One thing our ruthless leaders can do to ease the pain of their imminent robbery is to at least show the courtesy of doing it to us in the open. The letter and spirit of state law requires members of the Maryland General Assembly to do their deeds out where residents can watch unless there is a compelling public interest not to.
That?s PUBLIC interest. Not their personal and political interests. Not their comfort level. Not their craven desire to flip taxpayers in secret, then pretend next election they didn?t shake more money out of our pockets.
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For openers, who exactly are the members of the conference committee that will reconcile Senate and House versions of the tax increase bills? These are five or six members from each body who will thrash out differences.
Both houses must vote that bill up or down without changes. By the time it gets there, generally it?s a done deal. These are the people who will tax us.
That is why we must know who they are.
Gov. Martin O?Malley and many state legislators blocked any discussion of taxes by telling us for months that the “structural” deficit requires tax hikes or debilitating cuts to state services. That turns out to be mostly false. We are not sheep. We deserved the truth from the beginning of the tax debate a few months ago, and we deserve transparency now.
As state Sen. Norman Stone, D-Dundalk, said in Tuesday?s Examiner, “if the governor would have said to each one of his Cabinet secretaries: ?Look through your budget, cut that budget by whatever it took,? I don?t think it would take over 2, 3 percent to make up this deficit or a good portion of it. … I know they would have found whatever it takes to balance the budget.” He?s right.
O?Malley denied Marylanders the chance to debate his proposals by calling the special session before he even had a budget instead of waiting until January for the regular session. The least the legislative leadership can do is tell the names of those to whom we may direct our comments about the tax process. Let them know now. Tell them to let We The People into the people?s chamber.
Click here to e-mail Senate PresidentThomas V. Mike Miller, or call him at 410-841-3700.
Click here to e-mail House Speaker Michael Busch, or call him at 410-841-3800.
