State loses millions to more school dropouts

By Mike Silvestri, Examiner Staff Writer
Published on Wednesday, October 01, 2008
High-school dropouts cost Maryland about $193 million each year in lost tax revenue, according to a study released Tuesday. As the nation's dropout rate decreases, Maryland's has been increasing, and last year, about 27,000 high-school seniors in the state failed to graduate. Read More »

Study Finds Maryland Dropouts Take Huge Fiscal Toll On State Revenues, Taxpayers

Published on Tuesday, September 30, 2008
The state of Maryland loses about $193 million in tax revenues each year as a result of the state's growing number of high school dropouts, according to a study released today by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice and the Maryland Public Policy Institute.The study documents the public costs of high school dropouts in Maryland, examining how the state's decreasing graduation rates are materially affecting the state's finances through reduced tax revenues and increased public expenditures. The study was undertaken by Friedman Fellow Justin P. Hauke, a Chicago securities analyst and former economic research analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank at St. Louis. Read More »

A predictable budget problem

Originally published in the Baltimore Examiner

By Marc Kilmer
Published on Sunday, September 28, 2008
Less than a year after a legislative special session convened to deal with a budget deficit, Maryland once again faces financial problems. While some are expressing surprise at this turn of events, it was entirely predictable. Only willful ignorance of state budget history could lead one to be shocked at the current fiscal mess. I can say this as someone who, in both newspaper opinions and in testimony before the General Assembly, predicted that Maryland would collect lower tax revenue than expected and that spending would be higher than anticipated. I am not a psychic. I simply looked at past state spending and the experience of other states and concluded that the path taken by Gov. Martin O'Malley and the General Assembly would end in fiscal problems for the state. Unfortunately, our legislators and governor did not do the same. Read More »

The high cost of high school dropouts

Our view: Maryland loses millions of dollars a year when kids leave school without graduating

By Baltimore Sun Editorial Board
Published on Sunday, September 21, 2008
Last year, about 27,000 Maryland high school students dropped out of school before graduating. That was nearly a quarter of the state's Class of 2007, and Marylanders pay dearly for it. A study by the Maryland Public Policy Institute estimates that each class of high school dropouts costs the state about $50 million every year in lost tax revenues, higher Medicaid costs and the expenses of incarceration - dropouts are twice as likely as graduates to spend time in jail. Kids who drop out shortchange not only their own chances for success but also those of everyone around them. Read More »

O'Malley, other Md. leaders hail Shattuck's CEG deal

Originally published in the Baltimore Sun

By Laura Smitherman, Sun Reporter
Published on Friday, September 19, 2008
Two years ago, then-Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and Constellation Energy Group chief executive Mayo A. Shattuck III were trading barbs in public and through advertising campaigns over a proposed 72 percent electricity rate increase.What a difference a market meltdown of global proportions makes.The politician and the executive appear to have come together over financial woes at Constellation, which owns Maryland's largest utility. Their offices kept in close contact as Shattuck negotiated almost nonstop over 48 hours with a potential buyer. And when Shattuck finally settled a deal to sell Constellation to MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., they talked again. Read More »

Editorial: Maryland begs for a federal bailout

Originially published in the Washington Examiner

By Examiner Staff Writer
Published on Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Where will it end? First it was Bear Stearns, then Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Now the State of Maryland wants to get in line for a federal bailout. Maryland - so smart, so compassionate, so willing to increase taxes in order to provide a lavish smorgasbord of "free" government services - has finally hit the wall. The only surprise here is that anybody is surprised. Gov. Martin O'Malley promised all the usual special interests during his gubernatorial campaign that he would fix this and fund that. He called it "investing in our future." Members of the General Assembly were all too happy to join O'Malley's spend-athon. Now, less than a year after strapping a $1.4 billion tax hike on the backs of state residents, Maryland officials are drowning in a flood of red ink. Read More »

City seeking $190M in private financing to build new schools

Originally published in the Baltimore Business Journal

By Scott Dance, Staff Writer
Published on Friday, June 13, 2008
The Baltimore City school system needs private financing to fund $250 million in new school construction, a practice more states have turned to as building costs skyrocket and budgets stagnate. The city is hiring a financial consultant for $350,000 to look at public-private partnerships as a possibility to move forward a plan for seven to 10 new schools in the next decade. The school system is slated to get $40 million in state money and $20 million in city money for the projects, but it's not enough, leaders said. Read More »

Getting on board: Is mass-transit's surge a blip, or are we in it for the long haul?

Originally published in the Baltimore Sun

By Michael Dresser, Sun Reporter
Published on Sunday, June 08, 2008
It was June 2001, and the price of a gallon of regular gasoline had soared to $1.68 a gallon. It was so ridiculous that many folks said to heck with it, we'll take mass transit. And they did. There were 5 million more transit trips taken in the United States that month than the previous June.But by June 2002, with travel curtailed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, gas was down to a less burdensome $1.39. Public transit lost 23 million rides from the same month a year before as commuters returned to their cars. Not until 2004 would annual transit ridership return to 2001 levels.Now comes another June, with many Baltimore-area outlets selling gas for more than $4. Transit ridership is up nationally and locally, according to the American Public Transit Administration and Maryland Transit Administration. Read More »

Legislator, lobbyist: a delicate dance

Originally published in the Baltimore Sun

By Laura Smitherman, Sun Reporter
Published on Sunday, May 11, 2008
Maryland lawmaker Heather R. Mizeur shepherded a bill through the General Assembly this year to establish a new fund supporting the emerging field of nanobiotechnology. In the process, she also succeeded in securing a potential funding source for companies she had registered to represent on Capitol Hill.The Montgomery County Democratic delegate acknowledges working extensively for a nanobiotechnology company as a congressional lobbyist with the Washington law firm of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis, but she says she got clearance from the state legislature's ethics counsel to sponsor and vote on the legislation.That company ended its contract with the law firm around the time she introduced the bill. On matters related to other companies, she says she gave "generic advice" to colleagues and was listed as a lobbyist out of an abundance of caution. Read More »

U.S. and Canadian Think Tanks Release Joint Evaluation on Universal Health Care in Maryland

Published on Wednesday, April 16, 2008
ROCKVILLE, April 16, 2008-The Maryland Public Policy Institute of Rockville, Maryland and the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) of Halifax, Nova Scotia have released a joint evaluation of the proposal for a universal health care system in Maryland, providing both an American and Canadian prospective."Single-Payer Health Care for Maryland: Two Analyses" responds to a bill proposed by Del. Karen S. Montgomery (D-Montgomery) in the recently ended session of the Maryland General Assembly. It evaluates Montgomery's proposal and addresses the flaws in a statewide universal health care system including the high cost to the state budget that would inevitably lead to rationing of services by government officials. The 15-page report also issues strong warnings to Maryland from Canadians living under a single-payer system. Read More »