The end of the year and the beginning of the new year are times for top 10 lists of bests and worsts ? and goals for the 365 days ahead. In the spirit of the tradition, we offer a top 10 priority list for our freshly-elected state delegates and senators to mull over in the waning days before the next legislative session opens.
These are priorities The Examiner will advocate and follow on your behalf in the coming year. They are also goals to which we will hold representatives accountable in our editorial pages.
1) Pass real health care reform, with Massachusetts as a model starting point.
2) Overhaul pension benefits for state employees, shifting from a defined benefit to a defined contribution plan for all new employees ? like vast majority of private sector workers.
3) Create a merit pay program for public school teachers so that those who teach have a financialincentive to perform ? and stay ? in the classroom.
4) Allow school choice for those living in the worst districts so that parents may take their tax dollars to schools, public or private, that perform for their children.
5) Ban more gun laws until those that exist are enforced.
6) Cut taxes. Maryland, home to the third highest concentration of federal workers, needs to attract more quality private business and, ideally, private business that has more than different levels of government as customers.
7) Limit state spending to estimated revenue ? the same way citizens run their households.
8) Limit state legislative terms. A few more citizen legislators in Annapolis could only make our so-called servants more representative of We the People.
9) Dissolve the state Liquor License Board. Its structure promotes employee and citizen fraud, and its rules violate Baltimore City citizens? right to “the pursuit of happiness” by denying them the ability to open a bar without first purchasing a license from one closing.
10) Pass legislation requiring all elected officials to take a college-level economics class at least once every four years. Today?s competitive business climate rewards ? sometimes even requires ? advanced degrees. If that is the case, shouldn?t be important for our elected representatives to understand how taxes and regulation impact the economy? An economics class would have helped legislators in 1999 understand the meaning of “deregulation” and will today enlighten General Assembly members, who are short on entrepreneurs and those familiar with making a payroll, on basic fiscal truths.
