LOGIN NOT A MEMBER? REGISTER

FOR PRESS CONTACT US  SUPPORT

The Maryland Public Policy Institute

• RESEARCH
• Criminal Justice
• Economic & Fiscal Policy
• Education
• Environment
• Gas Tax
• Government Transparency
• Health Care
• Transportation
• Welfare
• EXPERTS
• EVENTS
• MPPI PRESS
• ABOUT US
• POLICY BLOG

Alternative Strategies

Originally Published in the Frederick News-Post

Welfare

by Marta Hummel Mossburg

OP-EDS

Maryland is a rich state. It needs to stay that way to pay its bills to public-sector retirees and the growing underclass filling Medicaid rolls.

With a new report that the state could lose up to 150,000 jobs in coming years if federal spending is trimmed by 22 percent as suggested by a bipartisan commission, that status is in jeopardy along with entitlement payments.

Maryland needs to do something radical to save itself. We all know legislators in this one-party state will not cut taxes to attract new businesses and people. And if Democrats behave as expected in the redistricting process, it will be even more difficult to restore fiscal sanity to the once Free(er) State.

If spending less is off the table, legislators need to think "big" to remedy projected $1 billion-plus yearly deficits.

Here are a couple of suggestions of that ilk:

(1) Remove poor people from the state. For a temporary period of time it would be voluntary. Anyone who makes less than $40,000 per year would be given an "incentive package" to leave. Each member of the underclass would receive a $2,000 gift card to cover moving and travel expenses to hasten their departure. In addition, the state would provide one-way bus service to Minnesota or Wisconsin, states known for their generosity. This offer would obviously force a large one-time hit on the treasury, but think of the millions (hundreds of millions?) the state would save in teacher salaries due to fewer students, road repair work due to lighter traffic, and health care and welfare payments.

After a six-month trial period, the state police would visit each home and inspect tax records to ensure that only those above the baseline income bracket would be allowed to stay. Those in violation would have their driver's licenses canceled to start and would be sent increasingly large monthly fines to speed their outmigration.

(2) Encourage "Voluntary Transitioning." That is not my suggestion, it is novelist Christopher Buckley's sage advice in "Boomsday."

Voluntary Transitioning legislation would offer tax breaks to people to kill themselves by age 70. It would provide all the drugs they need for an easy departure and give those sacrificing themselves for the younger generations the right to pass on their wealth to their offspring without "death taxes."

Social Security would be solvent forever if every state adopted this rule -- and just think, no elderly could ever be abused in nursing homes.

Penalties for "non-early withdrawal" could be debated by the state legislature -- which by default would be filled with fresher-faced people with new ideas.

An added benefit of both plans is that they truly would lead to Gov. Martin O'Malley's ideal of "One Maryland" -- as it would be younger, healthier and more equal economically. If the suggestions sound unpalatable or even appalling, think of the children. They are our future -- unless we ban them to save natural resources. Hmmm. Something to think about.