It?s showtime for Martin O?Malley. When the governor comes to the podium tonight to address the 188 members of the General Assembly, his soliloquy raises the curtain on the second act of the make-or-break performance of his first term.
He will have lost a huge gamble if he fails to bring a majority of the audience to its feet by the end of the special session for most of his proposed tax hikes, tax breaks, slots and new programs he laid out in the first act over the last month. If bad reviews greet his performance, he will have learned that there are limits to the authority of even one of the most constitutionally powerful chief executives in the nation. The General Assembly is routinely all too happy to establish those limits for a new governor.
For O?Malley to be even partially successful with so many possible roadblocks to victory will be an achievement. He needs at least $1 billion in new revenues to make his budget plan come close to working.
A stellar performance in part or in whole has its pitfalls as well. In the minds of conservatives, he will have defined himself as the tax-and-spend Democrat that Republicans always insisted he was. Whether that label sticks depends on how Maryland residents ultimately react to the deficit-busting plan. Will 80 percent of them really pay less? If they don?t smoke, rent, drive a big car or get massages, that may be true.
Whatever the outcome, the deliberate caution O?Malley scripted for himself in his first nine months has been tossed aside for bold action. It is a bit of drama in which the climactic scenes remain in doubt.
Crowd scenes
Unbidden by the governor, the second act of this improvisational theater will include crowd scenes of sometimes unfriendly extras such as the Republican anti-tax rally called this afternoon for Lawyer?s Mall between the governor?s residence and the State House. Lawyer?s Mall will be the staging ground for other rallies, pro and con, throughout this week of long, intensive hearings.
Republicans legislative staffers are cooking up Halloween themes for Wednesday. Who will dress up as a tanning booth or a massage therapist to represent those newly taxed services? Will O?Malley be portrayed as Freddy Krueger, Dracula or the Grinch Who Stole Christmas? Will trick-or-treaters have to fork over some of their candy to the governor?
To slot or not to slot
There is some Hamlet-like ambivalence about the governor?s position to slot or not to slot. “Compromise is not a dirty word,” he has often said as a candidate and governor, in contrast to what he considered the combative approach of Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich.
On slot machine gambling, he has had to compromise not just with House and Senate leaders, but with his own past positions. In 2003 in a WBAL radio interview, he said: “It?s embarrassing to me that one of the wealthiest states in America would seek to solve its fiscal problems with a gambling gimmick that disproportionately targets poor people. That?s the very definition of regressive.”
But in the same interview, he said: “I?m not opposed to some slots at the tracks so that we don?t lose the racing industry.”
“A limited number of slots at racetracks” was his regular position, until September.
On Friday, he released his plan calling for as many 15,000 slots, only half of them at racetracks. That evening, he haltingly admitted to reporters: “I would have, you know, preferred” to put the slots at Pimlico racetrack, not the downtown site Mayor Sheila Dixon proposed.
O?Malley and his top staff were reportedly stillsearching for consensus Friday afternoon, which explains why the plan was not released till 7 p.m. All of the leaders have had to “mutually yield and find a consensus,” O?Malley said, now leading the charge for slots.
“We?ll let the people decide,” he said.
The Week Ahead
For a full description of the week ahead in Annapolis, see the governor?s Web site at www.gov.state.md.us/special2007.asp. The page contains not only the hearing schedule and how to testify, but all the bills and the background material the governor has submitted before.
Tuesday, three committees begin hearing an overview of the governor?s “budget solution,” as the tax changes are called, and his “cost-of-delay” budget ? the deep cuts to education, health care and other services he is threatening if he doesn?t get his revenue increases.
Len Lazarick can be reached at [email protected].
