Commentary - Hey, Maryland legislators: It’s our money

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BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Let politicians quibble about whether Gov. Martin O’Malley’s budget increase is one of 4.1 percent or 5.9 percent. Suffice it to say, it is too much.

The only thing our governor and General Assembly members need to know is this: It’s not your money.

So when you pass the 2009 budget, remember that most of us you’re taking the money from will be lucky to get a 3 percent raise this year — before taxes.

After bigger payroll deductions for those new taxes and health insurance, and with 401(k) plans tanking along with the stock market, we must budget for massive increases in fuel, food and medical costs. With what’s left, we must pay 20 percent more in sales taxes on almost everything we buy.

Why? Because you refuse to do the hard work of making ends meet, as must citizens and businesses. You refuse to achieve efficiency and cut spending line by line, position by position, task by task, program by program. You do not have to do the hard work because you have the power to tax.

Most of us — your constituents, the 82 percent who do not work for government — struggle every day to make ends meet. We face expenses rising inexorably several orders of magnitude above our ability to increase income.

We do not have the power to tax.

In your special session, you tossed another stone to weigh down drowning citizens and enterprises who needed the life preserver you are bound by oath to provide us.

Whom do you serve, members of the General Assembly? The people? Or is it special interests — the ones who help you to win re-election?

You take more than $30 billion a year from us, supposedly for our own good. Earn it.

The Examiner is going to tell more than 500,000 citizens what you do. On an average day, that’s how many Maryland adults read the five editions of The Baltimore Examiner in Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Howard, Carroll, Baltimore and Harford counties, and The Washington Examiner in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. Thousands more will read all about it on examiner.com.

Examiner readers not only work more, earn more and spend more than average, they register and vote more. They contribute more. They are more active, locally and politically. They volunteer more. They pay more in taxes, own and run more businesses and make more decisions affecting our state than any other comparable group.

Examiner daily readership equals more than the difference between Democratic and Republican voters in 2006, and number more than a third of the disgusted registered voters who stayed home.

Get it?

More and more voters are giving up on the system as they see Republicans and Democrats alike feeding at the public trough, serving their own narrow self-interests instead of the greater public good.

Over the years, traditional news media have fallen into a trap of accepting the government line without question. Reporters and editors became ensnared by the frame of reference of the very institutions they are supposed to cover.

One reason for The Examiners’ being is to watch government and give citizens the tools to fix it.

That is what America is supposed to be all about.

Last session, The Baltimore Examiner tried to help busy, preoccupied citizens tell those who represent us our priorities. Many responded.

This session, let us try again. Eventually, they will listen. If they don’t, we must fire them and elect fellow citizens who do listen and who respond to our needs.

Tell them now. Focus on the leaders listed here.

Then find your representative and senator at examiner.com and send a clear message: It’s our money.

Speak Up

Here are the leaders who raised your taxes. Let them know how you feel about it:

» Gov. Martin O’Malley, 410-974-3901, 800-811-8336, MD Relay: 800-735-2258, fax: 410-974-3275, tdd: 410-333-3098 (tdd)

You can also e-mail the governor by clicking here, though you will be filing out a form e-mail and not actually e-mailing Gov. O'Malley.

President of the Senate

Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. Dist. 27, (D) Prince George¹s, Calvert 301-858-3700

President Pro Tem

Nathaniel J. McFadden, Dist. 45 (D) Baltimore City , 410-841-3165 

Edward J. Kasemeyer, Dist. 12 (D) Baltimore, Howard Cos., 410-841-3653

IN THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES:

Speaker of the House

Michael E. Busch, Dist. 30 (D) Anne Arundel Co., 301-858-3800

Speaker Pro Tem

Adrienne A. Jones, Dist. 10 (D) Baltimore Co., 410-841-3391

Majority Leader

Kumar P. Barve, Dist. 17 (D) Montgomery Co., 301-858-3464

Frank S. Turner, Dist. 13 (D) Howard Co., 410-841-3246

And let YOUR senator and representative know how you feel. Click here to find out how to contact them.

Frank Keegan is editor of The Baltimore Examiner. He can be reached at fkeegan@baltimoreexaminer.com.

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116 days ago: Leave a few behind to save our schools

» 234 days ago: Hey, Maryland legislators: It’s our money «