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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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