Can I have 6 more weeks to think about it?
Once a year, on February 2, people wait around to see if a groundhog by the name of Punxsutawney Phil will see his shadow. As we approach Groundhog Day, it struck me that Maryland has its own attention seeker – his name is Patuxent Bob.
He pokes his head up once in a while to decide if he wants to run for Governor, or if it’s six more weeks of waiting. When he actually talks about what he would he do as Governor, it looks like a scene from the movie “Groundhog Day.”
Ehrlich is at it again, promising to repeat big tax increases and spending increases.
Asked on his radio show what he would do to address the budget deficit if he were governor, Ehrlich said, “Look at what we did – that’s a pretty good road map to what we would do again if I found myself back there.”
What Ehrlich did was raise taxes and fees by $3 billion, including a 57% increase in the state property tax and a 40% increase in college tuition, then propose the biggest spending increase in state history.
Ehrlich exceeded the state’s spending affordability guidelines three years in a row. His final budget – which The Baltimore Sun warned didn’t “take into account the possibility that the economy might eventually sour” – ran roughshod over the affordability guidelines on its way to creating billion-dollar projected deficits. It spent nearly $700 million more than revenues and included nearly 300 more positions than recommended by legislative watchdogs. Leaders in both parties slammed it for its recklessness, and The Washington Post called it “fiscally irresponsible.” Even Ehrlich’s own budget analysis acknowledged that he was leaving the next governor with a billion-dollar deficit.
And yet, according to Ehrlich, if he were returned to office, he would repeat the same policies that led Maryland into a fiscal mess. We’ve seen this movie before, and it’s what helped get Ehrlich kicked from office in the first place.
