O'Guvnah is now expecting a "moderate" tuition increase in the University System of Maryland.  Whoopee.  Four years too late.  But there are other things that O'Guvnah should demand from the University System of Maryland.  Here's my list.

1. Tell University of Maryland, Baltimore President Ramsey to stop the unneeded printing of full color, die-cut heavy stock color annual reports.  Specifically mention Dean Reese's abominable waste of money.  And the four-color glossy newsletters printed on tabloid size paper.  It's a ridiculous waste of money.  Ever hear of email and PDFs?
2. Tell Bob Caret to disconnect his head from his arse and start charging out of state students at Towson University the proper tuition.  His finance staff, by improperly undercharging out-of-state students less than they should, have committed fraud against the Maryland taxpayer.
3. Tell University Of Maryland, Baltimore President Ramsey to stop subsidizing student parking at the Poppleton "BioPark" garage.  They pay less than half what employees pay-- and that is subsidized 50%. So students are paying 25% the "going rate".
4. To offset the increase in tuition, why not force the hand of professors on book selection?  Stop changing text books every semester or every year.  Stop allowing different sections of the same course to use different books.  Make professors who use textbooks THEY write to give their campus a discount (or the book can't be used).
5. Raise the tuition for out-of-state and international students.  Maryland taxpayers pay for these universities and colleges.  We back the bonds issued for capital investment.  We fund the pensions of professors and staff.  There should be a massive and demonstrable difference (I am thinking at least double) between the cost of a Maryland resident and a non-resident to attend a Maryland University or College.
6. Force professors at the undergraduate schools to carry more "required" courses on their teaching schedules, so that undergraduate students don't have to spend five years at college (or extra summer semesters) just to get the required courseload completed, because there are too many students and too few sections of The Zen of Underwater Basketweaving and Political History.
7. Sports programs should be self-sustaining.  You won't have to call Debbie Yow again and tell her not to fire Ralph Friedgen unless the money to pay him off is in her budget.  Note that I said "programs", not "teams".
8. Force university departments to use the same suppliers for things like software, computers, office supplies, water, and so on.  It's amazing how many different vendors serve one building at University of Maryland, Baltimore.
9. Start prosecuting administrators and management staff that engage in fraud and theft from cash accounts and grant funds.  Ask around, and you'll find out what I am talking about.

Millions are wasted outright every year on our campuses, because they are run without the natural benefit of a profit and loss approach.  As an employee of the University System of Maryland, it burns me every time I get a silly printed newsletter that I know cost at least seventy-five cents to a dollar to produce, all to feed the egos of over-indulgent academics looking for a good stroke.

It’s been a pretty ugly run for O’Guvnah these last three years, and the fourth doesn’t look any prettier.  After squandering a one-billion dollar surplus left by his predecessor, then suffering from a congenital condition that prevents him taxing less, spending less, and regulating less, the State of Maryland is in a pretty deep hole, well on its way to hell in an oyster shell.  Looking at another $1 billion deficit for the next fiscal year – in a year that includes an election for his very office – O’Guvnah is pondering who might run against him, and what their strengths are.  And his pick is:  Bobby Ehrlich.

O’Guvnah had laid all his hopes on a Clinton presidency, but those were dashed when her campaign nose-dived like the O’s in August.  Now, to keep any political future alive, he has to win re-election.  But he seems pretty convinced that Bobby Ehrlich stands in his way, sending out a fundraising dispatch that employs the “Ehrlich Factor”.  O’Guvnah, like all Maryland lawmakers and state-level elected officials, cannot raise money during the 90-day legislative session that commences on January 13th.  He claims that this is a GOP “advantage”. 

Of course, that leaves all of the other Democrat advantages in this state, like corrupt elections board officials, gerrymandered districts, ownership of the unions, and so on.

And this time around, you can pretty much count on the fact that Eddie Hale won’t be able to turn his branch properties into giant advertising whorehouses for the O’Malley/Brown campaign.  Not to mention the fact that there aren’t enough people working at the bank that care what Ed thinks about the 1st Mariner PAC anymore.  Ed Hale was a major bankroll and advertising advantage for O’Malley last time around, but now that Ed has pretty much blown his nuts off in the subprime collapse and 1st Mariner is teetering on the edge of both a NASDAQ delisting and a federal takeover, that well is dry.

So yeah, I’d say O’Guvnah is worried. He is his own Peter Principle:  he has risen to his own level of incompetence, and there are few to bail him out.

The leaders of the General Assembly are apparently pushing O’Guvnah Marty O’Malley to freeze state spending next year, in what the Baltimore Sun’s Laura Smitherman claims sends “a strong message that the legislature would not approve any big-ticket programs”. 

But here’s the rub:  the Spending Affordability Committee, a panel of but-kissing legislators from both the Senate and the House of Delegates, has proposed only a freeze on money the legislature controls.  That excludes spending involving federal funds.

I would say that doesn’t go far enough.  We already face a $2 billion shortfall in the 2011 fiscal year.  Combined with still-declining tax revenues, and an economy being kept alive only because of federal spending, I think that shortfall will actually be larger.  A better move would be to limit the state budget to 2010 actual tax collections, plus an additional five percent reduction in spending across the board.

Furthermore, the General Assembly should require that:

• The state approve no contracts with a period longer than five years excluding stadium leases;
• The Governor be required to call a Special Session if future tax collections require intra-session budget cuts greater than 10% OR furloughs/salary reductions of currently employed state employees as of 31 December 2009;
• The state be required to purchase energy from the cheapest and most affordable suppliers on the market, regardless of the source;
• The University System of Maryland raise out-of-state tuition substantially to cover budget shortfalls in the University System;
• The state refuse any federal stimulus dollars OR earmarks requiring state expenditures;
• All current taxes be given sunset dates requiring re-authorization within five years.

Of course, none of this will happen, because the left in this state is more interested in power.  And in Maryland, power flows from the purse, giving the most to those that don’t produce at the expense of those who do.

The past three years since the election of O’Guvnah Martin O’Malley have been quite illustrative in some of the major weaknesses of budgeting in Maryland.  It’s time that Maryland’s elected classes in Annapolis begin to come to terms with the facts on the ground, and not be lured by the siren song of power-hungry wet dreams when it comes to state finances and state budgeting.