Maryland's poverty of leadership

Maryland’s poverty of leadership

Deception is the Democrats greatest tool to stay in power. Maryland’s leadership is well rehearsed in this art form. Millions of Marylanders receive support from state coffers. Tens of thousands more maneuver through state offices as civil servants who are bathed in cash and benefits from the same source. Where does this largesse ultimately come from?  Private enterprise fuels this entitlement engine and it is running low on fuel. Maryland’s budget has expanded beyond the ability of its citizens to accommodate its voracious needs. O’Malley and the two Mikes have no shame but to ask Marylanders to pay even higher taxes to feed this hungry beast. Recently the Governor announced a few cuts in his bloated budget, but a closer look ferrets out the truth. His efficiencies were window dressing only and he knows it. Worse, O’Malley’s public relations campaign noting Maryland is an excellent place to establish and or maintain a business is nothing less than ludicrous. My recent discussions with business leaders and owners presented a clear picture why many are fleeing the Free State. Unemployment levies on private businesses have had a meteoric rise in the last few years. Personal property assessments have been vigorously increased. Worker’s compensation charges to employers float somewhere in the stratosphere. Sundry other taxes, assessments, levies, licensing fees, administrative costs, environment burdens and more create a harsh business climate, the antithesis to the Governor’s advertised message. To ensure that the state extorts its fair share of private businesses’ profits a mobile battalion of officials from the Comptroller’s Office supplemented by dozens of lawyers from the Attorney General’s domain fan out across Maryland to intimidate those who don’t pay up. In the event you cannot pay your business license, driver’s license, auto/truck registration and other licenses/certificates from the state will not be reissued. O’Malley does not have the ability to take the appropriate economic steps to bring fiscal sanity to Maryland. Entitlements need to be slashed by the billions, but the Governor wants to continue their expansion on the backs of the working poor. Few in Maryland are appropriately means tested to receive state freebies. Others are simply chronic loafers or in present terminology deadbeats. Maryland’s welfare state will soon reach a tipping point. The state is so desperate that it has the State Police risking their own lives to give out low level speeding tickets. On April 27^th Maryland’s finest were out in force on Route 95 meeting and or exceeding their citation quota. Police are now tax assessors, who would have thought up such a scenario but democrats who are hungry to stay in power. Governor O’Malley takes pride in deceiving state resident’s, it covers his blatant inability to manage a state headed for economic failure. Soon there will not be enough paying in to manage this entitlement behemoth. When that happens O’Malley will look to Washington for help but Obama will be collecting his retirement entitlements in luxury back in his country of birth. Mark Davis author of Demons of Democracy. platomd@gmail.com