Maryland Has a Chickens**t Problem, But It’s Not in the Bay
If you’re a taxpayer in the state of Maryland, you’re getting hosed. That’s doubly true if you’re a Maryland state employee. Governor O’Malley announced this past week that all state employees will have to take at least two furlough days, in order to save about $34 million from this year’s sorely out of balance budget.
Meanwhile, O’Malley is going to spend twice that amount to buy some prime real-estate so that no evil developer can build a Chicken Poop Dumping Station on the shores of our precious Chesapeake Bay.
Did you catch that? We’re in such dire straits here that Governor O’Malley is forcing a pay cut on every state employee, yet he’s managed to find the cash to buy up some prime plots of real estate in a market where land is still overpriced (meaning that if the state ever wants to sell it, the taxpayers will lose money) so that chicken farmers can’t sully the waters of the Bay. The voters didn’t agree to buy this property. The Governor decided on his own, under pressure from radical environmental groups who have been crusading for years to choke off private development of the land that we all own. Indeed, the Maryland government owns a larger percentage of our land than any other state government in America. And he’s going to buy more right in the middle of a dire economic situation.
Oh, by the way, you helped fund all of that thanks to something called Project Open Space. The state skims part of the taxes on every real estate transaction to fund the program, which isn’t apparently affected by the current budget woes at all. But even though your tax money bought and paid for that state land (along with some Federal funds. Thanks, rest of America!), don’t think you can just use that property, either. It’s going to cost you. You’ll have to pay an entry fee and abide by all manner of access rules and regulations. That assumes you can enter the property at all. There are hundreds of acres of state-owned land that you can’t access for any reason, ever. Heck of a racket the government has there, don’t you think?
Let me sum that up for you. According to Governor O’Malley, runoff from chicken farms is more important to him than the financial well-being of the residents of his state.
It seems to me that we Maryland residents should be a lot more worried about the chickens**t in Annapolis more than what might end up in the Chesapeake Bay.
Other Posts of Interest:
- Between and Rock and an Oppressive, Democratic Place
- New York Soon to Become Miserable, Depopulated Place, Thanks to David Paterson
- Two Tales of 50 Million Dollars.
Category: Our New Democratic Overlords, The Economy and Your Money, The Rise of the Nanny State
So you want to throw 10,00 people out of work rather than do what is possible to save those jobs that support families, pay mortgages and buy groceries during the current Bush recession.
What an easy choice for you.
Funny how you whine and bit** and have no other solutions to offer. I wonder if you even understand the Roosevelt quote you love so much.
You could be a Republican delegate or senator. Or, a radio talk show host.
All finger pointing, no fix.
@SmashPach –
At what point did I say I wanted to throw anyone out of work? What I want is for the state to use that $72 million it used to buy overpriced land that will now not help the economy of the state and use it to forestall the furloughs and bring down the deficit that Governor O'Malley helped cause with his radically-increased spending.
[...] Right before Christmas, I noted how the Governor’s furlough plan is slated to save about $34 million while at the same time he’s spending over twice that to buy up some property to keep it safe from nefarious chicken farmers. This week, he upped the ante of idocy. [...]