The “business friendly” policies of Maryland’s current governor are killing the rest of us. A governor who cancels the regulation requiring agribusiness poultry facilities to contain their runoff is running a campaign ad that says people criticized him for trying to protect the bay. I can’t imagine how the poultry runoff can be seen as anything but an attack on the health of the bay.
The “Wal-Mart bill” may be “bad for business,” as the governor’s spokesman said on WYPR, but why should the taxpayers pick up the health care bills for Wal-Mart’s employees?
What about the loophole that allows corporations doing business in Maryland to open a “holding company” in Delaware and skip out of paying their fair share of taxes? Who pays for the shortfall? The ordinary citizens of Maryland.
Ehrlich’s campaign ad claims he showed leadership on the BGE rate increase, but all he did was stage a publicity stunt. Who appointed the Public Service Commission that allowed a 72% rate hike without any kind of public hearing? We were presented with a fait accompli. All of the phased in interest rates are temporary and accompanied by a penalty. At least the legislature’s bill is not costing us as much as the other proposals, and we may even get a PSC that performs public service instead of doing the utility companies’ bidding.
We keep being told that our governor protected us from tax increases. We have had tax increases that go by other names but are coming out of our pockets nonetheless. Every time we have to renew our automobile license plates, we are paying one of Ehrlich’s tax increases, and that’s just one example.
I am one of the lucky people whose children have finished college, so I didn’t get hit by the cuts in higher education funds. Statistics show that when young people go out of state to school, they don’t come back to Maryland to pursue their careers. We can’t afford to lose them.
When I first moved to Baltimore, there were drug dealers hanging on my street corner, and I didn’t dare venture into the local park. Since Martin O’Malley became mayor, the gatherings on the corner have disappeared. The park is now a beautiful place full of families, especially on the weekends. It would have taken a miracle worker to get rid of the drugs, bring about a drastic reduction in homicides and pull the public school system up to the level of those in the more affluent counties such as Montgomery. Martin O’Malley isn’t a miracle worker, but the city has improved in all areas as a result of really hard work and attention to details such as cleaning up the grime to lower the crime. Our numbers are better, but-beyond that-people are showing their confidence in the city by moving here. Most of my neighbors are new, and the formerly empty houses have people living in them. I plan to stay in my adopted city.
I am making the case for Martin O’Malley as governor whenever and wherever I can.
