'Money Monday' - gambling away our futures on slots

The Democratic Dunce Machine 

However, if my elected officials spent more time thinking and acting like responsible, balance-budgeting people such as myself, I may not have as many headaches this year. I know the economy is on shaky-ground nationally but when you look at the current financial crisis at home, you will see that we could have avoided some catastrophic calamities.

 

First off, with a declining revenue source and an increasing unemployment base how do these BPW (Board of Public Works) officials Treasurer Nancy Kopp and Governor Martin O'Malley (I must interject the inclusion of Comptroller Peter Franchot on the Board, who voted NO and Lt. Governor Brown, who filled in for the Governor, yet voted Yea) have the gull to forgive a MSA debt of unpaid rent for $444,274 and then turn around and ask for state workers' to accept a furlough? (MSA-Maryland Stadium Authority) Then they cut their (MSA) rent by more than $20k a month, yeah that means 20,000.00 dollars (a lot of 0's), yet raise our taxes by a historic amount in Maryland, $1.5b in 2007. Then approve $8-million, in taxpayers' money, for the aide of a financially destructive Rocky Gap State park to stave off its foreclosure. Hell, since you are in the spirit of giving, you could pay a couple months of mortgage payments for me, to ensure my families living stability.

 

Oh yeah I forgot that we (not me) recently passed a slots package that is suppose to be Maryland's financial savior! This additional revenue source, which should have been passed five years ago, is supposed to be the "divine benefits package of big bucks!" Even if it breeds a more violent and culturally corrupt electorate?! I mean if you BELIEVE that this legislation, that installs up to 15,000 gaming devices throughout Maryland at its racing facilities, will generate that type of significant state-saving revenue, from people who barely have enough to pay their bills or feed their families, then you're just as crazy as the lawmakers who were against it one day and for it the next!

 

Yeah, you heard me right! Those Democratic lawmakers in Annapolis, not all but most, who were against an Ehrlich-backed, Republican planned slots proposal, which mirrors the one you just passed, only to back the same agenda under the Democratically elected Governor O'Malley. If this isn't asinine then maybe I don't know the meaning of the word! (Even though I just looked it up too make sure!)The most egregious partisan politics of Annapolis was being played with our fiscal futures. If you realize the potential revenues we would have incurred upon passage in 2003, the first year of introduction by the Ehrlich administration, till now, we probably could have avoided last years tax hikes, this years billion/million dollar deduction(s) and possible future furloughs.

 

Though I don't morally believe in gaming and the addiction it brings, (though I was read the "riot act" by a friend who told me to separate church<my spiritual/religious beliefs> from state <capitalism>), I do believe in realism and my financial reality! I don't think I would be sitting here trying to figure out creative ways to balance my check-book and how to bring in new business to my fledgling firm, had it not been for the selfish thinking folks in Annapolis, who decided to Gamble Away My Future!

 

Dale's Daily Dose: "Remember what you put on your head, will rub off in your bed; It is what you put in your head that stays with you until you are dead!"

 

B-Day ShoutOuts: Richard Pryor; World AIDS Day   

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