20070705 MACo Exe. Dir. Bliden requests Md counties support tax increases

MACo Executive Director Bliden requests that Maryland counties support tax increases

Posted July 11^th, 2007

Maryland Association of Counties executive director Dave Bliden has sent out an e-mail in which it could be concluded that he is specifically requesting the support of Maryland counties for what is anticipated to be, a request for raising taxes in the state of Maryland in order to meet to structural deficit of approximately $1.5 million dollars…

Certainly it Mr. Bliden is within his rights to advocate support of the administration for a particular initiative but the rub is that it certainly appears on face value that he is following his professional responsibilities to the counties at the expense of the public good.

I have heard that at the recent Maryland Municipal League summer convention in Ocean City that the governor told municipal officials that they need to support tax increases in order to avoid the Maryland state budget being balanced on the backs of municipalities.

[In the interest of full Disclosure, I served on the Maryland Municipal League Board of Directors annually for five consecutive years, from June 2000 to May 2005… I was first elected to the Westminster City Council in May of 1999 and served as the Mayor of Westminster from May 2001 until May 16th, 2005.]

Now that we have gotten that housekeeping out of the way, the one thing that always impressed me about the approach of the MML was that is always seemed preoccupied with the caveat that whatever was in the best interests of out citizens was in the best interests of the MML. [see: 20070703 the Maryland Municipal League discussion of the “Doomsday” budget]

It could be easily understood that advocating a tax increase in the state of Maryland so as to benefit local county government may not necessarily be favored by many county taxpayers in the state.

Especially as they continues to be a perception that large amounts of money were spend in the past four years by the Maryland General Assembly in the pursuit of political expediency (read, seeing to it that then-Governor Robert L. Ehrlich was not re-elected.)

One needs to look no farther than the $1.1 million that was spent on the investigation of the governor’s hiring and firing practices when Democratic governors before and after Governor Ehrlich also insisted on having their own team in state positions and if anything, Governor Parris Glendening was far more blatant that Governor Ehrlich in hiring and firing employees based on their political allegiances.

To make matters worse, if slots were to have been approved when they were first proposed by Governor Ehrlich reports have it that the current revenues would be approximately equal to the amount of the current budget shortfall.

(No, I am not a huge fan of slots, however, there is a compelling pragmatic argument in favor of slots in Maryland…)

Further suggestions that the budget shortfall are as a result of the Ehrlich administration as simply not supported by the facts… The Thornton education legislative initiative was passed, before Governor Ehrlich took office, without funding and much of the current budgetary shortfall lies at the feet of Thornton initiative (and increased costs in Medicaid…)

Below is Mr. Bliden’s e-mail. You read it and decide for yourself…

-----Original Message-----

From: David Bliden [e-mail address redacted]

Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2007 4:52 PM

To: [redacted]

Subject: Govenor's (sic) Office Request

Ladies and Gentlemen--

I just spoke to the County Executive Smith and Jan Gardner about a conversation I had with Josh White, the Governor's Intergovernmental Relations Chief, about which we wanted to motivate a a response.

Josh is interested in coordinating a message for the Governor as he goes on roadtrips to the counties. He is looking for not just the property tax equivalents, but real vignettes of the county "doomsday"

budgets"... like closing libraries, reductions in deputies, larger class size, no support for volunteers firefighters. I suggested a goal of 10 examples for each county, if the proposed State "doomsday budget"

comes to fruition..

The Gov could be visiting the counties during the next weeks , which presents an opportunity to deliver. And, with a good product, we could share with the other counties to get them motivated. Something for discussion at our July 13 meeting. Another good perspective would be having interested constituencies there to show their interest, e.g. the volunteer ff'ers.

This is a good opportunity to make a case and, even more important, to convince the Governor we are there 100% to help him help us.

Can you get your team motivated? We would be most willing to work with them.

Best wishes.

David