Gov. Larry Hogan has wisely rejected, not "ignored" the top budget priorities of the leftist General Assembly leaders — spending increases for mostly useless education bureaucrats, administrators, consultants and contractors, more funding for the pathetic O'Malley/Brown version of Obamacare, and pay raises for all state employees, including the legions of political hacks, incompetents and non-producers ("Gulf widens over budget," April 10).
Hogan was elected precisely because a solid majority of the voters are disgusted with this grand welfare system that benefits the well-connected rather than minorities and the poor, the main constituencies of the paltry welfare system.
The perennial financial fiasco in Baltimore City's public schools is a perfect specimen of our devastating national problem of overgrown, wasteful and self-serving governance. Baltimore spends more on a per student basis than almost all Maryland counties. Yet, academic performance by its students is among the worst in the state.
Per student spending in fiscally responsible and well-managed Harford and Carroll county schools is among the lowest in the state. Their per student performance is among the highest.
Currently, and at least as long ago as the O'Malley administration, Baltimore school auditors have periodically reported nebulous multi-million dollar deficits, e.g., $58 million in 2004 and $63 million currently. A major component of the reported plan to eliminate the current deficit is the layoff of 100 of the 1,000 non-teaching administrators in the system's central office. A recent report has their average annual pay at $107,000.
Undoubtedly, many more than 10 percent of these grand welfare recipients ought to be fired.
Regardless of the outcome of this dispute and its relatively limited significance, Governor Hogan has made an excellent start in the effort to dismantle Leviathan government that poorly serves both the general public and the purported beneficiaries of its programs.
Barry C. Steel, Phoenix