Absolutely nothing is special about the legislative session Gov. Martin O?Malley called in time for Halloween. In fact, this is just the same old traditional reflex response of government to its own profligacy and incompetence: Avoid good management by shoving government?s hand deeper into our pockets.
So instead of calling this farce a “special” session, why don?t we all just be honest and call it a “more-of-the-same” session. More of the traditional policy: Surrender our money or lose our property and go to prison.
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Compounding farce with folly is the effort of our overlords to call this $1.7 billion deficit “structural,” as in, well … what exactly?
They aren?t responsible for it? There?s nothing they can do about it? They found it when they got to Annapolis after a summer at the beach and it was all fouled up already?
Structural? Hey, Gov. O?Malley, structure this: It?s our money, not your money. Give it back to us.
Of course, asusual, traditional government response to calls for responsibility is to cut the most vulnerable among us in retribution.
We shall witness them targeting every program for needy children, indigent elderly, disabled veterans and environmental protection.
Rank-and-file police, prison, fire, health care and other essential public safety personnel who do the real work of government will be next to find their necks on the block.
Then roads, public transportation and anything else that can inflict the most pain on the greatest number of taxpayers.
We want cuts? Yeah, they?ll give us cuts. Right where it hurts.
Untouched will be giveaways to campaign contributors, government jobs whose absence no one would notice, self-indulgent travel and perks for themselves, high-pay drone positions for cronies and the general waste and inefficiency at which government excels.
It?s easy to argue effectively about one-term Gov. Robert Ehrlich?s true tightness, but at least he tried.
His last budget, which we?re living through now, led the cover with: “f iscal responsibility.” It put “saving for the future” and “returning money to Maryland taxpayers” as priorities No. 1 and No. 2.
Why not break with tradition and call a truly special session for the sole purpose of lowering taxes? That would be historic.
Why not gather lawmakers to comb through state expenses in detail, line by line, department by department, job by job, employee by employee, contract by contract, program by program, and eliminate weak, ineffective, low-performing and redundant expenses.
Go ahead, leaders, tell us why you are not doing that? We know why. Because it?s easier for you to raise taxes and force us to pay them.
Well, here?s an alternative: Just make taxes voluntary. Then you would have to earn your keep through performance the way the rest of us do.
Now that would be special.
