Red Maryland's Mark Newgent, a friend of mine on the right who appears more often than any other guest on gubernatorial candidate Bob Ehrlich's weekly radio show, told me I don't post frequently enough to be called a blogger. He has a point, so here's a post fact checking his latest piece that started with this:
Maryland Democrats are having a jolly old time criticizing Bob Ehrlich’s budget record. They slam his FY 2005-2007 budgets proposals for exceeding the limits set by the Spending Affordability Committee, while claiming all four of Governor Martin O’Malley’s budgets came in under SAC limits. While a review of the data easily debunks this clever little Democratic trick [WRONG!], it also reveals a deeper deceit a our politicans to spend beyond the state's means while pretending to be fiscally responsible.
Here's my friend's mistake [warning: boring fiscal minutia]....
Mark said,
"They [Maryland Democrats] point to Exhibit A-1.2 on page A-9, a table, which shows a spending increase of 11.59% in Ehrlich’s 2007 general fund budget proposal, which was greater than the 9.60% limit set by the SAC."
But the Maryland Democrats never pointed to or mentioned that table. They linked the DLS 90-Day Report, and in other literature they referred to Part A, which is about 150 pages long, but the Maryland Democrats never mentioned the exhibit to which Mark refers.
That’s because the exhibit to which Mark refers has nothing to do with the budgets proposed by the governor. You read the table wrong, Mark. That table compares the budget enacted by the legislature to the SAC limit. It tallies the three sections of the operating budget enacted by the legislature from the previous session and the current session and compares the percentage growth to the SAC limit. It has nothing to do with the governor’s spending proposal.
You don’t need an exhibit to confirm that Gov. Ehrlich exceeded the Spending Affordability Committee limit every year of his term except the first, or that Gov. O’Malley never exceeded the Spending Affordability Committee limit. There’s a section of the nonpartisan DLS 90-Day Report called "Governor’s Spending Plan as Introduced," and it says...
2004 (page A-7):
As introduced [Gov. Ehrlich’s] budget package was $32.8 million above the 4.37 percent growth rate recommended by the Spending Affordability Committee, for a growth rate of 4.6 percent as measured under the spending affordability process. It also included 78 new positions above the recommended limit.
2005 (page A-5):
As introduced, [Gov. Ehrlich’s] budget package exceeded the growth rate recommended by the Spending Affordability Committee. It also exceeded the recommended limit on personnel by 153 positions.
2006 (page A-5):
As introduced, [Gov. Ehrlich’s] budget package exceeded the revised growth rate recommended by SAC by $100.5 million. It also exceeded the recommended limit on personnel by 291 positions.
Before there were tea parties, Republican Gov. Ehrlich had an uncontrolled appetite for big government spending, and he wasn’t shy about raising taxes to pay for it.
On the other hand, Gov. O'Malley fulfilled his responsibility by keeping his budgets under the SAC spending limits....
2007 (page A-6):
[Gov. O’Malley’s] budget was $49.3 million below the limit recommended by SAC, was within the parameters suggested for personnel growth...
2008 (page A-10):
[Gov. O’Malley’s] budget was $30.5 million below the limit recommended by SAC, reflected the abolition of 500.15 positions as required at the special session...
2009 (page A-5):
[Gov. O’Malley’s] budget was below the limit recommended by SAC, reflected the planned abolition of over 1,000 Executive Branch positions...
2010 (page A-6):
[Gov. O’Malley’s] budget was nearly $600.0 million below the zero percent limit recommended by SAC...
I’m not surprised that former-Gov. Ehrlich’s budget secretary has been disparaging the Spending Affordability Committee lately. Nowadays she says the committee’s spending recommendations are overly permissive, but she wasn't complaining four years ago when her then-boss, Bob Ehrlich, submitted budgets breaking SAC spending caps three years in a row.
- Steve Lebowitz, Annapolis