In governor’s race, a tale of two Bobs and two Mikes

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - For months, Gov. Robert Ehrlich has been running against “two Mikes” — the Democratic state Senate president and House Speaker who helped derail some of his agenda.

On Saturday, in two gubernatorial debates, Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley began running against the “two Bobs,” the Republican governor who says he’s blocked taxes, preserved the Bay and open space, funded schools and reduced crime — but allegedly hasn’t.

“I’m the incumbent,” Ehrlich said Saturday, and this election is a “referendum on the incumbent.” He also wants to make the election a referendum on the job O’Malley has done as mayor.

If there are “two Bobs,” there is the Ehrlich of his first two years in office, and the Ehrlich of the last two years.

They were “the worst of times and the best of times,” said a thick analysis of those years by the Department of Legislative Services, the nonpartisan staff of the General Assembly.

Ehrlich came into office with a $400 million deficit and a $1.2 billion deficit looming the following year. It was these deficits that led to the budget cuts, transfers and funding failures that are at the core of some of O’Malley’s chief charges — especially when the House of Delegates refused to back the slot machine gambling Ehrlich wanted to boost revenues. In 2004, the Senate and Ehrlich rejected a House plan to increase the sales tax by a penny.

The open space fund and transportation fund were raided; school construction was sliced; university budgets were slashed, leading to higher tuition; and property taxes were raised to pay bond debt, according to analyses.

“Instead of developing an ongoing plan to resolved the state’s fiscal problem,” legislative analysts say, “annual plans were crafted to balance the budget, but deferred the underlying structural problem to the next year.”

In 2005, the economy began improving, and this year, “the rebounding economy continued to produce stronger than expected revenues.”

Ehrlich responded by restoring money he had cut, and the legislature added even more in some areas.

“The state is flush with cash,” the analysts say, “but an out-year structural deficit continued to persist.”

Neither Ehrlich nor O’Malley has said how he would fill the looming budget hole, though the governor has promised to push for slot machines again.

llazarick@baltimoreexaminer.com