Sam Wallace
Just last week, this state’s nonpartisan Office of Policy Analysis released a document that showed the state budget and expected tax returns had yielded an unexpected $320 million surplus for this fiscal year. After a session of contentious budget battles earlier in the year, Democratic legislative leaders wasted no time calling for this extra money to go toward funding education, in particular the Geographic Cost of Education Index. In this year’s budget, GCEI funding totaled $68 million, half of the formulated amount.
Looking at these numbers, it’s amazing to think that Gov. Larry Hogan would refuse to do as Democrats have asked. Yet he has over the past week. As Democratic state Sen. Rich Madaleno so bluntly said of Hogan’s refusal to increase GCEI funds: “It’s a short-sighted decision. … Governor Hogan, Halloween is over. Stop trying to trick the people of Maryland into believing we don’t have the funds.”
But as the subtitle of this column tells you, Democrats are so woefully wrong.
The part of the OPA report that Madaleno and others didn’t bother to bring up tells a different story: deficits totaling $34 million in fiscal 2018, $187 million in 2019, $317 million in 2020 and $465 million in 2021, totaling just more than $1 billion. As the state works to fund teacher and police pensions at an adequate level, pay debt service for debts incurred by former Gov. Martin O’Malley’s administration and take on a greater share of Medicaid costs from the federal government, money in future budgets will be tight.
What are state Democratic leaders doing? We have two possibilities here: One, they simply didn’t bother to read the OPA report past the first few sentences. Or two, they understand what’s in the report and simply decided to leave out half of the facts and then demonize Hogan based on only the facts they chose.
I think the Democrats went with No. 2 here, in more ways than one.
If we reflect on what’s happened over the past eight years in Annapolis, I think we can see that the budgeting logic of Democratic legislative leaders has not changed much. They only look at the numbers that are favorable, spend money when it shouldn’t be spent and ignore challenges to balancing future budgets. This kind of thinking is why this state’s pension fund went from 100 percent funded to 68 percent funded. It’s why the state’s top-level credit rating is threatened every year. It’s why the legislature issued so many bonds that we’ll pay more money on debt service than school construction this year. It’s why the O’Malley administration increased taxes and fees 40 different times during his tenure. And it’s why Hogan was elected.
Responsible budgeting is not a Republican or a Democratic principle. Spending within one’s means and looking at long-term projections of revenues and spending should be the top priorities of leaders in both parties in Annapolis.
Leaders need to look at and communicate all the facts before proposing increased spending, and we as citizens are owed that much. State residents shouldn’t be waiting on Democratic leaders to come to.
