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MARYLAND
TAXPAYERS ASSOCIATION URGES PASSAGE OF HB 922 Testimony
of Chairman Wood, Sponsors Redmer et al., and members of the committee, I am Richard Falknor, vice president of the Maryland Taxpayers Association (MTA). Our statewide grass-roots volunteer organization strongly supports this initiative that carries a promise of a better life in the Free State. MTA has a particular interest in steps such as the proposed commission that can midwife 'transformational change' in the ways state government does its business. By this, we mean ways --- made possible in part by the information revolution --- that are radically more productive, ways leading to lower costs, ways done by fewer employees working smarter with more compensation choices, and ways that intrude less on the lives of citizens. In our view, such changes mean a smaller burden on that part of the economy that produces the goods and services undergirding our prosperity. Here are just two (of many) urgent challenges MTA sees facing the Commission on Government Efficiency when authorized: (1) How best to size and manage the state workforce. "The size of the State work force has reached new heights," a General Assembly budget expert declared at last fall's spending affordability briefings. We invite committee members' attention to the fact that governor Zell Miller put hiring and firing in the Georgia civil service on a standard business basis in 1996, and that Florida put 16,000 senior state positions on a standard business basis in 2001. (2) How best to build public facilities. Public-private partnerships in school construction, for example, could offer substantial savings. But even the old-fashioned way, through direct public financing, could be liberated from prevailing-wage costs in Maryland. Let me refresh committee members' memories with Comptroller Schaefer's letter of February 17, 2000 on this vexing matter: However, a Maryland State Department
of Legislative Services study done in 1995 shows that the Maryland state
prevailing wage law's administrative application of the union wage-and-benefits
scale to state construction projects (other than school facilities) adds
between 5% and 15% to the cost of these projects. There also is
information reflecting that prevailing wage laws may add as much as
20% to 30%. Because the amount of tax dollars to be spent on school
construction in any given year is defined by budget allocations, if the
cost of school construction is arbitrarily increased by 15% or more, the
only result can be a reduction in the number of classrooms to be built
or rehabilitation work to be performed by that same percentage. [Emphasis
MTA's] MTA president Kenneth Timmerman, as many of you know, is both a journalist and an author who is now away on professional duties. He deeply regrets not being able to be here in person to discuss, in today's meeting, MTA's proposed Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), modeled on that of Colorado. MTA plans, however, to present a TABOR briefing for legislators later this year, and to present many and more detailed recommendations to the Commission when authorized. Members may find details on workforce, public-facilities construction and parallel reforms in other states on http://www.mdtaxes.org MTA's website. |