WHO: Gov. Martin O’Malley and former Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr.
WHAT: They’re the ones mostly responsible for the $11 billion unfunded deficit in the state employees’ pension fund.
WHY IT’S A BAD IDEA: They allowed agencies to promise pensions they couldn’t follow through with, and the situation is compounded by the shadow of mounting shortfalls statewide. Now agencies are going to have to find a way to tell their employees the pensions they never should have been promised in the first place don’t exist. Guess Grandpop won’t be retiring this year after all, kids.
WHERE TO VENT: 410-974-3901
Today’s dim blub: Chesapeake climate contention
As long as Maryland and Virginia cannot coordinate their efforts to save the Chesapeake Bay, most of what our respective agencies do is a waste of time and money. A regional advisory board recently released a report that said cooperation needs to be a priority. Both of our states make up the Bay’s coastline; both of us are invested in improving the health of the Bay — and yet we can’t seem to share our efforts or information. We need permanent regional oversight as well as legislation in both states defining what each can and can’t do without the other. Share and share alike.
Today’s quote
“As a German, [the people] who killed the Jewish people, I now want to speak up for them. … We have kicked the Jewish people and now we must love them.” — Rosemarie Claussen, Hitler’s goddaughter in an interview with The Examiner. Claussen spoke at the Repentance, Reconciliation & Restoration Conference recenty in Ellicott City and Columbia.
