I'm hoping this might be my last post on the regressive Senior Tax Cut for a while.
But there is one thing worth noting. Who was behind this little gem? Why it would be none other than Gail Bates and Chris Merdon. Thats right, they engineered this in a blatant attempt to embarrass Ken Ulman. They purposely scheduled the vote for the week before the election. They purposely flooded the hearing room with their flunkies to pressure the Dems. They purposely flooded the County with false information concerning the tax cut for the rich, framing it instead as an emergency measure to keep poor seniors from having their homes foreclosed upon.
I'm glad to see the voters made the right choice. Let's hope the County Council and County Executive make the right choice too.
7 comments:
Steve, the guilty parties are Chris Merdon, Charlie Feaga, and Wayne Livesay. Gail Bates had nothing to do with it. Check your facts.
As to their motives. Getting at Ulman? Jeez Louise! The General Assembly passed the law permitting this kind of legislation. Are they after Ulman too?
I happen to think our seniors need a break. I know others (Bill Santos) thinks this is horrible. It is a special interest tax cut. You know what. If you can get rid of all special interest tax cuts then I won't support this one any longer.
It was rushed and half-baked. There is potential in helping seniors age in place, but in it's current form, it can easily be used by those who don't need it.
Gail Bates was out there pushing it. She even had her assistant come to the Columbia Democratic Club to request its support for the bill.
Steve, I am sure Gail was pushing it. However, that is not what I am challenging and not what you said.
You said "Thats right, they engineered this in a blatant attempt to embarrass Ken Ulman. They purposely scheduled the vote for the week before the election."
Gail supported the legislation because she has supported and proposed similiar legislation in the past. Her previous legislation was supported by the rest of the Howard County delegation too. Using your logic then the rest of the Howard County delegation would be guilty as charged too.
In short. Gail Bates is innocent of your charges.
I know all four of the individuals mentioned by Keelan. It is my sincere believe that their interest in this was not to get at Ken Ulman. They were coming from their hearts, they were thinking of the welfare of senoir citizens. I believed, supported, and promoted this issue as well. I still believe it has value to Howard Co.But I also believe there should be a complete review, a financial plan, based on zero-based budgeting to determine if the county can afford current and future programs. We have a lot of debt, such as the health care premiums for county employees, and school repairs that should be addressed first.
Annon 8:48 it is very clear that Merdon attempted to use the credit for the election to hurt Ulman.
Merdon repeatedly said that if it wasn't right, future council's (not the council proposing it) should improve it--code for let's rush it through and if I win, fix it and take the look that it really deserved before it was passed; if I lose, I screw Ulman.
This always seemed like an important issue to Bates and Livesay and I do believe that those two were sincere.
Feaga was Merdon's weapon the same way the Guzzone was Ulman's (poor Rakes and latter Ball just got caught in the middle--Ball was a bit smarter though).
Merdon may have wanted to do some good but the rush job and the media hype (may I remind you all that the current criticism of the tax cut was mysteriously absent during the campaign when Merdon was pushing it and sending out fliers and mass emails) made our seniors a campaign tool.
Well, had I known that this was going on, you would have heard from me! I was preoccupied.
When Gail Bates' assistant came to the Columbia Democratic Club to push the bill, I ripped into her. (At the time, I didn't know she was representing a Republican member of the House of Delegates, I thought she was a Democrat and boy was I offended).
I thought when the Bates bill died the issue was over.
Stupid me!
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