One of my more inquisitive readers recently posed a question in the comments section, dripping with the sort of presumption that so often accompanies political discourse: “Can’t help wondering how Mr. Mitchell would propose to solve the $3 billion structural deficit that actually accrued under former Governor Hogan’s leadership?” I am, of course, compelled to reject the premise. Governor Hogan did not bequeath a deficit but rather departed Annapolis leaving behind a $5 billion surplus—a fact so indisputable that even Governor Moore, upon assuming office in January 2023, acknowledged Maryland’s “fortunate” financial standing. That this fiscal windfall has since deteriorated into crisis is a testament not to Hogan’s stewardship, but to the profligacy of those who followed.

If I was to write a full response on how I would propose to solve the $3 billion deficit, it would consume many hundreds of pages.  Instead, I shall offer just a few examples:

There is, to put it bluntly, something profoundly disturbing about a government so enamored with its own bureaucratic sprawl that it cannot so much as glance at its own expenditures without encountering redundancies thick enough to blot out the very sun of fiscal prudence. Maryland, the Old Line State, has become the Overlapping Line State, where agencies duplicate the functions of other agencies, where tax dollars hemorrhage in the service of inefficiency, and where reform is spoken of wistfully but never enacted. This condition is neither natural nor necessary. It is the predictable consequence of a government whose appetite for expansion exceeds its capacity for discipline.

One needs only to examine Maryland’s workforce development programs to appreciate the wastefulness of the current system. Here we have the Maryland Department of Labor overseeing job training, while the Maryland Department of Commerce, for reasons known only to the bureaucratic mind, also administers its own workforce grants. As if that were insufficient, the Maryland Higher Education Commission and local workforce boards run parallel efforts, their mandates overlapping like poorly laid shingles on an already leaking roof. 

The result? Administrative redundancy, programmatic inefficiency, and, worst of all, a workforce no better prepared than if a single competent entity had overseen the effort.

But let us not stop there. Consider the confounding patchwork of Maryland’s economic development initiatives, where no fewer than three separate entities—the Maryland Department of Commerce, TEDCO, and a constellation of county development offices—each claim to be the indispensable engine of business growth. Yet, despite their myriad grants, incentives, and tax credits, one struggles to discern a clear, unified strategy. Instead, what emerges is a bureaucratic hydra, each head snapping at the same objectives with little regard for coordination, let alone efficiency.

The absurdity extends to public safety, where law enforcement agencies multiply like rabbits under a full moon. Maryland State Police patrol the highways while the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) Police patrol the railways—both under state authority yet functioning as distinct entities. Meanwhile, the Natural Resources Police conduct enforcement that, in many instances, overlaps with existing state and local law enforcement efforts. To the bureaucrat, this fragmentation is a virtue—a testament to the government’s commitment to public safety. To the taxpayer, it is an unmitigated scam, a fiscal sinkhole in which precious resources are lost in the abyss of administrative fiefdoms.

Health and social services are no better. Marylanders must navigate an array of agencies—the Maryland Department of Health, the Department of Human Services, and the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange—each overseeing different, yet eerily similar, programs. Medicaid, food assistance, and housing support are administered not through a streamlined and cohesive system, but through an obstacle course of redundant offices, each armed with its own budget and bureaucratic prerogatives. That this inefficiency persists in a state so heavily taxed is an affront to reason.

The same could be said of early childhood education, where MSDE, the Department of Human Services, and county-level agencies each assert dominion over pre-K and childcare subsidies. And yet, despite this bureaucratic overabundance, no one could seriously argue that Maryland’s educational outcomes justify the labyrinthine complexity. If anything, the confusion serves only to exacerbate inequality, as parents struggle to decipher which agency, which program, which level of government, will deliver the services their children need.

Beyond bureaucratic redundancy, Maryland is also burdened by a host of government-funded programs that would be far better suited for privatization or outright elimination. Consider Maryland Public Television (MPT) and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) – both entities that, while culturally valuable, should operate independently of state funding, sustained instead by private donations and sponsorships.

In particular, MPT is often defended on the grounds that it provides vital educational programming such as Sesame Street. Yet, this argument crumbles under scrutiny. Sesame Street is not a public service; it is a commercial enterprise. Sesame Workshop, the organization behind Sesame Street, generates enormous revenue through licensing and merchandising. 

In 2004, more than 68% of Sesame Street’s revenue came from toy and clothing sales. By 2005, licensing and international co-productions generated $96 million annually. Between 2008 and 2019, Sesame Street Muppets raked in $15 to $17 million per year in merchandising fees, with proceeds split between Sesame Workshop and The Jim Henson Company. In 2018, Sesame Workshop’s largest revenue source was royalties and distribution fees, totaling $52.9 million. This is not a struggling nonprofit in need of government assistance; this is a multimillion-dollar brand with extensive private sector backing.

Maryland taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize what is, in effect, a free advertisement for Sesame Street merchandise. If MPT provides value, let it prove so in the free market. There is no compelling reason why it cannot sustain itself through private sponsorships, viewer donations, and corporate underwriting, just as countless other media organizations do.

The same logic applies to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO). This is an organization that provides entertainment to an insular audience of citizens—a cultural function, not an essential public service. The BSO has received repeated taxpayer-funded bailouts despite its ability to generate revenue from ticket sales, private sponsorships, and philanthropy. 

Adding insult to injury, the salaries of BSO’s top executives further illustrate why public subsidies are unnecessary. For example, in 2021, the BSO’s President and CEO earned over $400,000 (more than the Governor), and other high-ranking executives commanded six-figure salaries. If the organization can afford to pay its leadership handsomely, it should also be able to figure out how to operate without dipping into the taxpayer’s pocket.

These are but a few examples of where Maryland could implement cost-cutting and privatization reforms. The opportunities do not end here. With new AI tools rapidly advancing, many ministerial duties currently performed by state employees could be automated. 

For instance, processing permits and licenses, a task that consumes countless hours of government labor, could be handled by AI-driven systems that review applications, check compliance, and issue approvals within minutes. Similarly, document classification and retrieval in legal and regulatory offices could be streamlined through AI-powered databases, eliminating the need for redundant clerical work and freeing up human resources for higher-value tasks.

These reforms, privatizations, and cost-cutting measures must be enacted before state leaders come back to the well in the 2026 Session, demanding more from Maryland taxpayers. The burden should not continually fall on citizens’ wallets when there is ample room for restructuring government operations to operate more efficiently and responsibly.

I have written before, in Fiscal Reform for Maryland, that the state’s budgetary trajectory is unsustainable. A government that fails to trim the fat will, in due course, find itself feasting on the substance of its people. Maryland must resist this course. What is needed is a top-down reorganization—one that consolidates workforce programs, eliminates redundant business incentives, streamlines law enforcement, and centralizes social services. The principles are simple: one agency per function, coordination instead of duplication, and efficiency over empire-building.  

Governor Marvin Mandel reformed and re-organized the state’s government over 50 years ago without the aid of computers or artificial intelligence and in an era where there were no departments and over sprawling 240 agencies.  Certainly, we can now reform state government, make efficiencies, and bring forth a working bureaucracy for the 21st century.

The time for half-measures has passed. If Maryland wishes to retain even a semblance of fiscal responsibility, it must rein in its bureaucratic excess. Let those who resist such reform be reminded: a government that exists to serve itself ceases to serve the people. And a government that ceases to serve the people is one that, sooner or later, the people will cease to support.

Clayton A. Mitchell, Sr., is a lifelong Eastern Shoreman, an attorney, and the former Chairman of the Maryland Department of Labor’s Board of Appeals. He is also the co-host of the Gonzales/Mitchell Show podcast, which discusses politics, business, and cultural issues. 

The moral imagination of Maryland’s governing class has suffered an embarrassing decline, leaving us with a legislature that has confused deception for discipline, cost shifting for cost cutting, and fiscal smoke and mirrors for sound governance. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act (BRFA) of 2025, a piece of fiscal trickery that Governor Wes Moore and his allies in the legislature would like you to believe represents responsible budget trimming.

Thanks to the reporting by David M. Higgins, II, in the Southern Maryland Chronicle, we have a clearer picture of what is really transpiring in Annapolis. The state, staring down a staggering $3.3 billion shortfall, has opted for the path of least resistance: shifting financial burdens onto county governments while simultaneously engineering a tax grab that would make even the most committed Keynesian blush.

Maryland’s counties are being handed the privilege of plugging the state’s budget holes, courtesy of new unfunded mandates. The partial shift of teacher pension costs—initially proposed at $195.5 million but mercifully whittled down to $97.7 million—remains a significant encumbrance on counties that have no say in pension policy. Meanwhile, counties are now forced to pay 90% of the State Department of Assessments and Taxation’s (SDAT) $21.2 million annual cost, a program they do not control but upon which their property tax revenues depend. If there were a contest for the most cynical example of cost shifting, this might win it.

But wait… there’s more! Governor Moore and his legislative enablers have decided that counties should also foot half the bill for wrongful incarceration compensation settlements. This bill is measured in billions of dollars. 

It seems we have reached a point where the state can create obligations and then outsource the financial responsibility—an arrangement that would make any private-sector accountant recoil in horror.

As Higgins has reported, the Maryland Association of Counties (MACo) has rightly raised alarms over these fiscal acrobatics. Counties already contribute $1.4 billion more to public school funding than required under the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a shortfall exacerbated by state underfunding of special education and student transportation. That the state continues to lean on counties to shoulder even greater burdens is an admission of its own budgetary incompetence.

For those in Annapolis, the word “cut” seems to have lost all meaning. This is not budgetary restraint—it is a calculated effort to offload expenses onto local governments while maintaining the illusion that state spending has been prudently managed. Governor Moore is not reducing the size of government; he is merely hiding its growth by pushing the bill elsewhere.

Of course, no discussion of the BRFA would be complete without acknowledging the latest assault on Maryland taxpayers. With surgical precision, the state has carved out new revenue streams, each more insidious than the last. The 6.25% income tax rate for earnings between $500,001 and $1 million, coupled with a 6.5% rate above $1 million, is expected to drain $344 million from the private sector. The 2% capital gains surcharge? Another $367 million extracted from investors and entrepreneurs. Then, there’s the 3% sales tax on data and IT services, set to pull in a staggering $497 million—because nothing says “business-friendly” like new taxes on innovation and technology.

But wait—there’s even more! Increased vehicle excise taxes, doubled titling fees, surging registration fees, and an escalating cannabis sales tax round out this exhaustive menu of revenue grabs. It is a tax-and-spend bonanza that would make even the most avowed redistributionist beam with pride.

The Annapolis progressive elites have attempted to sell this package as a balanced, thoughtful approach to governance. They tout their supposed budget cuts as evidence of prudence. Yet, as Higgins’ reporting makes clear, these are not cuts. These are liabilities dressed up as savings, costs shifted downward so that Annapolis can pretend to be fiscally responsible while counties are left to either raise property taxes or slash essential services.

In the end, this is a story as old as government itself: the state expands, the burden increases, and the citizens—whether directly or through their local governments—are left holding the bag. Governor Moore and his allies will no doubt continue their rhetorical tap dance, assuring Marylanders that they are the responsible stewards of taxpayer money. But make no mistake: what they have produced is not fiscal discipline. It is an exercise in obfuscation, a cleverly packaged con that attempts to disguise tax hikes and spending shifts as responsible governance.

One can only hope that Marylanders—particularly those at the county level—recognize the deception for what it is. The legislature may be able to shuffle costs around, but it cannot change the fundamental reality: state government has failed in its duty to live within its means, and it is the taxpayers who will ultimately pay the price.

But hey, at least Annapolis gets to pretend it’s fiscally responsible for another year.

In the shadowed corridors of Annapolis, where budget discussions echo like the whispers of palace intrigue, Governor Wes Moore remains conspicuously absent. While legislative leaders, hands wringing and brows furrowed, haggle over Maryland’s spiraling fiscal woes, the governor has chosen to divert his gaze to the distant horizons of national prominence. It is a curious thing: when Marylanders require leadership most, their governor appears more interested in cementing a political brand than in confronting the financial crisis unfolding under his watch.

Gary Collins, of WBFF FOX 45, has aptly chronicled Moore’s national escapades—whether it be the gilded Gridiron Dinner in Washington or a leisurely Sunday appearance on “Face the Nation.” These engagements may flatter his ambitions, but they do little to assuage the anxieties of Marylanders who see their tax burden poised for yet another precipitous climb. 

Collins has been particularly diligent in exposing the administration’s reluctance to engage with local media on pressing financial issues, highlighting Moore’s preference for national exposure over state-level accountability. And climb it will, regardless of the semantic pirouettes performed by legislative leaders. Whether labeled a “business-to-business tax” or a “sales tax on some services,” Marylanders will soon feel the cold hand of government extracting more from their pockets.

Senate President Bill Ferguson assures us that we are “very, very close” to a budget framework. But to what end? The process is taking longer than usual, deadlines have come and gone, and the only certainty is that the taxpayers will foot the bill for the incompetence of single-party rule. 

The deficit has metastasized from a surplus of $5 billion to a shortfall of $3.3 billion—an astonishing reversal in just a short period of time. The Senate Minority Leader, Steve Hershey, sees this predicament with clarity: Maryland’s overreliance on federal largesse has left it vulnerable to the slightest tremors in Washington. The pattern is undeniable: crisis, federal bailouts, and an utter refusal to heed the warnings of fiscal reality.

Yet Governor Moore, despite his repeated assertions that he is “working very closely” with lawmakers, has done little to clarify his stance on the tax proposals currently under discussion. As Collins reported, Moore has declared that a broad business-to-business tax is off the table, but only in the sense that it must be accompanied by a broader tax on consumers and individual taxpayers. This is the governing equivalent of promising to hit the taxpayer with a left hook rather than a right. 

One imagines the Maryland Chamber of Commerce nodding along grimly, understanding that the distinction is largely academic. As Mary D. Kane, President of the Chamber, succinctly put it, “It’s the same problem in different packaging.”

Senator Hershey’s analysis is equally unflinching: Maryland cannot tax its way out of this deficit. Yet that is precisely what legislative leaders are attempting, while Governor Moore offers no resistance. Instead, he indulges in rhetorical hedging, allowing the legislature to move forward with tax increases while preserving a fig leaf of plausible deniability. The message is clear: he may not lead the charge, but he certainly won’t stand in the way.

Senator Justin Ready has articulated the frustration many Marylanders feel, noting that Moore seems more interested in “decisions he’s not making” than those he is. Del. Mark Fisher, never one to mince words, went so far as to accuse Moore of “ignoring Maryland” in favor of his national ambitions. Collins’ reporting underscores this sentiment, documenting Moore’s repeated absences from key budget discussions and his conspicuous silence on looming tax hikes. The governor’s office, when pressed, offered a response so perfunctory as to be insulting—boasting of in-state visits that do nothing to address the gaping chasm in the state’s budget.

It is telling that even as Moore decries the economic consequences of Trump’s tariff policies, his own administration is unable to substantiate the claim that Maryland’s port is suffering. On the contrary, recent data indicates an increase in car and container traffic. It is a curious thing, this compulsion to deflect blame to Washington, even when the facts are uncooperative. But in the absence of decisive leadership, misdirection becomes the next best strategy.

Tyrone Keys, a financial services and real estate expert, has cut through the smokescreen with admirable concision: “We can’t afford anymore.” And that, ultimately, is the reality that eludes Moore and his legislative allies. Marylanders are not an inexhaustible source of revenue. They cannot perpetually absorb the cost of government mismanagement. And they are right to ask: where is our governor?

If Moore harbors aspirations for higher office, he might consider that competent governance is the surest path to political viability. As things stand, his tenure is becoming an exercise in abdication—one where fiscal calamity looms, tax burdens rise, and Maryland’s governor is nowhere to be found.

On March 12th there was a joint meeting of the Maryland House and Senate on the electric and gas rates hikes in Annapolis.  The Vice-Chairman of the Committee was Delegate Brian Crosby of St. Mary’s County.

To observe Delegate Crosby in action is to be reminded that bluster is no substitute for wisdom, and that the loudness of one’s indignation does not make a position more valid. Upon watching his obvious attack on political strategist Len Foxwell on the Maryland General Assembly’s livestream, one might wonder whether the delegate from St. Mary’s County thinks he is engaging in serious debate or simply enjoys throwing punches at imaginary enemies. The evidence suggests the latter.

Mr. Foxwell, the principle of Tred Avon Strategies, whose record as a sharp and independent commentator on Maryland politics is well established, had the audacity to point out on social media what should have been obvious to anyone paying attention: Senate Bill 1 – which Delegate Crosby so proudly sponsored,- has had exactly the consequences its critics warned about… to the detriment of Maryland’s already burdened ratepayers.

According to the latest Gonzales Poll, 50% of Marylanders say the state is moving in the wrong direction.  In the same poll, 76% of Marylanders say that their electric bill is much higher (57%) or somewhat higher (19%) compared to one year ago.

Yet instead of responding with a logical argument or engaging in a real discussion, Delegate Crosby opted for a petty tirade, painting Mr. Foxwell as some kind of recluse living in a bunker, accusing him of working for corporate interests, and engaging in the sort of juvenile name-calling one would expect from an internet troll rather than an elected official.

Orwell once warned that some ideas are so absurd only intellectuals believe them, but in this case, even basic reasoning seems to be missing. There is no mystery here. Senate Bill 1, hailed by its corporate backers as a win for consumers, has done exactly what its opponents predicted: it gutted competition in Maryland’s energy market, forced private suppliers out of the state, and left everyday Marylanders stuck with soaring utility bills from monopolies they cannot escape.

That Delegate Crosby now acts surprised is either willful ignorance or political dishonesty. He was warned. He was presented with the facts. And yet, he marched forward, blind to the consequences, dismissing critics who pointed out the obvious flaws in this grand plan.

As for Mr. Foxwell, his argument needs no defense. It is rooted in reality, and reality doesn’t care about a politician’s ego. He has not, as Crosby absurdly claims, “whipped up” public anger. As patently demonstrated in the Gonzales Poll, the public is plenty angry on its own—because they are the ones struggling to pay for heat, light, and basic necessities while Maryland’s utilities rake in record profits. Their anger is justified, because anti-competitive policies like Senate Bill 1 have made life harder for working families who don’t have the luxury of ignoring bad legislation.

Marylanders deserve better. They deserve leaders who take their responsibilities seriously, who listen, who correct courses, and who understand that governance is about more than grandstanding. 

As for Mr. Foxwell, one suspects he will continue doing what he does best: holding the powerful accountable, speaking uncomfortable truths, and refusing to be silenced by the predictable, childish tantrums of those who fear accountability. And for that, he deserves our thanks.

Clayton A. Mitchell, Sr. is a life-long Eastern Shoreman, an attorney, and former Chairman of the Maryland Department of Labor’s Board of Appeals.  He is co-host of the Gonzales/Mitchell Show podcast that discusses politics, business, and cultural issues. 

“Let me tell you how it will be
There’s one for you, nineteen for me
Cause I’m the taxman
Yeah, I’m the taxman… 

And you’re working for no one but me.”

-The Beatles

In the grand tradition of political mendacity, Governor Wes Moore has presided over what can only be described as a fiscal calamity, an unforced error of staggering proportions. As reported with commendable diligence by Gary Collins of WBFF FOX 45’s Spotlight on Maryland, the state now faces a veritable chasm in its budget – a deficit of $3.3 billion. Instead of deploying the intellectual fortitude required to navigate this quagmire, Moore’s administration has opted for the more convenient approach of feigned obliviousness, coupled with an indiscriminate barrage of tax increases designed to strangle Maryland’s economic vitality.

Among the most egregious of these proposals is the so-called “business-to-business tax” – a “dog whistle” for economic contraction – that will extract a 2.5% levy on indispensable commercial services like marketing, financial planning, IT, and tax preparation, to name but a few. As Collins reports, business owners across the state, from financial experts like Tyrone Keys to small entrepreneurs such as Manchester Town Councilman Ryan Nazelrod, are raising alarms about the dire consequences of these tax hikes. 

It was the late economist Milton Friedman who observed that “inflation is taxation without legislation,” but Moore has spared himself even that philosophical subtlety; he is quite content to impose a direct, palpable, and economically corrosive burden on the very enterprises Maryland ostensibly wishes to attract.

Predictably, the middle class, the backbone of any functioning republic, will be made to bear the brunt of these economic impositions. As Collins reports, Nazelrod, an entrepreneur who endeavors to support his family through a part-time landscaping business, articulated a sentiment that should be axiomatic to any serious statesman: “I feel like it was said we are going to tax richer people, and the middle class is going to be left out of it, but I am a middle-class guy.” And yet, despite the protestations of those whose livelihoods are imperiled by these policies, the Moore administration remains ensconced in a fog of ideological certitude.

Public sentiment aligns with Nazelrod’s concerns. According to the January 2025 Gonzales Poll, Marylanders overwhelmingly oppose raising taxes to address the looming deficit. The poll assessed opinions on property, sales, and income tax increases, and the results were unequivocal. 

A staggering 77% opposed raising property taxes, 76% rejected an income tax hike, and 73% were against increasing the sales tax. Even among Moore’s strongest supporters – those who “strongly approve” of his job performance – opposition to tax increases remained high, with 71% against raising property taxes, 67% opposed to an income tax hike, and 62% rejecting a sales tax increase. This widespread rejection underscores the reality that Moore’s fiscal strategy is fundamentally misaligned with the will of the people he purports to serve.

When confronted with the reality of Maryland’s deteriorating fiscal condition, Moore and his acolytes have displayed a remarkable talent for rhetorical sleight of hand. Delegate Ben Barnes, in a moment of political absurdity that would make Orwell wince, sought to place the blame on “Donald Trump, DOGE, and Elon Musk.” To attribute a state’s fiscal woes to the machinations of a cryptocurrency meme and a South African billionaire requires a level of creative fiction typically reserved for the pages of speculative literature.

Yet even this artful deflection pales in comparison to the governor’s most costly blunder: a prodigious expansion of the state’s payroll. Since taking office, Moore has overseen the hiring of 5,000 new state employees, the cost of which is estimated at $425.7 million annually. 

As Collins further reports, at least 3,300 of these positions stem directly from Moore’s budget priorities. This, in a moment of fiscal peril, is not merely irresponsible but a veritable affront to the principles of sound governance. As Keys astutely observed, “The state should be run under the same general practices that Fortune 500 companies run by. The biggest expense in any organization is the human resource’s part, so where can we find efficiencies?” Alas, such elementary economic reasoning appears to have eluded Moore and his clique of bureaucratic enthusiasts.

When pressed for a coherent response, the Moore administration, in a performance of almost Shakespearean evasion, resorted to that most trite of gubernatorial stratagems: blaming one’s predecessor. The claim that Moore “inherited an economic flatline” is an insult to both historical accuracy and the intelligence of Maryland’s citizenry. Under Governor Larry Hogan, the state’s budgetary affairs were in demonstrably better shape, and to suggest otherwise is to engage in revisionism of the most brazen kind.

The governor’s political capital, meanwhile, is diminishing at a rate commensurate with the state’s economic prospects. His push for alcohol sales in grocery stores was rebuffed, his budgetary decisions overturned by the legislature, and his influence within his own party is, at best, questionable. 

As Collins notes, even the Democratic-controlled legislature has disregarded Moore’s preferences, reinstating millions in funding for the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future after he removed it from the budget. Keys so succinctly put it: “The legislature is supposed to jockey for power, but you may not have as much of that coming from the executive because Wes Moore is a new governor and look, I think everybody knows, he’s not fully focused on the State House.”

Indeed, therein lies the crux of the issue. Moore appears more enamored with the lofty daydreams of national prominence than with the pedestrian responsibilities of state governance. If he continues on this trajectory, his tenure will be remembered not as one of growth and renewal, but as a cautionary tale in the annals of political ambition – a reminder that governing requires not just soaring rhetoric, but the mundane, often tedious, yet absolutely indispensable qualities of prudence, discipline, and a modicum of humility.

Maryland deserves better.

Clayton A. Mitchell, Sr. is a life-long Eastern Shoreman, an attorney, and former Chairman of the Maryland Department of Labor’s Board of Appeals.  He is co-host of the Gonzales/Mitchell Show podcast that discusses politics, business, and cultural issues. 

n Maryland’s General Assembly, an insatiable appetite for taxation continues unabated. Rather than exercising the fiscal discipline expected of responsible stewards of the public trust, lawmakers such as Delegate David Moon (D-Montgomery) remain ideologically beholden to the notion that government largesse must never be curtailed, only expanded. The latest incarnation of this fiscal overreach is a proposed 2.5% sales tax on certain business-to-business services – an imprudent scheme that threatens to undermine Maryland’s economic vitality while serving as a mere stopgap in the face of a looming $3 billion budget deficit.

This taxation policy, as reported by Bryan Sears in Maryland Matters, is yet another attempt by Annapolis’ Democratic majority to siphon additional revenue from Maryland businesses rather than confronting the obvious truth: the state government has grown far beyond its means. Instead of addressing budgetary inefficiencies, implementing structural reforms, or cutting superfluous spending, Delegate Moon and his compatriots believe that Maryland’s private sector—already burdened by high taxes and regulatory constraints—should bear even greater financial strain.

Contrast this reckless profligacy with the reasoned opposition of Senate Minority Leader Stephen S. Hershey Jr. (R-Upper Shore), whose statement cuts through the legislative fog like a scythe. “In the Maryland Democrats’ obsession to raise taxes,” Hershey rightly notes, “they have now concocted a new business-to-business sales tax that will make it even more expensive to operate a business in Maryland.” At a time when neighboring states such as Virginia and Delaware offer far more attractive commercial environments, Maryland’s ruling class appears hellbent on driving enterprise across state lines, leaving economic stagnation and job loss in its wake.

The reasoning offered by Delegate Moon is as audacious as it is specious. With the air of an overconfident central planner impervious to the realities of market forces, Moon asserts that his tax proposal “provides balance” to any necessary spending reductions. This is the language of a politician who sees no intrinsic virtue in a leaner, more efficient government but instead views taxpayers as mere financiers of his legislative wish list. Were Moon and his colleagues sincere in their desire to achieve balance, they would begin by excising wasteful expenditures, consolidating redundant agencies, and reining in the bloated bureaucracy that continues to drain state coffers.

This latest revenue grab also serves as a pointed reminder of Annapolis’ historical ineptitude in taxation policy. One need only recall the infamous 2007 attempt to tax computer services – a disastrous experiment that was quickly repealed after a swift and well-justified backlash. The current proposal, which targets accounting, lobbying, and IT services, is simply a variation on that same failed theme, one that will yield similar economic consequences should it pass.

Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) and his confederates argue that the evolving economy necessitates a revised tax structure. Yet their approach is as unoriginal as it is damaging. A “service-based economy,” as Ferguson describes it, is indeed an economic reality, but the answer to shifting economic paradigms is not to tax innovation and entrepreneurship into oblivion. True economic stewardship requires fostering a business climate conducive to growth, not one that penalizes success with an ever-expanding web of taxation.

Maryland’s taxpayers and business community should be outraged. They should reject outright the fallacious notion that government’s first recourse in times of financial strain must be to extract more from those who produce. Instead, the electorate must demand a thorough reformation of state spending priorities, a commitment to fiscal restraint, and the eradication of policies that punish economic productivity.

Delegate Moon’s proposal is not merely a misguided policy – it is an affront to sound governance. Meanwhile, Senator Hershey and his Republican colleagues, though outnumbered, stand as the last bulwark against this relentless march toward fiscal irresponsibility. Marylanders must rally behind them and demand better from their elected officials. 

The choice is clear: we either capitulate to the unchecked expansion of government and its insatiable hunger for revenue, or we reassert the primacy of free enterprise and responsible governance. Let us hope that reason prevails before Maryland’s economic fortunes are further imperiled… but I’m not holding my breath.

Clayton A. Mitchell, Sr. is a life-long Eastern Shoreman, an attorney, and former Chairman of the Maryland Department of Labor’s Board of Appeals.  He is co-host of the Gonzales/Mitchell Show podcast that discusses politics, business, and cultural issues. 

The great satirist P.J. O’Rourke once quipped that giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. Were he alive to observe the ongoing legislative session in Annapolis, he might have found his analogy woefully inadequate. 

While I have been out of town for the past few weeks, the Maryland General Assembly, led by an insatiable Democratic majority and enabled by Governor Wes Moore, is once again indulging in its annual fiscal bacchanalia at the taxpayers’ expense.

Among the latest misadventures in legislative chicanery is a proposed 2.5% tax on business-to-business services – a brazen money grab expected to net more than $1 billion. This is a classic maneuver from the left’s playbook: impose new taxes on businesses under the guise of sparing middle-class families, all the while knowing full well that these costs will be passed along to consumers. The notion that businesses will absorb this new levy without consequence to Maryland’s economy is the kind of economic illiteracy that can only flourish in the cloistered confines of a one-party legislature.

Even as businesses brace for this latest assault, Moore’s efforts to prune Maryland’s sprawling and bloated bureaucracy remain conspicuously absent. Despite his lofty rhetoric about fiscal responsibility, the governor has shown little appetite for meaningful structural reform. Instead, he and his legislative allies have chosen to double down on a well-worn strategy: spend more, tax more, and pray the economic consequences don’t arrive before the next election cycle.

Nowhere is this penchant for reckless spending more evident than in the ongoing funding debacle surrounding the so-called “Blueprint for Maryland’s Future.” Governor Moore, perhaps sensing the state’s impending fiscal catastrophe, had the temerity to suggest a modest pause in certain elements of the plan. But within mere minutes – literally, five minutes in the House Ways and Means Committee – Democratic lawmakers summarily rejected the governor’s attempt at prudence. Instead of responsibly reassessing the plan’s feasibility, they have chosen to hurl more taxpayer dollars into the ever-expanding maw of Maryland’s public education bureaucracy, heedless of a looming $3 billion budget deficit.

And then there is the Child Victims Act, a piece of legislation whose moral authority was never in question but whose fiscal implications were callously ignored.  One of the law’s chief proponents, Delegate C.T. Wilson, now finds himself stunned – stunned! – by the sheer volume of claims against the state, a predictable consequence of removing the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse lawsuits. With roughly 3,500 cases filed against Maryland so far, the state now stares down billions in potential liabilities. Wilson, after years of righteous advocacy, is now backpedaling, scrambling to amend the law and limit the damage.

Meanwhile, in a move so predictable it borders on self-parody, Maryland lawmakers have proposed a tax on sugary beverages – a paternalistic scheme projected to raise $450 million annually. The ostensible aim is to fund free school meals and childcare subsidies, but the ultimate effect will be to place yet another financial burden on working families who can ill afford Annapolis’s ever-growing appetite for their hard-earned dollars. Once again, the progressive governing class believes it knows best how to regulate personal choices and fill the state’s coffers in the process.

Throughout all of this, one thing remains clear: when the Maryland Legislature is in session, taxpayers must guard their wallets with vigilance. Rather than exercising fiscal restraint, our elected officials continue their unchecked expansion of government largesse, heedless of the consequences. Instead of streamlining government to meet economic realities, they create new taxes and pile new obligations upon future generations. And instead of learning from past mistakes, they march blindly down the well-trodden road of ever-increasing expenditure, convinced that the answer to every problem lies in the bottomless purse of the taxpayer.

Governor Moore, for all his soaring rhetoric, has proven unwilling – or unable – to curb this profligate spending spree. His occasional gestures toward responsibility are swatted aside by a legislature that views any attempt at fiscal prudence as heresy. The result? More spending, more taxes, and an ever-deepening budget hole that Maryland’s working families will ultimately be left to fill.

As this legislative session grinds on, the citizens of Maryland would do well to remember one unassailable truth: when government gathers in Annapolis, it is rarely to serve the people. More often than not, it is to serve itself.

Clayton A. Mitchell, Sr. is a life-long Eastern Shoreman, an attorney, and former Chairman of the Maryland Department of Labor’s Board of Appeals.  He is co-host of the Gonzales/Mitchell Show podcast that discusses politics, business, and cultural issues.

Maryland politicians love to tout their environmental credentials. From Annapolis to Baltimore, they celebrate ambitious climate goals, promote expensive renewable energy projects, and impose stringent regulations on businesses, all under the banner of making Maryland a “green” leader. But in reality, Maryland is not green—Maryland is irresponsible.

The state’s environmental policies are not about sustainability; they are about virtue signaling. Instead of practical, balanced solutions, Maryland pursues costly and inefficient programs that burden taxpayers, drive away businesses, and produce little measurable benefit for the environment.

Take offshore wind, for example. Governor Wes Moore has aggressively pushed for an expansion of offshore wind energy, promising jobs and clean energy. Offshore wind is a promising technology, but it remains in its early stages of development and has yet to prove itself as a reliable, cost-effective energy source. These projects are often plagued by cost overruns, delays, and unpredictable energy production, making them an uncertain foundation for Maryland’s energy future.

Maryland’s broader commitment to renewable energy follows a similar pattern. While the transition to cleaner energy sources is an important and worthwhile goal, the reality is that renewables—at least in their current state—are insufficient to meet the high and rising energy demands of businesses and households. 

Instead of acknowledging this reality and ensuring a measured, practical transition, Maryland’s leadership is charging ahead with premature policies that retire fossil fuel generation without securing adequate replacement capacity. The result? The rather ridiculous situation in which Maryland is phasing out its own fossil fuel generation, only to turn around and import… fossil fuel-generated electricity from other states at a premium price.

Maryland’s energy crisis further exposes the state’s failures. As Pennsylvania State Senator Kristin Phillips-Hill recently pointed out—as reported in a recent article by Fox 45 News’ Jessica Babb—Maryland already imports about 40 percent of its energy from other states, including Pennsylvania. Many of these electric generation plants use fossil fuels. With the upcoming decommissioning of the Brandon Shores power plant in Maryland, that number is set to rise. Phillips-Hill didn’t mince words:

“Governor Moore likes to tout that he is green, and Maryland’s green, and nothing could be further than from the truth, absolutely nothing could be further from the truth. Maryland is not green. Maryland is irresponsible.”

As Jessica Babb reported, even Maryland’s own energy officials acknowledge the grim reality. Paul Pinsky, Director of the Maryland Energy Administration, admitted at a legislative hearing this month that the state is unlikely to meet its goal of 100% clean energy by 2035.

Babb also reported that officials from PJM, the regional grid operator, have described Maryland’s energy outlook as “dire.” Meanwhile, Pennsylvania residents and businesses are forced to bear the cost of Maryland’s failed policies, as energy projects like the Cuffs Run Hydroelectric Project threaten farms, forests, and waterways to accommodate Maryland’s growing demand.

Making matters worse, Maryland lawmakers have doubled down on flawed policies with misguided legislation like Senate Bill 1 (SB1). Instead of addressing the state’s growing energy crisis, SB1 further limits competition in the retail energy market by imposing stricter licensing requirements, marketing restrictions, and regulatory oversight on electricity and gas suppliers. This reduction in competition makes it harder for Marylanders to shop for lower-cost energy options, forcing them into expensive, regulated utility plans with fewer alternatives.

Additionally, SB1 expands the Public Service Commission’s (PSC) authority, increasing financial assessments on public service companies—costs that will inevitably be passed on to ratepayers. Rather than protecting consumers, the bill burdens them with higher costs at a time when inflation, supply chain issues, and broader economic pressures have already made energy unaffordable for many Maryland households and businesses. The bill’s restrictions on marketing “green power” also create unnecessary barriers to alternative energy solutions, potentially slowing the transition to affordable renewable energy rather than accelerating it.

In response to my recent article on this subject in The Spy – Next Generation Energy Act: Powerless Policy, Costly Consequences – some readers took issue with my argument that Maryland’s current energy policies are failing. Comments included:

• “Maybe we should hold the electric monopoly accountable for refusing to cut into their profits and taking our tax dollars without getting with the times or living up to their promises. Like the dam Exelon owns and refuses to repair or clean up with their BILLIONS of dollars.”
• “Other countries have converted almost completely to green energy, and people are paying lower utility bills than ever.”
• “Fossil fuels are the PAST.”
• “Ridiculous. You want a return to the prioritization of fossil fuels? Oil? Coal? No way.”

These are passionate responses, but they ignore a fundamental reality: Maryland is failing to produce energy responsibly. While some claim that other countries have transitioned to green energy with lower costs, they ignore the subsidies and government intervention required to make those systems function. They also overlook the fact that Maryland’s renewable energy policies have resulted in higher costs and greater energy insecurity.

Maryland’s failures do not stop with energy policy. The state constantly blames Pennsylvania for pollution in the Chesapeake Bay while ignoring Maryland’s own mismanagement of stormwater runoff, failing wastewater treatment facilities, and sewage overflows into the Bay. The same politicians who claim to be environmental champions have allowed this infrastructure to deteriorate while pushing billions in spending toward trendy and unproven green initiatives.

Beyond the environment, Maryland’s overall governance is equally irresponsible. The state’s tax policies drive away businesses and residents, making it less competitive regionally. Its education system, despite record spending, continues to underperform. Crime in Baltimore remains a crisis. Yet, instead of addressing these pressing issues with pragmatic solutions, Maryland’s leadership remains fixated on grandstanding over climate policies that are more about politics than results.

If Maryland truly wanted to be a green leader, it would invest in practical solutions: modernizing roads and infrastructure, aggressively promoting nuclear energy development, gradually phasing out fossil fuel generation plants over decades as economically viable green energy capacity develops, improving local environmental management, and encouraging innovation rather than regulation. Instead, the state doubles down on ideological policies that have a high price tag and accomplish little.

The progressives are allowing themselves to be beguiled by their chronic lofty rhetoric and utopian fantasies, all while ignoring the economic burdens on ordinary working and middle-class ratepayers, energy instability, and environmental mismanagement that their policies continue to create. Maryland is not green. Maryland is irresponsible. And until the state prioritizes results over rhetoric, that won’t change.

Clayton A. Mitchell, Sr. is a life-long Eastern Shoreman, an attorney, and former Chairman of the Maryland Department of Labor’s Board of Appeals.  He is co-host of the Gonzales/Mitchell Show podcast that discusses politics, business, and cultural issues.

Maryland’s Democratic leadership, ever intoxicated with the heady vapors of their own ideological ambitions, has once again foisted upon the citizenry an energy proposal that, far from alleviating the plight of ratepayers, ensconces them deeper in the clutches of spiraling costs and bureaucratic folly. In their obstinate commitment to so-called renewable energy, they have demonstrated a devotion to fantasy that would be charming were it not so ruinous.

The essence of this latest foray into energy policy is a three-part legislative package purportedly designed to curb soaring electricity costs and bolster in-state production. Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Adrienne Jones have trotted out the Next Generation Energy Act, a high-minded but ultimately ineffectual measure that flirts with the notion of new energy generation so long as it conforms to the whims of hydrogen conversion and carbon capture—a concession to reality so minuscule as to be imperceptible.

With a rhetorical flourish, Ferguson intones that more energy production in Maryland will diminish reliance on imported power and reduce the need for transmission lines disrupting private property. And yet, at its core, this proposal lacks the audacity to commit to the one remedy that might actually yield results: the immediate and unabashed construction of reliable, fossil-fuel-based and nuclear power plants.

Republican leaders, to their credit, have called out this exercise in futility. Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey rightly characterized the announcement as “underwhelming at best,” a sentiment that should resonate with any Marylander whose electric bill has become a source of financial distress. Senator Justin Ready, with a biting accuracy, laid blame squarely at the feet of the Democratic supermajority’s decade-long infatuation with green energy mandates—an infatuation that has left the state’s power grid in a precarious state.

Meanwhile, the Democrats, in a moment of near-comical self-contradiction, decry the state’s growing energy crisis while simultaneously championing the very policies that have exacerbated it. Their plan to deregulate solar and battery storage—heralded as a means of “spurring growth”—amounts to little more than removing local safeguards to fast-track projects that will do precious little to meet actual demand.

The most egregious element of this misbegotten initiative is the push for artificial rate caps. Economic history, for those inclined to consult it, is littered with examples of such measures producing consequences diametrically opposed to their intent. Price controls inevitably distort markets, suppress investment, and precipitate shortages. If Maryland Democrats wish to test this economic axiom firsthand, they are certainly poised to do so—at the expense of their constituents.

As Republican leaders have astutely noted, the truly pragmatic path forward necessitates a revival of nuclear energy and a sober reassessment of Maryland’s ill-advised retreat from fossil fuels. The Democratic insistence that “it’s never acceptable to build another fossil fuel power plant” is not merely wrong—it is recklessly ignorant of the pressing realities of modern energy consumption.

In their zeal to achieve a net-zero utopia, Maryland’s Democratic lawmakers have conjured a policy that offers neither immediate relief nor a viable long-term strategy. This is not governance; it is dogma masquerading as pragmatism. The citizens of Maryland deserve an energy policy grounded in logic, not delusion – one that acknowledges that, for the foreseeable future, the most reliable means of keeping the lights on is not an expansion of wishful thinking, but the embrace of energy sources that have actually proven their efficacy.

If Maryland’s Democratic leadership insists on enshrining this folly into law, then so be it—but let them be assured that every time Marylanders open their electric bills and recoil at the cost, they will know precisely whom to thank.

Clayton A. Mitchell, Sr. is a life-long Eastern Shoreman, an attorney, and former Chairman of the Maryland Department of Labor’s Board of Appeals.  He is co-host of the Gonzales/Mitchell Show podcast that discusses politics, business, and cultural issues.