Dan Gainor, The Examiner
2008-01-08 08:00:00.0
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BALTIMORE -

It was the best of times; now it’s the worst of times.

Marylanders enjoyed a brief respite from our legislators. This week they are back at work. Bob Dylan once sang that the times were a changin’. I hope so, because we can’t afford another billion-dollar boondoggle like we got in November.

In olden times, Sparta had its 300. Today, Maryland has its 188 — 141 delegates and 47 senators. That extra 112 made all the difference. Three hundred held back the whole Persian Empire. The 188 can’t hold back any of the bad times. Now, they make them happen.

The 188 (minus the few in the GOP and fewer still sane Democrats) said yes to the largest tax increase in state history. They ignored experts who warned of a slowing economy. That after causing the budget problems in the first place by overspending.

They aren’t done yet. As the 2008 General Assembly begins, our legislators get even more fun times to screw up the state we love.

First up, they must make time to undo one of the stupid things from the special session — the computer services tax. This tax is too complex and discourages tech companies from coming to the Formerly Free/Now-Expensive State. That’s another $200 million that has to come from somewhere and the legislature already had $210 million in needed cuts to finish up its November overspending plan.

Democratic Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller is already showing the lack of leadership that makes this state what it is — a fiscal mess. Miller said the devastating new tax might be too hard to replace. “There’s no will for $200 million in other types of taxes,” Miller told The Associated Press in late 2007.

No will and no leadership. I don’t think Thomas Paine anticipated the Maryland General Assembly when he wrote: “These are the times that try men’s souls.” It’s still accurate. (Politicians had souls then.)

Just because the special session is over doesn’t mean the time of spending your money is over. Even without that $410 million in cuts that might, or might not, happen, the General Assembly has time to steal your cash.

Democratic Delegate Victor Ramirez still tries to spend his time and your cash helping illegal immigrants get in-state college tuition. Other liberal activists are pushing the idea of gay marriage this session. Forget the bad social policy of such a move for a minute and imagine the huge costs for insurance. One more way the state could make times tough on business.

But the big threat this session comes from another dangerous Democratic initiative — requiring that carbon emissions drop 25 percent by 2020 and 90 percent by 2050. Time is money and 43 years will cost millions or billions of dollars — your dollars.

Barring another special session this year, we are done when the legislature adjourns April 7. When that happens, you’ll hear many Marylanders singing a 1970s hit: “Ain’t we lucky we got ’em — good times!”

Until next year, that is.

Dan Gainor can be seen each week on Thursday afternoons on the new Fox Business Network. He is the T. Boone Pickens free market fellow at the Media Research Center’s Business & Media Institute, a career journalist and media commentator.

He can be reached at gainorcolumn@gmail.com