MTA
Maryland Taxpayers Association
PRESS RELEASE

Maryland Taxpayers Association, Inc.

7831 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 395
Bethesda, Maryland 20814
President's Office: 301-946-2918. Fax: 301-942-5341
president@mdtaxes.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Nov. 8, 2001

Maryland Taxpayers Seek Smart Budget, Not Pork

Bethesda, MD (Nov. 8, 2001). MTA Taxpayers Association president Kenneth R. Timmerman challenged what he termed the "Annapolis Establishment" to "put politics aside during the national emergency and work with the taxpaying and employing communities" to save Maryland jobs and the
state's budget.

"First dollar must go to Maryland's homeland defense responsibilities including our firefighters and policemen as well as making the Maryland Emergency Management Agency a going concern in a time of weapons of mass destruction," said long-time investigative journalist and author Timmerman.

"Governor Glendening can set a statesmanlike tone for a new bipartisan effort in our emergency. Immediate visible cutbacks in the non-career staff of statewide elected officials, and the abolition of most agency deputy directors as recommended in 1998 by the Calvert Institute www.calvertinstitute.org would send a strong signal that the Governor means business with Maryland's budget and its economy."

Timmerman urged repeal of prevailing wage statutes on Maryland public construction projects. "This could save at least $55 million yearly for Maryland and local governments," according to the Calvert Institute study.

Timmerman pointed to last Tuesday's testimony given by state fiscal experts to the Spending Affordability Committee where panel members learned that "forecasted general fund revenues are insufficient to cover the costs of current services and capital commitments." General Assembly budget expert Warren Deschenaux had declared "general fund and reserve fund balances, and announced cost containments will not balance the budget."

MTA chief Timmerman said Governor Glendening and General Assembly leaders "should go back to the drawing boards right away to do serious restructuring" of the Free State budget, "not just a quick fix for 2001 but as a way of allocating scarce resources for the future."

"This alone won't solve the problem," Timmerman cautioned, however, if the legislators and the governors' people talk only to each other. Unless leaders of both Maryland parties start and keep up a continuing conversation with taxpayer and employer interests, our elected officials won't be able to break out of the circle of taxing and spending that has become the extent of their known world."

Underscoring the non-partisan character of the Maryland Taxpayers Association, Timmerman explained:

"MTA favors limited but effective government and the creation of an opportunity society. But we hasten to point out that while the majority party must take much of the responsibility, neither party in Maryland has a monopoly on pork. MTA learned this most recently from General Assembly votes to give the Maryland Economic Development Corporation even greater statewide and essentially unaccountable powers."