20071030 Commentary by Robert Ehrlich: O’Malley tax increase bilks taxpayers, ignores history

Commentary by Robert Ehrlich: O’Malley tax increase bilks taxpayers, ignores history

November 1, 2007

I did not post this earlier in the week and I just re-read it and now that the week’s events have unfolded and perhaps starting to sink-in; re-reading this analysis by former Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich is just that more profound…

Commentary by Robert Ehrlich: O’Malley tax increase bilks taxpayers, ignores history

Robert Ehrlich, The Examiner, 2007-10-30

WASHINGTON –

Maryland’s liberal establishment is at it again.

Less than nine months after restoring one-party rule, the liberals in Annapolis are pushing massive tax increases based on a revisionist account of Maryland’s budget history. Let me set the record straight.

In 2002, as state revenues steadily dwindled, the General Assembly enacted a $1.3 billion education law. Legislators passed it knowing they had no money to pay for it. They also passed a budget that overspent by $616 million.

This massive new spending, combined with an economic downturn and rising health care costs, created a long-term deficit. My administration inherited that deficit in 2003 and, four years later, left state government with a budget surplus.

We cut government spending by more than $700 million in our first six months. We cut the size of the executive branch work force by 7 percent. We defeated $7.5 billion in proposed new taxes.

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