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Maryland: We Can't Afford Hiring Those Three! (But, if there is a fourth vacancy, please call me)
by David E. Meadows , 2007

The O'Malley administration is spending an additional $65,345.846 in 2008 to hire three new people for the Department of Budget & Management (DBM). Now, I could be wrong in my interpretation of the figures, but if they need a fourth at those wages, I am available.

The administration has a hell of a challenge. When they went in, they had a billion-dollar surplus. By the middle of 2007, that surplus was gone and to date the police still have no leads.

We as taxpayers must do our patriotic thing to help Maryland reduce the deficit until it finds the missing billion dollars. We are going to have to delay hiring hire those three new people. Can't afford them. Here is my logic why:

In 2006, the DBM had 431 souls working in the department (the budget says there were 430.8 people (have never figured out how you can have 8/10ths of a person). They spent $76,274,274 that year running the shop.

In 2007, those 431 souls were definitely overworked, so the state hired another 11 and increased the budget to $79,966,707.

In 2008, the year for the tax raises, the state is only hiring three more folks and expects to spend $145,312,553. Whew! That's over $66-million dollars. 66 is two-thirds of the devil, so are these three just unlucky or are they out-of-work CEOs?

Now, I'm a simple soul. I am taxed. I am a taxpaying taxpayer. But if I had to pay nearly $22 million for each of these hires I think I might reconsider hiring them, unless they are already on-board. Then, it might complicate the unemployment budget.

If we don't hire those three new people, we could return the budget for the Department of Budget and Management to the 2007 level not accounting for inflation and still afford a nice pay raise for the real Maryland government servants; the true heroes of our state.

If you want to see the PDF file where this information on the State FY08 Budget originated, it has been removed from the Department of Budget and Management web site. I have learned a valuable lesson from this. Don't send emails to your representatives asking questions about the budget. Especially if they are members of the ruling party.

David E. Meadows / SixthFleet.Com David E. Meadows Washington D.C. E-Mail readermail@SixthFleet.Com