Maryland should not balance budget on counties’ backs
Maryland’s General Assembly is currently debating a proposal from Gov. O’Malley to shift hundreds of millions in pension costs from the state to county governments. This is not about improving the sustainability of the state pension plan, but simply an effort to shift the state’s budget problems onto the counties.
The state legislature determines pension benefits and the state government controls the pension plan and its financial health, not counties. The legislature knowingly underfunded the plan for more than 15 years, and its sanctioned “corridor funding” scheme intentionally set aside less money each year than recommended by the plan’s auditors. The legislature also increased benefits in 2006 – just before an election — but failed to provide a means to pay for them.
The unfunded accrued liability is a consequence of decisions made by the state government. It is unconscionable to expect local governments to pay for past state failures, which in Montgomery County alone would cost more than $47 million next year, $61 million the following year, and more than $71 million in three years. That would put pressure on taxpayers and the public services they deserve and depend on.
We urge Montgomery County’s senators and delegates to stand firm in opposition to the proposed pension cost shift and resist the temptation to balance the state budget on the counties’ backs. Abandoning their historic commitment to help fund education by paying pension costs for employees of school systems, community colleges and local libraries is not in the interests of Montgomery County taxpayers.
Marc Zifcak
President, Lodge 35, Fraternal Order of Police
Debra Mugge
President, Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals
Gino Renne
President, UFCW Local 1994
Doug Prouty
President, Montgomery County Education Association
John Sparks
President, Montgomery County Career Fire Fighters Association, Local 1664
Merle Cuttitta
President, SEIU Local 500
Left wants religious to subsidize their choices
Re: “Not covering contraceptives would be discriminatory,” From Readers, Feb. 23
Rebecca Small asserts that “contraceptives play an important role in women’s health, and religious liberty does not extend that far.” Indeed, religious liberty might not extend that far if contraceptives were in fact so vital. The truth, however, is that contraceptives cannot cure any known diseases or disorders. Their only purpose is to prevent pregnancy. Unless Small is suggesting that pregnancy is a disease, one wonders why she thinks they are so important.
Apart from the exceptional cases of rape and incest, pregnancy is a natural result of personal choices. Those on the left have no right to demand that others’ religious liberty be infringed upon by being forced to subsidize their choices.
Joe Garber
Leesburg, Va.
Context demonstrates that headline was not ethnic slur
Re: “Another pointless PC word incident,” Feb. 23
Thanks to Gregory Kane for his column on the latest PC army attack. When I first discovered what the “slur against Lin” was, I guessed immediately that the phrase “chink in the armor,” commonly used since the days when knights wore it, was used only because it was the perfect concise interpretation of Jeremy Lin’s performance that night. Lin’s own response showed he knew that as well.
As a writer, I was upset enough to investigate further, and found that the headline writer — who has since been fired by ESPN — is only 28 years old, too young to know the long-obsolete slur “Chink”. Even Archie Bunker’s show was 40 years ago. So this young man joined the ranks of the unemployed solely because he was more literate than his bosses.
Where are Occupy movement folks when you need them?
Jeanne Mallett
Washington
