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Lost 'Fortune' - Baltimore's Lost Corporations


THE STRATEGY

2/11/14 - 2014 General Assembly Session, 1st Month Legislative Analysis

2/22/14 - The Latest Anthony Brown Commercial

4/3/14 - A Tale of
Two Cities

BRAINSTORMING

3/8/14 - Homeless Worker Renovation Program


3/8/14 - Single-Room Occupancy

Housing

Doug Barry

Historian, Political Philosopher, Veteran


  Articles

SIGN OF THE TIMES

May 19, 2014 - As you exit the Baltimore Beltway onto Interstate 70 and head west, after about a mile you will come across this sign. The first time I saw this, it instantly occurred to me that if the State is wasting money on this, then how many other places are they spending money needlessly? The sign was put up during the Ehrlich administration. The problem has not gone away. Even in the current session, Frederick County Delegate Patrick Hogan (R) has proposed legislation that would place signs on highways all over Maryland telling people to get out of the fast lane. The bill also has the potential to tie up traffic courts, hit Maryland drivers with very subjective moving violation fines, and would accomplish nothing.

In the last four years, there have been two special sessions to deal with budget issues (which added additional expenses to the State budget). Budget issues were also front and center in the 2013 session. The two elements all these sessions had in common were an effort to get more money out of the citizens of Maryland, and that there was no effort to spend money more efficiently.
Can we afford it? This simple question should be a guiding principle for our legislators, but it's a question that is never asked. It would be nice if we had the money for every idea that comes to mind, but we don't. Since the election of 2006, Maryland's budget has increased by more than ten billion dollars. Even sadder is the fact that we have very little to show for the money we've spent. Unemployment and underemployment have become such critical issues that our Governor and legislators have shifted their focus to getting career-level pay for fast-food workers and retail clerks. Have we given up on getting our residents into careers that would earn them a decent income?

Legislation is not being analyzed the correct way. Before we spend a million dollars on a new law or a new project, we need to determine if it will pay off in a way that will earn us more than a million dollars, or will save us that money. Before we make a cut, we need to determine if that will cost us more down the road. Past cuts in education, youth programs and drug treatment have led to much higher costs in law enforcement and prisons. Attempts to save the costs of incarceration have put repeat offenders on the street, leading to higher costs in repeated arrests and prosecutions, along with the financial loss suffered by their victims.

But we don't analyze bills this way. We make investments that don't have the necessary return. We don't require our departments to spend money more efficiently. We don't look at how much laws are really going to cost us, and we pass laws that drive away business and put others out of business altogether. If we don't change, the cost to Maryland citizens will continue to get higher. It's a path we can't afford to stay on.