Soccer Dad

Maryland's ceo for governor

Blair Lee on the difference between the two candidates for Governor (h/t MD Policy on Twitter):

Ehrlich said that a $127 million state education aid program, funded with federal stimulus money, is unaffordable next year once the stimulus disappears. O'Malley responded by calling Ehrlich anti-education and anti-kids.

And Ehrlich called for reforming the state's $15 billion pension deficit by putting new employees on a defined contributions plan. O'Malley ducked the issue by deferring to yet another commission "studying" the problem. If Ehrlich wins he'll cut spending; if O'Malley wins he'll raise taxes. How do we know?

Because O'Malley owes his soul to the public employee unions and the program recipients who live off expanded government spending.

Because a huge $1.4 billion tax increase was O'Malley's budget crisis solution in 2007 -- Maryland's second-largest tax hike in history. The largest will be next year, if O'Malley is re-elected.

Because, as The Washington Post puts it, "Mr. O'Malley has sensibly refused to rule out new taxes....while Mr. Ehrlich tilts disingenuously towards his party's anti-tax orthodoxy."

Because the Democrats are already talking about raising the gas tax, alcohol taxes, business taxes and applying the 6 percent sales tax to services (except lawyers).

And because O'Malley is campaigning with Barack Obama, while Ehrlich is campaigning with Gov. Chris Christie, who's doing in New Jersey what must be done in Maryland.

Unfortunately Bob Ehrlich has been mostly silent at least when I've been watching TV. So here's an Ehrlich ad about the current governor's budget legerdemain:

You also might be interested in this: According to the Tax Foundatiion (an admittedly pro-business group) Maryland ranks 44th among all states for its business climate. Gov. O'Malley can talk all he wants about the budget. But if companies large and small avoid Maryland there won't be the necessary tax revenue to run government.

I previously described Gov. Ehrlich as Maryland's CEO. It's something to keep in mind as we head to the polls next week.