Maryland's Boom [An Unwitting Expose' of Liberal Tax Policy]

The Washington Post ^ | Saturday, May 6, 2006; Page A16 | WaPo Editorial

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LIKE SOME OTHER states, Maryland is enjoying the fruits of an economic boom whose bounty has intoxicated state officials and blurred their vision. A windfall owing much to the rising housing market has flooded the state's treasury with the sort of easy money that seems as if it might last forever. Politicians of both parties, in an election year, are happily spending the excess cash and cutting taxes besides. But it doesn't take clairvoyance to see that the state is digging itself a big hole; within three or four years, spending is projected to outstrip revenue by more than $1 billion a year in a general fund budget of about $15 billion.

Alarms started ringing about Maryland's so-called structural deficit a few years ago, after the state pledged to increase spending on education by hundreds of millions of dollars by 2008 without bothering to identify a funding source. But the alarms softened as the housing market and corporate profits soared. Much as during the late-'90s tech bubble, everyone forgot to worry about what lay beyond the immediate horizon.

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An affirmation of liberal tax policy. Notice the theme: The Good Times Can't Last.

Why not? Sure, you will always have economic cycles, but the conditions for growth remain when govt keeps spending in check and allows people to keep more of what they earn.

According to this editorial, your earnings are for social programs and the "downtrodden", not for schools, economic development, and infrastructure. This is the mindset that kills the boom times.

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From the article:

That bit of election-year razzmatazz [cutting the real estate tax by 2 cents] will save the owner of a $200,000 home all of $40 a year...

So? That $40 is mine.....not the state's.