The Blame Game

Does Maryland have ANY adults able to lead our state out of this mess?

Does anybody want to take responsibility for fixing Maryland's fiscal crisis?

It is bad enough that Governor Wes Moore tries to pass the buck on his reckless spending and tax increases onto former Governor Larry Hogan. Especially comical when you consider that Moore himself claims that “I don't point fingers. I point direction” despite his O’Malley-like obsession with blaming his Republican predecessor for his personal shortcomings.

But what’s worse is that the Democrats in the Maryland General Assembly seem altogether unsupportive of the one thing that could at least stop the bleeding: fixing Kirwin.

Kent County Schools Superintendent Mary McComas had just finished criticizing lawmakers for proposed cuts to the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future in the Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act, when she was gently corrected.

House Appropriations Committee Chair Ben Barnes (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel) thanked McComas for her service as a superintendent, then politely made a point.

“Just to be clear. This is not the legislature’s bill. I just want to be clear about that,” Barnes said, drawing a few chuckles and smiles from others at the hearing on the Moore administration bills.

Senate Bill 429 and its companion, House Bill 504, were proposed by the Moore administration and were the subjects of a four-hour joint hearing that brought together four legislative committees. In addition to Appropriations, members of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Budget and Taxation and Education, Energy and the Environment committees were on hand to hold a joint hearing on the bills.

It is beyond amusing that legislative Democrats want to make sure to put all of the blame on Moore for the proposed cuts to Kirwin. After all, the Kirwin-driven deficits are the Legislature's fault anyway. But neither Moore or legislative leadership seem to have the one thing the state truly needs to end this crisis.

A viable solution.