Annapolis TODAY

 

Money!  Money!  Spend More Money!

 Commentary on the News by Dr. Terry McGuire

 

Shakespeare would have loved Annapolis.  He would have soon recognized the town ripe for material for his plays.  I can see him placing a warning sign on Rowe Boulevard in front of the State House that says the following:  “Beware!  Beware!  You are approaching a danger zone!  The Maryland Legislature is known to be detrimental to your financial health!”   And his Macbeth witches would abandon their old mantra of “Double, Double, Toil and Trouble for Money, Money, Spend More Money!”

The most recent example of spending more money is the $29 million expansion of the House of Delegates building that was approved at the June 9^th meeting of the Board of Public Works.  There are three members on the Board.  Comptroller William Donald Schaefer and Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp voted to approve the money, while Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. voted against it.  How convenient!  Gimme a break!  Does anyone believe he didn’t know it was going to pass?  Money!  Money!  Spend more Money!

This is simply another example of the unlimited expansion of Government that seems to have taken a life on itself, like an uncontrolled virus.  A better thought would be to reduce the size of the Legislature itself, and have fewer elected officials.  That way, there would be fewer chances that they would spend more money.

What makes this even worse is the enormous amount of money that the Thornton Plan is about to take from the Maryland taxpayers.  It even includes mandated all day kindergarten, which is simply a backdoor for a state mandated daycare program.  At least, Senator Roy Dyson is fighting to allow counties to opt out of this portion of the law.

A recent report by Dr. Eleanor Stewart published by the Maryland Taxpayers Association, Inc. compares spending with student achievement trends.  She states, “What emerges is a picture of state school spending that has dramatically risen over a period of study, but with little or no accompanying improvement in student achievement.  It appears that increasing public school spending without major structural reforms has netted little gain for Maryland families and their children.”

In the same report, George Liebman, Executive Director of the Calvert Institute for Policy Research, is quoted saying, “Thornton unaltered is the worst thing that can happen to education.  The five-year Thornton program which would enhance Maryland’s public school appropriations by $1.3 billion is a big mistake.”

It seems to me that there was a rush to judgment when the Thornton plan was passed during the end days of the Glendening administration.  It should have seen more public debate before the Maryland Legislature burdened the taxpayers with it, and it definitely should have been tied to structural reforms.  The problem is that it is now law.

However, that does not excuse the Republicans.  In the recent session, the Ehrlich administration passed a number of taxes that he called fees.  It is just another example of the witch’s mantra:  Money!  Money!  Spend More Money!