Published Letters from Baltimore County Members
Decmeber 2005
Attacks on Harmon show left is bereft
Date: December 19, 2005
Publication: The Baltimore Sun
Author: Chris Cavey, Hampstead
Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s hiring of Bo Harmon is another opportunity for the left to engage in character assassination ("Ehrlich hires '06 director," Dec. 10).
But Mr. Harmon is here to get the word out about Mr. Ehrlich's accomplishments.
And since you won't find them prominently displayed in the pages of The Sun, Mr. Harmon will go to the people to talk about the issues that concern them, and how Mr. Ehrlich has moved the state forward in three short years.
Unemployment rates in the state are well below national levels, welfare rolls are at their lowest since the 1960s, we have a $1.7 billion surplus and more than 90,000 new jobs have been created since 2002.
But lacking accomplishments on those levels, the liberal leadership of the Democratic Party does the only thing it seems to know how to do - attack and throw mud.
This is really a sad commentary about the left and what it brings to the debate over the future of Maryland.
Unfair to portray GOP as foe of Earth
Date: December 15, 2005
Publication: The Baltimore Sun
Author: Al Mendelsohn, Reisterstown
I read Tom Horton's column "Environmentally friendly GOP fights political divide" (Dec. 6) and found it to be a diatribe that was neither informative nor fair.
Mr. Horton writes, "The Bush administration and the Republican leadership of Congress have weakened clean-air regulation, denied global warming, defunded science, undercut the Environmental Protection Agency, attacked public land preservation and set the stage for more decades of polluting energy generation."
That's quite a list. But it just isn't true.
The facts are that the Republican Party has as much a stake in the environment as do Democrats. If the Republican Party wishes to keep getting elected, it will continue to support the twin interests of its "base" - the environment and jobs.
Republicans are supported by people who hunt and fish, by people who are active in Scouting and by farmers, ranchers and boaters.
Republicans also care about jobs, now and in the future.
Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has done more to clean the bay with his Chesapeake Bay Restoration Act, which will reduce the nitrogen that flows into the bay by more than 7 million pounds annually, than all of the people who use the environment as a backdrop to get elected do in their collective lives.
I don't remember reading much about that in Mr. Horton's "On the Bay" column.
Raising tax on HMOs only passes the cost to patients
Date: December 14, 2005
Publication: The Northeast Booster
Author: Craig Borne, Perry Hall
If your neighbor ran a red light and you were not in the car at the time, should you be forced to pay his ticket?
Let's say that a co-worker is constantly filling up jugs of water at the office water cooler for use at home. Should your company now charge all employees for a cup of water?
Sound like common sense? Of course it doesn't.
Then what sense does it make to subsidize abusive medical malpractice suits by raising the tax on HMO participants in Maryland?
CareFirst, one of Maryland's largest HMOs, recently announced that it would apply the higher tax imposed by the Maryland General Assembly to its customers starting this year. Nearly half of Marylanders use an HMO for health care coverage, and CareFirst was one of the last of the HMO groups to decide that it could no longer "eat" the higher tax.
The tax hike cost CareFirst nearly $20 million last year, and it is reasonable to believe that a similar amount will be "passed through" to CareFirst customers this year.
Gov. Ehrlich correctly vetoed this bill, but the tax-and-spend General Assembly overrode the veto. In fact, both Sen. Katherine Klausmeier (31-15) and Del. Eric Bromwell (85-50) cast the deciding votes needed to sustain the veto override and, as such, voted to tax 50 percent of Marylanders.
Only two of our local delegates, Joe Boteler and John Cluster, voted against this tax and against the veto override.
The next time you feel the burden of this HMO tax on your wallet, be sure to thank Sen. Klausmeier and Del. Bromwell.
Party Line (R) Race is for governor - it's not about running mate
Date: December 14, 2005
Publication: The Jeffersonian
Author: Chris Cavey
Few people voting in the gubernatorial election vote solely for the lieutenant governor. The election is about who will be governor.
The 2006 election will be a referendum of two issues - the outstanding record of Gov. Bob Ehrlich vs. the desire of the Democratic Party to regain total political control.
Since the re-institution of the position of lieutenant governor in 1971, no lieutenant governor has been elected governor. Blair Lee III, Maryland's first lieutenant governor in 103 years, was acting governor for a while but was never elected by the public.
Samuel Bogley, Attorney General Joseph Curran Jr., former Senate President Melvin "Mickey" Steinberg and Kathleen Townsend were all servants of the public but were never destined to live in Government House.
I think that the choice for lieutnenant governor is a political insider's game. The reality is that few citizens within our state, if truth be told, care. The race is a race for governor in the minds of the citizenry.
Ehrlich's record is stellar. He has taken a $4 billion deficit and turned it into a $1 billion surplus in just three years. He has increased public school funding by record amounts of dollars, doubled school construction and increased need-based scholarships.
He is the chairman of the Chesapeake Executive Council, has enacted the Bay Restoration Fund and preserved tens of thousands of acres of land.
There are more than 60,000 new jobs, and the Transportation Trust Fund is once again viable.
The Democratic Party is upset with these successful endeavors by our governor. The "party of fear" is no longer in total control, and it doesn't want you looking at the facts.
Its biggest legacy within the past year is the "Speaker Busch tax" placed on your health insurance. This occurred when Democrats overrode Gov. Ehrlich's decision to save citizen's money on health care costs.
Democrats have few to no answers as to how Gov. Ehrlich could accomplish so much in three years, when every day they have been working in the trenches against him.
Think about this - before 2002, Democrats were in total control of our state. They created the $4 billion dollar deficit. They raided the Transportation Trust Fund. They held off on school construction, as County Executive Jim Smith is doing currently.
Now they want you to believe Ehrlich is incompetent and voters need to put them back in control. I don't think so.
I challenge you to list Marty's accomplishments as Mayor of "Crime City" (remember it used to be Charm City).
Try this exercise. On one side of a piece of paper, list Mayor O'Malley's accomplishments. On the other side, list Gov. Ehrlich's accomplishments.
If you can think of an O'Malley accomplishment, keep in mind he is working with all Democrats. There are no Republicans to even bring a balance of thought.
Could this have something to do with "Crime City's" decline? Why hasn't Mayor Marty been the shining example of what decades of total control by the "party of fear" can accomplish? Perhaps he is.
I say that Del. Anthony Brown should have taken a lesson from Attorney General Curran. After all, Curran is still on the ballot, not listed on "The Political Graveyard's" Web site.