Counting down the 14 days till their Nov. 7 face-off, Gov. Robert Ehrlich and Baltimore Mayor Martin O?Malley revved up their rhetoric Tuesday, attacking each other?s record on taxes, fiscal management and transportation.
At the New Carrollton Metro Station in Prince George?s County, O?Malley unveiled a statewide transportation plan with familiar themes. He promised more mass transit and traffic congestion relief, while accusing Ehrlich of raiding $300 million from the transportation trust fund.
O?Malley promised to audit the fund, but put no price tag on his pledges to improve rail and bus service and increase road projects around the state. He has repeatedly said the rest of the state suffered from emphasis on the InterCounty Connector highway between Rockville and Laurel.
At the Bass Pro outdoor store in Arundel Mills, whose manager praised Ehrlich for opposing a sale tax hike, the governor touted his own record of turning deficits into surpluses, increasing education funding, blocking tax hikes that were mostly killed in General Assembly committees and reducing the state bureaucracy.
By opposing tax hikes, Ehrlich said he, not O?Malley, was the true champion of “working families,” citing a long list of “burdensome taxes on working families” that O?Malley imposed. These included higher city income taxes, a new energy tax and a cell phone tax.
O?Malley?s campaign shot back with a list of “$3 billion” in taxes, fees and tolls raised by the Ehrlich administration.
There are ironies in some of the charges and countercharges. O?Malley faults Ehrlich for raising vehicle registration fees by $900 million, which the governor said helped fund 123 new road projects around the state. Much of ICC is paid for by tolls and bonds based on future federal funding.
The mayor also faults Ehrlich for the $400 million “flush tax” he said turned into “a handout for developers.” But while some plants are being expanded on the Eastern Shore, allowing more development, a much larger portion of the money is going to clean up nitrogen in sewage treatment plants run by Baltimore City.
Ehrlich faults the mayor for raising water and sewer fees in the city, but that was much like his own flush tax, done to clean up the city?s decrepit sewer system that was helping pollute the Chesapeake Bay.
