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Hiding the truth

Originally published in the Frederick News-Post

Economic & Fiscal Policy, Government Transparency

by Marta Hummel Mossburg

OP-EDS

The narrative coming from Annapolis reads like a weather report from early June: Sunny with months of balmy breezes ahead.

Whenever given the opportunity, Gov. Martin O'Malley talks about how much better off Maryland fares than the rest of the country. "Maryland's unemployment rate remains about 25 percent below the national average, and our private sector has now added jobs for five consecutive months," he said last month upon the release of the most recent employment numbers. (State unemployment is 7.1 percent compared with 9.5 percent nationally.)

He always adds that there is a long way to go, but the implication is that his leadership is behind the state's relative success, not the federal government making up nearly one-third of the economy in the state.

Why, then, did his administration recently remove an economic analysis of federal employment numbers from the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation website, hours after it was posted, showing Maryland's economic recovery stumbled in July? Administration officials deny any political motive for the removal, saying it was an "internal document" never meant to be posted.

First, everything the government does and writes is public. Only a few items can and should be shielded from the public eye, including, for obvious reasons, personnel information. So for administration officials to remove the document giving context to the state and national economic situation makes no sense. And it is reprehensible coming from a governor purportedly committed to transparency through regular data drops on StateStat (www.statestat.maryland.gov/), the website created to hold government accountable.

Taking down the document also shows the administration's disregard for the truth. Maryland may be doing better than the rest of the country, but don't state residents deserve a fair approximation of the economy coming from someone other than a governor fighting a tough re-election battle?

Listening to the governor means missing lots of key economic information, not just the analysis of recent jobs numbers. For example, has anyone heard him talk about how bankruptcies surged 36 percent in the past year in Maryland, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts? Nationally, they increased 20 percent.

And he has been silent on how the state will plug $1.5 billion-plus structural gaps in coming years. To be fair, neither has his opponent, Republican Robert Ehrlich.

According to a recent Government Accountability Office report (www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-899) on state finances throughout the U.S., "closing the fiscal gap over the next 50 years would require action to be taken today and maintained for each and every year going forward equivalent to a 12.3 percent reduction in state and local government current expenditures. Closing the fiscal gap through revenue increases would require action of a similar magnitude ... "

In Maryland that analysis can mean only one thing: higher taxes, since the governor and legislators are incapable of reducing spending.

The governor can spin the job numbers any way he likes. But he should not give residents a false impression of the state's financial outlook by denying them access to public documents. Not trusting the country's leaders is the reasons hundreds of thousands of Americans came to the National Mall last weekend to listen to commentator Glenn Beck. That turnout should serve as a warning to politicians who hide the truth.

Marta Mossburg is a senior fellow at the Maryland Public Policy Institute. Contact her at mmossburg@mdpolicy.org.