Voters don’t often get a second chance to assess two candidates after observing both perform in office for four years. Marylanders thus have an unusual opportunity to compare the records of incumbent Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley and his immediate predecessor, former Republican Gov. Bob Ehrlich.
Let’s start with the bitter fruits of O’Malley’s disastrous 2007 tax increase, which are now being felt statewide. His “millionaire’s tax” predictably resulted in lost revenue, as legions of wealthy individuals fled the Maryland tax man’s tightening grasp. Worse, the main burden of O’Malley’s highly regressive 20 percent sales tax falls — as such taxes always do — most heavily on poor and middle-class residents and small businesses. Ehrlich promises to correct this unfair situation.
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Because he is beholden to Maryland’s powerful public sector unions, O’Malley has done nothing to avert the state’s rapidly approaching collision with the $35 billion in unfunded pension and health care liabilities that will turn Maryland into a Hotel California if nothing is done. Note that it was in heavily Democratic Montgomery County, which is facing the unpleasant consequences of its own long-running spending spree, that Ehrlich courageously outlined his plan to reform pension benefits, including a 401(k)-like plan for all new state employees.
On Maryland’s worsening traffic congestion, recall that it was Ehrlich who overcame a hostile Democratic state legislature to get the Intercounty Connector across the finish line after 40 years of dithering in Annapolis. In contrast, O’Malley backs light rail instead of the more affordable bus rapid transit version of the Purple Line Ehrlich favors. With a $1 billion state deficit expected next year, light rail has become an unaffordable luxury.
O’Malley says he supports education, but his administration fights charter schools at every turn even as successive generations of graduates of Maryland public schools are poorly prepared for college or career because they lack basic reading and math skills. Ehrlich’s embrace of charter schools offers parents and students a way out. Voters who care about Maryland children should, too. O’Malley has also fumbled the ball on energy. Maryland residents are now at the mercy of out-of-state utilities because O’Malley’s new round of regulations for Constellation Energy’s proposed Calvert County nuclear plant were ridiculously burdensome.
Most amazingly, however, is the fact that O’Malley defends Maryland as a sanctuary state, and he calls the flood of illegal immigrants coming here “new Americans.” Ehrlich’s scathing retort — “If somebody breaks into my house, is that a new member of my family that night?” — clearly defined his most basic difference with O’Malley. Voters should return Ehrlich to Annapolis to end this nonsense.
