Maryland Senate Republican Slate
No New Tax Hike South of the Border
Virginia’s voters showed pretty good timing in last fall’s elections.
Outgoing Democrat Governor Tim Kaine submitted a budget proposal to the General Assembly that was balanced by a minimum 17% increase on state tax rates for personal income.
After his swearing-in ceremony on January 16, 2010, Governor Robert F. McDonnell established a truly bipartisan process to identify an additional $2.3 billion in spending reductions in order to reject the Democrat tax hike proposal.
McDonnell has balanced the state budget without raising taxes in Virginia. His message about making difficult choices but still being responsible to taxpayers of the state offers another stark contrast to Governor Martin O'Malley.
Moreover, McDonnell has expressed a pro-business agenda this session: “a top priority of government must be strengthening the free enterprise system and helping the private sector create jobs to get our economy back on track.”
To read McDonnell's commentary on the budget process published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, click here.
How MD Dems Reward Unions
Here’s a good question: You are a small business owner. You run a home day care business located at your own private residence. Your only employee is yourself. You try to help out some of the less privileged in your community, so you accept “purchase of care” state subsidies for one impoverished family in your neighborhood. Under these circumstances, do you feel the need to belong to a union?
Whether you feel the need or not, Governor Martin O’Malley has decided that you are now required to be a card-carrying union member. Under a 2007 Executive Order, your union participation is mandatory and this past fall he selected Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 500 to hold the exclusive rights to represent you under state collective bargaining. Now the General Assembly is considering legislation that would allow Local 500 to require all of these home day care workers to pay mandatory union dues.
With the loss of an industrial base in the United States, unions have seen steeply declining membership in the manufacturing trades. Democrats are fearful that this will result in a correspondingly significant decline in campaign contributions and election organizers from unions. So Democrat legislators have worked to boost new arenas of union membership in the current strongholds of elementary and secondary school teachers, higher education, public safety, hospitals and other service industries.
O’Malley and the one-party monopoly in Annapolis has been at the forefront in passing pro-union legislation for collective bargaining and mandatory dues for a wide-ranging assortment of public and non-public employees.
But is this going too far - entering private residences to force day care providers to unionize and pay mandatory dues? Marta Hummel Mossburg of the Maryland Public Policy Institute explores this topic in commentary published in the Frederick News-Post. To read her op-ed entitled “Union Power Grab,” click here.
Don't Count Your Budgetary Chickens Before They Hatch
Governor Martin O'Malley rolled out his FY11 state budget in January claiming to have balanced the budget with federal stimulus funds and one-time fund swaps to erase his $2 billion deficit. Upon closer inspection, however, legislators realized that O'Malley's balancing act includes almost $400 million of federal Medicaid funds that have not been appropriated.
Last week, Congressman Steny Hoyer spoke from the State Senate rostrum and advised the legislators to develop a Plan B for that $400 million. Nice trick by O'Malley - now that the General Assembly has the budget, it is their job to cover his phantom $400 million.
Read more: Don't Count Your Budgetary Chickens Before They Hatch
Senator Brinkley Gives Testimony on his Budget Bill.
Read more: Senator Brinkley Gives Testimony on his Budget Bill.
Senator Reilly Attacks Budget Deficit
In only his first legislative session, Senator Edward R. Reilly (R-Anne Arundel County-District 33) is taking on the budget chaos in Annapolis with a proposal to address ongoing state spending to reduce out-year deficits. Senator Reilly was appointed last year to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Senator Janet Greenip.
Using his seven years of experience in county government, Reilly has introduced Senate Bill 840 - Budget Reduction Act. Senator Reilly stated, “of all the issues that face our State, none is more important than addressing the state’s troubling budget picture. For this reason, I am making this my primary 2010 legislative priority.”
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