TAXPAYER BREAKING NEWS, March 2004, continued from Home Page . . .

March 31, 2004. Some classrooms work in a city system that doesn't, reports Gregory Kane in the Baltimore Sun. "The academic coaching positions are the brainchild of former schools Chief Academic Officer Cassandra W. Jones, who got a pink slip and a boot out the door this month for her efforts. Jones has said she was fired because she sent a letter to state and local lawmakers and others saying the system's deficit could not be blamed on academic programs she initiated. The school board was mum on her dismissal."

March 30, 2004. "A House Divided Cannot Stand," Senator Zell Miller's Floor Statement.

March 30, 2004. MTA's Joyce Thomann's op-ed explains Maryland TABOR in the new Severna Park-based The Citizen's Monitor. "'The Taxpayer's Bill of Rights has done exactly what it was meant to do in the way it was meant to do it. Its goal was to slow government growth, not freeze or cut government, and it has done so. It does not tell lawmakers what laws to pass or how much money to spend on legislation, programs, departments or projects. It does not set amounts that must be spent, with no way to amend or moderate amounts. TABOR has always allowed taxes to be raised by a vote of the people. That means the government must perform, promote and defend its performance, and in effect, ask for a raise, showing the raise is justified, necessary and realistic, and to so convince those paying its bills, the taxpayers.'"

March 30, 2004. Maryland House of Delegates OKs bill to ease rises in college tuition, reports the Baltimore Sun. "'We have to fix the hole in the bucket before we put more water in it,' said GOP Del. Herbert H. McMillan of Anne Arundel County. 'It rewards a bad system before it's fixed.'"

March 30, 2004. Fairfax rally protests rising real estate taxes, reports the Washington Times. Holding signs that read 'No Tax Hike,' members of the Northern Virginia Republican Political Action Committee, Republicans United for Tax Relief and Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance said keeping the real estate tax rate at $1.16 per $100 of assessed value represents a 70 percent increase in the typical family's real estate taxes over the past five years."

March 27, 2004. Governor's malpractice tort reform boils down to simple task force bill, reports the Gazette. "A spokeswoman for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) said the governor has not taken a position on the workgroup's recommendations, which were in the hands of the governor's 'legislative shop.' At first blush, said Ehrlich spokeswoman Shareese N. DeLeaver, 'the governor believes this might not scratch the itch with regard to medical malpractice crisis on our hands.'"

March 26, 2004. Maryland House of Delegates passes tax bill, reports the Washington Post. "Last night, Busch said slots would get a fair hearing. But he predicted that when the legislative session ends April 12, the General Assembly will have rejected both the House tax plan and Ehrlich's slots bill. 'I don't think we come away with anything' to address the long-term needs of the state's public schools, Busch said. 'I think we balance the budget and go home.'" How delegates from counties near Washington voted on the tax plan.

March 26, 2004. House of Delegates votes to give illegals tuition break, reports the Washington Times. "But Delegate Herbert McMillan, Anne Arundel County Republican, said with the intense competition to get into the University of Maryland, illegal immigrants would fill some slots that could otherwise go to Maryland students who are citizens. '"Our first responsibility is to our constituents. Put your own people first,'he said."

March 26, 2004. A key vote by a House of Delegates committee yesterday advanced a plan by Howard County Executive James N. Robey to generate more school construction money from a dedicated tax on new homes, reports the Baltimore Sun. "But Del. Warren E. Miller, who with fellow Republican Del. Gail H. Bates were the only Howard legislators to oppose the excise tax in the delegation vote last month, said his mind is unchanged. 'After the piggy-back tax increase, it's something we don't need,' he said. Robey pushed through a large local income tax increase last spring."

March 26, 2004. Future aside, Busch is charting his own course, reports the Gazette." The governor now considers Busch the leading voice of the left wing of the Democratic Party, which is determined to see his administration fail.Sen. John C. Astle (D-Dist. 30) of Annapolis, a district mate of Busch's for more than a decade, said: 'I've known Mike Busch for a long time, and I can truly say I trust him with my life. I disagree with him on a lot of things, but he does things because he believes in them -- not because he's looking to do something else.'"

March 26, 2004. House ties DBED money to loophill bill, reports the Gazette. "The House version of the state budget includes an amendment that would strip $28 million from DBED's tourism, film, business development and investment programs if the governor vetoes the bill he introduced to prevent companies from sheltering income in Delaware holding companies."

March 26, 2004. Minority contract reforms advance in late-session scramble, reports the Gazette. "The administration has proposed carving out 10 percent of state contracts for small businesses and forcing prime contractors -- often white-owned firms -- to name their minority subcontractors in their bids"

March 25, 2004. Del. Richard K. Impallaria (R) says that his well-publicized confrontation last week with several lobbyists for immigrants' concerns was a boost for his political career, reports the Washington Post. "'They love us. They are telling us to keep up the good work,' Impallaria said, adding that he has received dozens of e-mails in the past week. 'The biggest thing I hear is we have too many politically correct lawmakers and not enough politically courageous ones.'"

March 25, 2004. Del. Herb McMillan criticizes Busch's $1.1 billion tax increase package. "Higher taxes aren’t the answer. Maryland doesn’t have a revenue problem - Maryland has a spending problem. I keep hearing about how we need to produce more revenues. But government doesn’t produce revenue; it consumes it. Revenues come from the working families of this state, the small businesses, and retirees on fixed incomes. Revenues are OPM – Other Peoples’ Money; and it’s time we appreciated that fact, and let them keep what they earn. Maryland has the 10th highest total tax burden per person in the United States, and the 4th highest income tax burden per person. We are overtaxed, and over-regulated, and I will not put any further burdens on the backs of our people. It’s time for government to live within its means. "

March 23, 2004. Kerry has poor voting record on investor-related issues, says American Shareholder Association study, noting that " two out of three voters in the upcoming 2004 presidential election will be investors. This represents the largest voting bloc in America." Daniel Clifton, executive director for ASA, said "Kerry is simply out of touch with real Americans who invest in stocks and mutual funds."

March 21, 2004. Gilchrest to testify against slots bill, reports the Baltimore Sun. "'You try to weigh and balance the friendships, politics and party on one side, and on the other side you put slot machines and my heartfelt opinion of the degradation that they cause, the ruined lives, the added crime, the dark side of politics,' Gilchrest said. 'It's not the legacy that Maryland wants, not by any means.'"

March 17, 2004. National Taxpayers Union urges U.S. Senate to pass permanent ban on Internet taxes. "Congress has passed temporary bans on Internet taxes similar to S. 150 in recent years, but some in the Senate, particularly those representing states that would lose their "grandfathered" status which allows them to collect Internet access taxes, have pushed hard to weaken and limit the scope of the moratorium. Rather than passing S. 2084 and allowing state and local officials to tax everything from email to Internet access in two years, the Senate should pass S. 150 to ensure that taxpayers who go online will never be hit with unfair or "double" taxation."

March 17, 2004. Busch agrees to unlink slots, taxes, reports the Gazette. "Boschert said he acknowledges the state's need for more revenue, will not vote for taxes and does not see any other option available besides slots. Bartlett said he is considering voting for the governor's bill in committee, provided it is not tied to a tax increase, then voting against the measure on the House floor.Myers said he still will vote no, adding that Bartlett's maneuver would not work for him.'Either you're for it or you're against it,' Myers said."

March 16, 2004. The House of Delegates, over the objections of Republican lawmakers, approved an emergency bill today that would strip the governor's authority to make deep, emergency cuts in state spending, reports the Baltimore Sun. "The bill reflects the legislature's growing frustration with its minimal budget powers, which are the weakest of any state in the country."

March 15, 2004. Why isn't George W. Bush's message getting out? The truth is the White House isn't trying very hard, write Fred Barnes and William Kristol in The Weekly Standard. "Lack of concerted effort is the least alarming part of Bush's problem. What's worse is the White House and the Bush campaign seem to have been spooked. They seem fearful and tentative and weak at exactly the moment when they need to be confident and aggressive. Democrats and their allies are united behind Bush's opponent, John Kerry, and have no qualms about attacking the president on any subject whatsoever. At best, Bush's aides respond defensively. At worst, their clumsiness turns a minor flap into a prolonged controversy."

March 15, 2004. "What, then, explains the Virginia GOP's sudden epiphany on taxes? It's not so much that Republicans have fallen in love with taxes, it's that they've been seduced by tax-eating special-interest groups," writes Stephen Moore of the Club for Growth in The Nation. "The state Chamber of Commerce, deep-pocketed real-estate developers, and high-tech executives have all been agitating for higher taxes for years. They stuff the campaign coffers of Republican candidates, so the GOP is loath to say no to their demands. Alas, there is too much truth to the liberal attack against Republicans, to the effect that they sell their souls to tax-eating corporate-welfare recipients; Virginia is Exhibit A. House Republicans, incidentally, came up with a clever plan to raise taxes on the very business groups that are clamoring loudest for the higher taxes; that plan elicited predictable and sanctimonious howls of protest from business leaders about how these new taxes would destroy jobs." Moore paints the likely anti-tax reaction: "Peter Ferrara, president of the Virginia Club for Growth, has vowed to affix a "scarlet letter T" to the office doors of every Republican who votes for new taxes, and then raise money to defeat him in primaries next year. Tax increasers are as welcome inside the GOP as 'the Sheriff of Nottingham was in Sherwood Forest,' Ferrara says. Adds Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform: 'Just as the Coca-Cola Company wouldn't permit a single bottle of Coke to be sold with a rat's head swimming in it, Republicans can't allow taxes to be raised anytime, anywhere on their watch.' "

March 14, 2004. Constituent input lost in mail, reports David A. Keene of the American Conservative Union Foundation. "Since then, however, it has gotten more and more difficult for the average citizen to be taken seriously, and now it is getting harder and harder for most people even to contact their elected officials."

March 11, 2004. Maryland House of Delegates backs illegals licenses, reports the Washington Times. "House Republicans who voted in favor of an amendment that would have stopped illegal aliens from obtaining driver's licenses said yesterday that they will hold the Democrats who voted against it accountable in the next election. . . . Republican Delegates Jeanne Haddaway, Adelaide C. Eckardt and D. Page Elmore of the Eastern Shore, and W. Louis Hennessy of Charles County sided with the Democrats. Democratic Delegates John P. Donoghue, Washington County; Kevin Kelly, Allegany County; Rosetta C. Parker, Prince George's County; and Theodore J. "Ted" Sophocleus, Anne Arundel County, voted with the Republicans.

March 11, 2004. NTU to Maryland Senate Budget and Taxation Committee: Keep Maryland Out of the Sales Tax Cartel. "On behalf of the more than 7,500 members of the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) in Maryland, I write to urge you to vote against legislation now before your committee, HB 694, which would enter Maryland into the so-called Streamlined Sales Tax Project (SSTP) in the event that Congress approves the necessary legislation."

March 10, 2004. Avi Rubin--University of Maryland professor specializing in security, cryptography and e-voting--gives an insider's view of vote vulnerability in the Baltimore Sun. "After my experience as a judge, I still believe that the Diebold machines, and ones like them from other vendors, represent a major threat to our democracy. . . Software is highly complex. I have observed that large software packages are so complex that there is no way to successfully examine a program for malicious behavior. So if voting machine vendors wanted, they could control the outcome of the election with no one ever knowing that the results had been programmed into the voting machines. Further, there are well-funded foreign powers that would not hesitate to bribe or threaten a programmer to rig the machines so that the outcome of the election went a certain way."

March 8, 2004. Washington Times publishes editorial on illegal aliens, driver's licenses, and Maryland Attorney General Joe Curan:"We urge Mr. McMillan -- and other sober-minded Republicans and Democrats in Annapolis -- not to give up the fight for legislation making clear that Maryland will not grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants."

March 7, 2004. Grants: An unusual program that allows state lawmakers to hand out $11 million each year draws allegations of impropriety, reports the Baltimore Sun. The Baltimore Sun puts the issue wrongly. Patronage can often be more supportive of human potential than the politically correct criteria of college-admissions bureaucrats. TBN would rather see the whole $11 million go for K-12 vouchers for poor students across Maryland. But the entire government class in Annapolis would come together to denounce such an opening up of our system.

March 7, 2004. Columnist Cal Thomas weighs in on Baltimore schools situation in the Washington Times. "Private schools work at providing inner city kids a quality education -- if they can reach them. Mr. Ehrlich should use the deplorable situation in the Baltimore schools to call for education choice. Instead, another panel will "study" the problem before issuing another report. What's to study? Let the children go."Fellow taxpayers, we couldn't have said it better ourselves.

March 6, 2004. A bill requiring the state to fund the full $1.3 billion Thornton school aid plan became law yesterday without Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s signature, reports the Washington Times. "'My thought was maybe just letting the bill go into effect will highlight the need to pass a slots bill this year,' he said."

March 5, 2004. Ehrlich's road plan slammed as legislative leaders call for gas tax, reports the Gazette. "'here are some in the administration who have said privately that a gasoline tax would not be a deal breaker if it is folded into the transportation plan because the governor could blame the tax on the Democrats."

March 5, 2004. Schools chief an issue in accord, reports the Baltimore Sun. "Students described schools without toilet paper, bathroom soap or calculator batteries. Amid that deprivation also came an example of squandered resources: a teacher with no students."

March 5, 2004. More Republicans who love taxes. "Sen. David Brinkley continued his end-run around other county lawmakers Thursday by pressing a bill for a countywide school construction tax before the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee.The Frederick delegation to Annapolis had voted 5-2 to postpone the Frederick County Commissioners' request for the tax, which would raise an estimated $12 million through a 1 percent levy on residential and commercial property transfers."

March 4, 2004. MTA joins anti-tax coalition in urging Virginia legislators to fight tax hikes. "But many states have closed gaping budget holes without raising taxes. Gov. Perry of Texas closed a $10 billion gap without tax increases. Gov. Pawlenty of Minnesota, Gov. Benson of New Hampshire, Gov. Romney of Massachusetts, Gov. Owens of Colorado, and others performed similar feats. These governors and legislators are the ones with the bright political futures, while the likes of Gray Davis and Bob Riley face political oblivion."

March 4, 2004. TBN finds the Tuesday primary results mixed for Maryland's center-right. Very good news is Sixth District U. S. Representative Roscoe Bartlett's emphatic renomination. This ensures that the Free State will continue to have a respected voice heard by the House leadership, in the Pentagon, and in Washington, D. C. science-and-bioethics circles. Dr. Bartlett is a Taxpayer Protection Pledge signer, as is renominated U. S. Representative Wayne Gilchrest of the First District. Also Pledge Signers are Robert Duckworth, who handily won the Republican nomination to oppose Representative Ben Cardin in the Third District, and Chuck Floyd, who will face Representative Chris Van Hollen in the Eighth District. Whatever the outcomes of these races, challengers Duckworth and Floyd are already giving substance and gravitas to Maryland's emerging center-right. E. J. Pipkin, now the Republican nominee for U. S. Senator and currently a first-term Maryland state senator, is a less likely hero for the center-right. The genial and refreshingly unpretentious candidate for United States Senator has so far turned a deaf ear to requests to sign the national Taxpayer Protection Pledge--which the President and most Congressional Republicans have eagerly agreed to. TBN wonders why a "jobs candidate" is uncertain about lowering taxes, Federal or Maryland. And how far can uncertainty go? The Baltimore.Sun last October quoted Pipkin, when asked about his position on Iraq, as saying, "it will all come out in good time." TBN nonetheless holds with redemption, and prays that candidate Pipkin grows in policy wisdom during the campaign. Stay tuned to hear about Pipkin on taxes, the economy and the related "global warming" scam, Thornton and education reform, and--not least--on defense!

March 4, 2004. Craig Barrett of the Fordham Foundation's American Diploma Project sends an EDUCATION SOS in the Wall Street Journal. "Our future competitiveness depends on taking bold steps to improve the quality of our K-12 system and its graduates. A common definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, hoping for a different result. One thing is certain. Our competitors will not wait for us to come to our senses -- they will continue to fuel the changes in education and infrastructure required to spark innovation."

March 2, 2004. In Dubious Battle: Governor Ehrlich should pick the right targets, writes MTA's Richard Falknor in VirginiaNewsSource. "The governor is not pushing first-class K-12 education for Baltimore children. He is not rejecting the substance of the Thornton Plan, a wrong headed scheme to dump millions more into the failed Maryland education cartel. He is not fixing Maryland government by modernizing the civil service and state-pension plans. He is not privatizing the state's giant transport and other potentially commercial state activities, steps that could bring in substantial revenue. His is a story of opportunities forsaken."