4/8/07

It's 1973 All Over Again

Two days ago, while discussing business, or lack there of, lumber broker Tom Minnick stated that these times seem to be much like 1973.

The Iranian hostage process has repeated itself with Great Britain capitulating before the crazed Iranian leadership. Our oil companies took little time in driving prices at the fuel pumps up once again. While the world suffers, these greedy corporations reap windfall profits.

The downturn of the real estate market coupled with escalating fuel prices shows that history does repeat itself. Be prepared to witness a return of the Carter Years as the leadership in Washington D.C. stalemates over key initiatives to strengthen America.

This year has been one of the most difficult St. Mary’s County budget cycles in the nine years that I have been in office.

We have had to trim nearly twenty million dollars in additional requests while finding the dollars to fund the Federal requirements for County, Board of Ed, and Library post employment benefits that accounted for seven and a half million dollars. Add to the tally, a million and a half dollars to open the new charter school while the actual existing funding has grown less than two percent from last year.