Will State Employee Pensions Bankrupt Maryland?

Posted on Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Maryland is running a $2 billion deficit and filling budget holes with one-time fixes. As the February Pew Center on the States report, "The Trillion Dollar Gap: Underfunded State Retirement Systems and the Roads to Reform," said: "Maryland's management of its long-term pension liability is a cause for serious concern."Click here for the news clip from Fox45 Baltimore.

State pension shortfall looms large for Maryland

Originally published in Center Maryland

By Tom LoBianco
Posted on Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Maryland's pension funding situation is one of the worst in the nation, a panel of financial experts said Tuesday.

Incentives no answer

Originally published in the Frederick News Post

By Marta Hummel Mossburg
Posted on Wednesday, March 31, 2010
"The CEO of Hilton reached out to us and said nice things but that it was a business decision." That quote, from a state economic development official in The Washington Post, describes the situation when Maryland lost Hilton Hotels to Virginia last year. But it could just as well describe BP Solar's decision to shutter its Frederick manufacturing plant and move operations abroad.

Serafini participates in panel on state pension and health care

Originally published in the Herald-Mail

By Erin Julius
Posted on Wednesday, March 31, 2010
ANNAPOLIS - A local delegate who has earned the nickname "Dr. Doom" within the Republican caucus on Tuesday took part in a four-person panel about the state's pension and health care obligations. In introducing himself, Del. Andrew A. Serafini, R-Washington, used the "Dr. Doom" nickname, which he's earned by sounding the alarm about the issue, he said. Serafini said he sees three major problems with Maryland's current benefits system: poor investment returns, over-promising and under-funding.

Md. Senate backs excising pork from budget

Originally published in the Washington Examiner

By Hayley Peterson | Examiner Staff
Posted on Wednesday, March 31, 2010
ANNAPOLIS - The Maryland Senate unanimously passed a measure Tuesday that would eliminate pork barrel legislation from the capital budget for the next two years.

Maybe it's time for Maryland to rethink its business plan

Originally published in the Baltimore Sun

By Marta Hummel Mossburg
Posted on Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi famously described Goldman Sachs as a "great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."

MTA faces legislative calls to raise rail, bus fares

Originally published in the Baltimore Sun

By Michael Dresser | Baltimore Sun Reporter
Posted on Monday, March 29, 2010
Linda Powell works at the Walmart at Golden Ring Mall and rides the Route 35 bus to work. At 55, Powell says she's got a long way to go before she's eligible for a senior fare. So the prospect of an increase in the Maryland Transit Administration's current $1.60 base fare - a step recently suggested by state legislative analysts - fills her with dread.

Government Pension Growth Unsustainable

Originally published in the East County Times

By Diane Carliner | East County Times
Posted on Saturday, March 27, 2010
A town hall forum concerning runaway government funding from taxpayers' pockets for pensions for Baltimore County Council members, the County Executive and others brought about 80 people to the Towson Library meeting room on March 15.

Republicans drop out

Originally published in the Gazette

By The Gazette
Posted on Friday, March 26, 2010
In opposing a bill to reduce the number of high school dropouts in Maryland, some Republicans in the General Assembly have chosen the wrong issue on which to demonstrate their fiscal principles.

A First Look At Maryland's Proposed FY 2011 Budget

By Gabriel J. Michael
Posted on Thursday, March 25, 2010
Each New Year brings another legislative session, and with it, another budget proposal. Prospects for recovery from this recession are good, but slow. While Maryland's unemployment rate is lower than the national average, analysts believe the state cannot expect full recovery until 2012 at the earliest.[1] Yet the economic toll of the past year only reinforces the importance of ensuring that the state of Maryland is fiscally responsible, promoting tax policies that will encourage economic growth while cutting costs and increasing the efficiency of services.[1] Jay Hancock, "Rise in temp workers a sure, if slow, sign of recovery," The Baltimore Sun, February 10, 2010, http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-02-10/business/bal-bz.hancock10feb10_1_temp-agencies-economy-recovery; Aaron Davis, "O'Malley puts 'economic recovery' ahead of tax increases," The Washington Post, January 22, 2010, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/21/AR2010012104724.html.