Baltimore Sun: GOP offers constructive ideas for Md. budget

Our view: The plan drafted by two Republican Senators has its flaws, but it is comprehensive and merits consideration

February 24, 2010 http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bal-ed.budget0224,0,3431141.story

For years, Republicans in the General Assembly have been carping that Democrats spend too much, but rarely have they said what they would do instead. They occasionally propose an across-the-board spending cut -- a bad idea that fails to set any priorities. But often they eschew specifics, saying that if they offered any, they would only be fodder for Democratic demagoguery. Their grandstanding has been particularly galling since the vast majority of them voted for the biggest spending increases in decades when a Republican held the governor's office.

Republican Sens. David Brinkley and E.J. Pipkin, then, deserve a lot of credit for the proposal they released yesterday. It sets out two goals that are hard to argue with: making progress toward eliminating long-term imbalances between state revenues and expenditures, and doing it in a way that does not lead to more tax increases. Their plan is specific, and many (though not all) of their ideas are good.

Read the entire opinion here: Baltimore Sun: GOP offers constructive ideas for Md. budget - http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bal-ed.budget0224,0,3431141.story

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