During her 16 years in the Maryland General Assembly and as a gubernatorial candidate in 1994, Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey was rarely shy about calling for tax cuts and reducing the size and reach of state government.
Today, in her second run for the governor's office, Sauerbrey has recast her positions -- sounding more and more like her rival, Gov. Parris N. Glendening.
She is still promoting hundreds of millions of dollars in tax cuts -- but her proposals for shrinking state government have vanished.
Instead, she predicts, tax cuts will spur an economic boom in Maryland, which will, in turn, boost tax revenues and eliminate the need for major cuts in state spending.
In the process, she has embraced several expensive state spending programs already championed by her Democratic opponent.
Sauerbrey's insistence that the state can have it all -- major tax cuts and expanded spending -- without a potentially harsh dose of fiscal discipline is just one piece of a determined strategy to moderate her message for an overwhelmingly Democratic electorate and avenge her razor-thin loss in 1994.
Known as perhaps the most conservative member of the General Assembly until she left in 1995, Sauerbrey has attempted to ease into the middle of the political spectrum for her Nov. 3 rematch with Glendening.
"I think what I'm attempting to do is give people a further picture of who I am and what my positions are," Sauerbrey explained in a lengthy interview last week. "I'm simply being realistic in saying I want to focus my efforts on what we can achieve in the next four years."
But her shift in focus does not just involve core issues of taxes and spending. On divisive issues such as abortion, gun control and union protection, Sauerbrey now rarely brings up her longtime, vigorous opposition. On education and the environment, her current stances are much more moderate.
While she voted against a landmark education funding bill as a legislator in 1984, she now supports increasing state education spending and the hiring of 1,000 additional teachers.
On the environment, she acknowledges a mistake in opposing an anti-phosphate initiative in the General Assembly. She promises to keep in place the key components of Glendening's two major environmental accomplishments -- Smart Growth and the anti-Pfiesteria bill -- opposed by conservatives.
Glendening has stepped up his criticism of Sauerbrey in recent weeks, accusing her of a disingenuous makeover designed to fool the voters. He has begun television advertising to remind people of her political evolution.
"She's absolutely flipping on things," Glendening said in an interview. "It's not that she's changed on one position. These are basic, basic issues, almost value issues."
Sauerbrey is quick to turn the question back on Glendening. "Hasn't he remade himself?" she asks, ticking off shifts in his approaches to the environment, education and abortion.
In any case, the policy differences between Sauerbrey and Glendening have begun to blur.
The governor, with the support of the General Assembly, has stepped up spending for education and committed more money to building or renovating schools than any governor in a quarter-century.
Sauerbrey, who voted against the precursor to the current education spending formula in 1984, now says she would not seek to change the state aid formula -- a $2.6 billion item this year that grows annually.
She wants to build even more schools than the governor. Like Glendening, Sauerbrey wants to hire more teachers to reduce some class sizes, at an annual cost of $40 million.
Sauerbrey has shifted her position on spending in other areas: She said she agrees with the governor's plan approved this year by the legislature to increase services for the developmentally disabled, which will cost the state an additional $68 million annually once fully implemented in four years. "I would intend to try to do exactly that," Sauerbrey said. "The only place I'm a liberal is in the area of the developmentally disabled."
While she has made no commitment to a pay raise for state employees, she criticizes Glendening for not doing more for workers during his first term. "If the state is in good times, as we have been for four years, state employees should have been enjoying some of the benefits," she said.
Although she rails against Glendening-backed state expenditures for stadiums, she says she has no objection to Glendening-backed projects such as a basketball arena at the University of Maryland, College Park or a performing arts center in Montgomery County.
Like the governor, Sauerbrey supports the state's acquisition of Deep Creek Lake in Western Maryland, a potentially costly purchase. "It's a state treasure, and I think that had to be protected," Sauerbrey said. "That would be a priority to me."
Critically, the two still diverge on taxes -- with Sauerbrey, despite her new penchant for spending, wanting to cut taxes more.
Sauerbrey says the state, which pared income tax collections by 10 percent two years ago, should cut an additional 14 percent -- including an income-tax cut for retirees with more than $15,000 in annual income as a first step.
Glendening, who backed the 10 percent tax cut in 1997, says the state should hold off on further reductions to make sure the economy remains strong and to protect key state spending on education and in other areas.
An additional 14 percent tax cut, once fully phased in, would reduce state revenues by more than $700 million -- out of a general fund budget projected to reach $9 billion by then.
Another major Sauerbrey proposal -- to phase out the use of gasoline tax revenues to help pay for mass transit -- would further reduce state revenue.
Sauerbrey would seek instead to use general tax revenues to pay for mass transit, freeing up more money for road construction projects such as the Intercounty Connector in Montgomery County. Such a shift in funding, if approved by the legislature, would eat up as much as $200 million in general fund revenue, according to legislative budget analysts.
Four or five years down the road, Sauerbrey could face some tough budget decisions, should she succeed in cutting taxes the full 24 percent and shifting mass transit costs -- while not cutting state government spending.
If she were to honor her promise not to touch the $2 billion in state education spending and continues to fund programs for the disabled, she could well have to find nearly $1 billion in spending cuts out of the rest of the general fund budget of less than $7 billion.
To get an idea of what this would mean, consider that the entire state public safety budget -- including state police, the state prison system and Juvenile Justice Department -- totals more than $1 billion.
But Sauerbrey has given little indication of how she would fashion a state budget to absorb a second round of major tax cutting. Instead, she promises generally to save money through unspecified efficiencies and to raise revenue by fostering growth in Maryland's economy.
"Every state that has cut taxes has seen an increase in job creation and economic development," Sauerbrey said, citing tax cuts in Michigan, New York and New Jersey in recent years.
"It will work. It works everywhere," she said in the recent interview. "You guys don't believe it, but it works everywhere it's tried."
Economists, however, vary on how or even if state tax cuts spur economic growth. The states that Sauerbrey cites have had a mixed record of creating jobs since the depths of the recession in 1991.
Maryland, for example, has had a higher rate of job growth in the past seven years than either New York or New Jersey -- but not Michigan -- according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Democrats say Sauerbrey's proposal does not add up and would lead inevitably to major state program cuts.
"Just simple arithmetic tells you you cannot continue to reduce the revenue and add spending programs and expect to have a balanced budget -- and at the same time promise you're not going to cut anything," said Del. Howard P. Rawlings, a Baltimore Democrat and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
Some Republicans say they are wary of more tax cuts as the national economy appears to be slowing.
Sen. Robert R. Neall, an Anne Arundel Republican who is considered an expert on state budget issues, said he would like to see more tax cuts, but only if the Maryland economy continues to surge, something he said is tied to national and international events, not state fiscal decisions.
"Planning your budget around future economic expansion is not something I would subscribe to," Neall said.
Sauerbrey gives herself some leeway: "I understand any governor has to do their budget on an annual basis and their tax-cutting plans on the basis of the economics we're dealing with."
Tax cuts aside, Sauerbrey seems to have found a lot more common ground with her Democratic opponent. For example:
The environment:
As a delegate, Sauerbrey usually opposed the toughest environmental protection measures, including the landmark 1984 Critical Areas bill to protect buffer areas around the Chesapeake Bay and the ban on phosphate detergents.
Today, as environmental activists -- including one dressed as a sick fish -- protest at her public events, Sauerbrey says she would support the phosphate ban.
The governor's Smart Growth policy seeks to curb suburban sprawl by directing state spending into designated growth areas and significantly expands the state's efforts to purchase environmentally sensitive lands. Sauerbrey said she would not seek to overturn it.
After criticizing Glendening's handling of the toxic Pfiesteria crisis on the Eastern Shore a year ago, Sauerbrey now says she would not try to wipe out the law enacted this year to reduce nutrient runoff into state waters.
On Glendening's move to spend $25 million to purchase most of the environmentally sensitive Chapman's Landing site in Charles County, Sauerbrey offers no philosophical opposition but criticized the governor for moving slowly and allowing the price of the land to escalate.
Labor:
Sauerbrey routinely voted against bills backed by unions and sharply criticized Glendening in 1996 when he instituted limited collective bargaining for state workers.
Now she proudly mentions in her campaign ads that her father was a union steelworker. She says she would not undo the governor's executive order on bargaining and supports the goals of the order -- providing better benefits to workers.
And while it remains her goal to make Maryland a "right to work" state, one in which mandatory union membership would be prohibited, she says she would not push for it in the face of strong legislative opposition. "That will not happen realistically," Sauerbrey said.
Gun control:
After opposing gun-control legislation as a delegate, Sauerbrey says she would not move to undo any of Maryland's laws, some of the stiffest in the nation -- saying she does not want to expend her "political capital" on legislation that would be opposed by the Assembly.
"Basically, she's running as a liberal Democrat," said Rawlings. "I think she recognized that this is a Democratic state and the Democratic policies of this governor and the General Assembly are what the public wants."
Added Glendening, only half-jokingly: "I appreciate her support."
Pub Date: 9/27/98