Annie Linskey reports the word out of Annapolis that State Prosecutor Robert Rohrbaugh is upset about the "paltry" budget Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration has proposed for him for the coming fiscal year. A bit of payback from former Mayor Sheila Dixon's "partner in progress" for the man who took her down? If so, the governor need some serious nastiness lessons -- he's punishing Mr. Rohrbaugh by increasing his budget.
The state is set to spend about $1.2 million on the office, $18,000 more than last year, an amount that largely reflects the higher costs of employee benefits. But it eliminates a vacant position and would replace it with a contract job. Mr. Rohrbaugh, who wanted to keep that position as a state employee so as to attract more qualified staff and who evidently wanted more resources to fulfill his duties to investigate public fraud and election law violations, calls his proposed budget penny-wise, pound-foolish. Spending more on his office, he said in written testimony, would "assure that the hard-earned taxpayer dollars are being used as intended and are not being diverted by fraudlent, manipulative dealings of public servants."
But an economic case might not be Mr. Rohrbaugh's best argument. His success in prosecuting Mayor Dixon was crucially important in that it reiterated the importance of integrity for public servants and helped restore trust in government. But the amount of money involved was tiny, and none of the allegations Mr. Rohrbaugh brought against her involved misappropriation of public funds. If the amount of fraud, waste and lax management were the yardstick, the wiser investment would seem to be the Office of Legislative Audits -- which just last week reported on $410,000 in questionable retention payments given to a former University of Maryland School of Law dean and which has previously uncovered cases of outright fraud at state agencies.
But at a time when Maryland is slashing hundreds of millions from the budget and cutting programs that provide crucial support for the state's most vulnerable citizens, Mr. Rohrbaugh should count the fact that his "paltry" budget hasn't been cut to the bone as a victory.