By Rick Abbruzzese, Director of Public Affairs
We wanted to share this Letter to the Editor from Governor O’Malley.
Dear Editor:
We are all entitled to our own opinions; we are not entitled to our own facts. The Editorial Page of the Wall Street Journal falsely claimed Maryland’s tax policies have driven countless millionaires out of our state. In fact, the number of millionaire households in Maryland has actually increased by 19% since our Administration took office.
In fact, today Maryland has the highest percentage of millionaire households in the United States.
In fact – even after the tax reforms of 2007 (which attacked the $1.7 billion structural deficit our Republican predecessors left our state) – a recent study by the non-partisan Federal Funds Information for States and State Policy Reports, finds that AS A SHARE OF INCOME, Marylanders pay the third lowest state and local taxes. We also pay the 9th lowest sales taxes.
Maryland is one of only eight States earning a AAA bond rating. Unlike the ideological falsehoods spewed by the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, we believe in a balanced approach to public finance of cuts, investment, and – yes – revenue.
After cutting $8 billion in spending (the most in Maryland’s history) and shrinking one of America’s smallest state governments by 5,600 positions, our legislature did, in fact, ask households with taxable incomes of $150,000-$250,000 per year to pay another $250 a year.
Both nationally, and here in Maryland, we’ve seen the difference between governments that take a balanced approach of cuts, modern investment, and balanced revenues, versus governments that embrace the Bush policies which squandered record surpluses into record deficits and brought America into the greatest economic crisis this side of the Great Depression.
Because we’ve opted in Maryland for a balanced approach, on a percentage basis, we’ve been able to recover nearly twice the jobs lost during the Bush recession as has the country as a whole. This year, Maryland’s businesses achieved their best quarter of new job creation since 1999, creating jobs at three times the rate of their counterparts in Virginia, and more than one and a half times the national rate.
Facts are stubborn but sometimes hopeful things. Last year, under President Obama, America’s businesses created more jobs than they did during the entire presidency of George W. Bush.
While some may pine to take America back to the Bush years, here in Maryland we stand by our President’s vision to move America forward with greater job creation, greater opportunity, and greater fiscal responsibility.
Sincerely,
Martin O’Malley
Tags: balanced approach, facts, future, LTE, opinions, schools, Triple A bond rating
