Senator Richard Colburn and State Comptroller Peter Franchot were in attendance this Tuesday at YMCA of the Chesapeake’s 58th Annual Celebration at Easton’s Tidewater Inn. Included among the proceedings was a special award presented by Franchot, the William Donald Shaeffer Award, to recognize the efforts of longstanding volunteer YMCA Tom Hill.
But prior to presenting Mr. Hill with his award, Franchot spoke at length about the state of Maryland’s economy in light of Governor O’Malley’s new income, property, and gas tax increases passed on May 14. By no means a diffident critic of the new taxes, one of which raises taxes on the 14% of Maryland families making over $150,000 a year, Franchot described them prior to the special session in a public letter as “the wrong approach at the wrong time”, and has been vocal in his objections in speaking engagements across the state.
Long distinguished from his democratic peers for his fiscal conservatism, Franchot’s tone Tuesday night was no different. Speaking out strongly against the new taxesat the YMCA event, and not without a touch of humor, he outlined his “simple formula” for what Maryland’s struggling economy needs to recover. This all comes in the wake of his announcement last week on WJZ-13 that he is considering running for governor.
“Right now, in the state of Maryland, as wealthy as we are, we rank almost dead last in the country in private sector wage growth, we ranked number one in the country last month in job loss, more job losses than states like California and New York. We’ve had our home values–perhaps not in this area, but around the state- drop by a third. So we have considerable difficulties as far as employment, consumer confidence, and the real estate market.”
“I have a pretty simple formula for how to fix not only the economy of the state, but also the state’s business reputation, and it basically appeals to those things that pull us together rather than push us apart. I suggest that we take a time-out from tax increases and fee increase for at least two years.”
Other topics Franchot covered were, transparent balancing of the budget, the folly of state funded slot machines, and the promotion of financial literacy among young people, a subject particularly relevant to those preparing for college or already in the midst of navigating their loan payments.
“A passion of mine is financial literacy for young people…I would like to have a special session focused on financial literacy, not how to promote gambling and casinos, bring Vegas into Maryland. Why don’t we bring financial literacy? Why don’t we ask our banks, our private sector partners to link up with our school systems to provide finance academies, give our kids the building blocks of wealth and prosperity, that’s what they need.”
“And frankly, then they can then pass that onto their parents, those of us who learned it in the school of hard knocks. And if they really get good at it, they can come down to the legislature and communicate with folks.”
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