Legum’s New Line

There are a lot of people who dismiss political blogs as the ramblings of people with an inflated sense of self importance. Occasionally that’s true, but oftentimes blogs can play a useful role in making government work better.

Recently, Maryland Politics Watch published a post noting that many members of the Maryland Legislature received “non-revenue” E-Z Passes that allowed them to go through toll booths for free. It was an uncomfortable revelation since the Maryland Transportation Department just imposed additional monthly fees on everyone else.

A few days ago, according to a document obtained by Maryland Politics Watch, the legislature announced they were ending the free E-Z Pass program.

I think this was the right call amid a national economic downturn and a persistent state budget deficit. But it also might not have happened had the free E-Z pass program not been publicized by a blog. It’s a small but important example of how new media can make government work a bit better.

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Here’s a short clip from a campaign event last week in Annapolis with Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler. I hope it gives you a sense of the approach that I want to bring to the State House as a Delegate from District 30.

Watch it:

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Check out some photos from our fundraiser last night. It was held at Annapolis Sailing Fitness in Eastport with special guest Attorney General Doug Gansler.

Video from the event coming shortly.

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Yesterday, the EPA released a preliminary report outlining a new federal effort to restore the health of the Chesapeake Bay. The Washington Post highlights the key change in the EPA’s approach:

In the fight against such problems, the EPA now serves as a kind of shepherd — prodding and cajoling a group of state and federal agencies that are charged with forcing or nudging ground-level polluters to make changes. If a state misses its pollution goals, nothing happens.

Now, the EPA said, it wants to function as a taskmaster. States will be given a certain amount of pollution to reduce and will have two years to submit a plan for doing so. If they don’t make a plan, or if the plan isn’t good enough, the EPA can cut their federal grants or reject permits for new shopping malls, sewage plants or suburban developments.

EPA officials said they have had this power for years but have not used it in this way. Doing so will be politically difficult — the federal government, and the state officials who have to cut pollution at individual farms and sewage plants, are both likely to face heavy lobbying…

Howard Ernst, a political science professor at the Naval Academy who studies Chesapeake Bay politics, highlights the challenge:

“The powers have been sitting on the books for a generation. Why weren’t they enforced for a generation? Because powerful interests have worked to keep them not enforced. And those interests haven’t gone away.”

I’m running for State Delegate to stand up to the powerful interests and help restore the Bay to health.

You can read the full EPA report here.

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To close Maryland’s widening budget gap, the state has slashed spending for cancer research, reduced reimbursements for health-care workers, cut spending for transportation projects, furloughed state workers and raised the sales tax.

Meanwhile, half of the state’s largest for-profits corporations pay zero taxes to Maryland.

Maryland is among the states that still allow corporations to “shift money between subsidiaries to veil profits and avoid paying taxes.” For example, Toys ‘R’ US avoids paying taxes in Maryland by shifting its profits to a tax free subsidiary in Delaware. A legislative fix to the problem, called “combined reporting,” was defeated in the Maryland General Assembly in 2007. Requiring combined reporting for corporations in Maryland could raise as much as $125 million per year in additional revenue.

In 2007, the Washington Post described the General Assembly’s failure to act as “another air kiss to the deep-pocketed set.”

Twenty-one states representing 51% of the U.S. economy now prohibit corporations from avoiding state taxes by requiring combined reporting. Since Maryland is not among them, we are now paying the price.

[HT: Del. Saqib Ali]

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