, dismantled programs important to the middle class, budgetary obfuscation and federal stimulus spending. Rather than investing in Virginia’s future, McDonnell has slashed hundreds of millions of dollars from schools, colleges and universities, and cut funding by a third for EMTs, police officers and firefighters. No wonder Virginia has one of the worst track records on funding education and ranks 44th in job creation in 2011.
In Maryland, Governor O’Malley and Democrats have consistently chosen a balanced and adult approach that protects the priorities of middle-class families. Over the last five years, Governor O’Malley has cut $6.8 billion in spending, made record investments in public education and school construction, maintained affordable higher education and expanded healthcare coverage to more than 900,000 low-income, disabled and chronically ill children and adults.
Due to the tough decisions Governor O’Malley and Maryland Democrats have made, Maryland’s public schools are ranked number one in the nation, the crime rate is at a 36 year low, and nearly 14,000 jobs were created this year.
I would rather invest in the present so we have a future than raise taxes. If O’Malley cut $6.8 billion then explain how the total spend has gone up every year since he has been in office. Yes, that’s right, the total spend has increased. Curious. We spent more money but we cut spending. If we cut spending then we would have spent less.
Oh! You mean he has taxed and spent less than he would have otherwise planned on doing had we not started to catch on to his shenanigans. Now I get it. Less is actually more. Up is actually down. How silly I was to think that cutting spending was actually cutting the amount we spend.
“Maryland’s public schools are ranked number one in the nation….”
— I came up with MD ranked #20, according to the ALEC 2010 K-12 Report Card on American Education. Not bad, but also not #1.
“and nearly 14,000 jobs were created this year…”
— I came up with 8,312, as stated at the recovery_dot_gov website. Yet at govcentral_dot_monster_dot_com I came up with 66,000.
Funny thing about “statistics” is one can usually find or create numbers to suit their own need. Not saying your numbers are wrong, but the only way to know for sure is to go out and gather your own data points. And even at that, someone will still come along and poke holes in the data collected or number generated.
Might as well just face it…..the divide between those wanting to justify spending beyond our means and those calling for pulling back and dare I say….cutting spending…..is growing larger. It will come to a head in the not too distant future. I guess we’ll know more in 2012.
Only in America can we borrow money from a communist country to “spread democracy” and “build nations” in places we have no business being, to help support our “capitalist economy” (term used very loosely) so we can buy stuff from the communist country that is loaning us money in the first place. The state fiscal model is only a scaled-down version of that same beast, with different players.
@Alex R – much of government spending is “investing in the present” – police, fire, road crews (snow removal), water and sewer, etc. – it takes taxes to fund all of that. Again, what specifically are you for and against? Enough with the generalities!
That would be really easy to answer. I am for holding the line on taxes right where they are. Likewise fees, tolls and all revenue collected by Maryland including it’s counties, cities, towns, etc. Then I am specifically in favor of having the officials we have elected, and are paying, to figure out how to spend that fixed amount of income on what the citizens want. See, Joe, that, in my view, is their job. If we don’t like how they divide up the pie then we can elect someone else. If we do like it then we can vote for them again. But not another dime in new revenue. But we have allowed them to just vote new revenues to make the pie bigger so they can duck the hard decisions and also reward their contributors and also the companies and othjer interests, conservative and liberal, that have high paid lobbyists. I want taht to stop. I have listened for many years to politicians promising to cut spending but it never happens. So I have concluded specifically that I can;t trust them to keep their word. My next speficic step is to make them reallocate what they have responsibly by limiting what they have to work with. If you want to pay me to do the specific job you are already paying them to do then believe me I can do it.
@Joseph Smith – You expect taxpayers to stipulate that our tax money is being well spent. What makes you think this is the case?
Basically you want the status quo of uncontrollable and unaccountable spending to continue and the unbridled growth of government to persist.
ever notice that Nancy never has any good ideas to keep up with the services MD offers and the different areas of the state that have different interests. She alwsy seems to be a big blowhard and bash the other side or whomever is higher than her. maybe she should put forth a good effort and agree to not take any tax breaks or refunds, and to cut her taxpayer paid salary in half.
One More Former Student,
If you think Maryland is running really well then when you complete your tax return for Maryland (you do pay taxes in Maryland, right?) then why not add a little extra to what you pay them? I mean, when I see an organization serving people that I agree with (for example, Harford Family House) I send them a contribution. You could do the same for the State of Maryland. Really. Maybe an extra $100. MOM could use it.
Martin Obama are one in the same. Him and his cronies Bush and Miller are peas in a pod. Spend, spend, spend and then figure out where the money is coming from. Amazing how all the toll increases are going to the counties that elected them all. The whole state suffers because those welfare counties keep putting the 3 Amigos ( new Americans) in office. The rest of us can only hope that with the next election more eyes will be opened and we can rid ourselves of them.