Looking Senate President Mike Miller directly in the eye, County Executive Ike Leggett issued a challenge to him and the county’s statehouse delegation this morning: do not cut county aid or risk “severe” consequences.
The County Executive made his remarks at the annual legislative breakfast held by the Committee for Montgomery (CFM), perhaps the county’s broadest advocacy organization. Movers and shakers from business, labor, civic associations and non-profits regularly convene at CFM events, and especially at its December breakfast. This year’s speakers included U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, U.S. Representatives Chris Van Hollen and Donna Edwards and new County Council President Phil Andrews. But the big news was made by Uncle Ike and Big Daddy.
Now Ike Leggett is a perfect gentleman. He does not rant. He does not pound the podium. And he is not prone to hyperbole. (Thank heaven that he has not tried blogging.) But his message to Annapolis was clear. After Council President Andrews and the other speakers extended warm greetings to the Senate President, the County Executive began, “Senator Miller, all those nice things we said about you are well-deserved… now just give us the money!”
Ike Leggett speaking directly to Mike Miller.
Mr. Leggett then jumped into the county’s looming budget crisis, declaring, “We are not a giant ATM machine for the rest of the state. Now the ATM is depleted.” He noted that the employees’ cost-of-living reductions and furloughs would not generate enough savings to close the county’s $448.9 million deficit. Many more cuts would be required. “We cannot make those choices at the same time we lose revenue from the state.” And that is what Mr. Leggett is asking from the state delegation: do not bring aid cuts back from Annapolis. “We leave here with a mission – we will protect what we have. We have to protect the teachers pensions. If we take any further steps back, the challenges will be severe. We have to stand firm. Otherwise, we will have a different county in years to come.”
Now one of Mike Miller’s greatest talents is his story-telling. The next time you see Big Daddy, ask him about the time he wanted to bring then-Presidential candidate Bill Clinton to the Mary Surratt Museum (which is dedicated to a co-conspirator in President Lincoln’s assassination). Or ask him about the four diaper buckets he kept on his apartment balcony as a young man. Or perhaps you should inquire exactly what he meant when using the term “working man’s opera” in describing the process of creating a necessity for those buckets. Miller is such an entertaining tale-spinner that one is tempted to forget the great matters currently under discussion. That of course is the point.
Don’t believe what you see here… Mike Miller is making no promises.
While Big Daddy did not directly address Uncle Ike’s challenge, he did mention four things of note. First, the Senate President said that state employees would get no merit pay and no cost-of-living adjustments and would be subject to furloughs. The legislature would be subject to the same unpleasantries. Second, he said, “We might have to back off the GCEI formula.” GCEI refers to the Geographic Cost of Education component of state aid for schools. The largest recipients of GCEI aid in this fiscal year are Prince George’s County ($23.6 million), Montgomery County ($18.4 million) and Baltimore City ($13.0 million). Third, he said that teacher pensions “are a problem,” but declined to say exactly what he would do about them. And fourth, he said that he had tried to win a gas tax increase for transportation two years ago but could only find 18 votes among the state’s 47 Senators. Miller declared that he would give a gas tax hike one more shot before his legendary career reached its end.
And so we have the Montgomery County Executive drawing a line in the sand over county aid and the Senate President making no promises. That puts Montgomery’s statehouse delegation squarely in the middle. Will they be able to stick together? Will they be able to withstand the heat from the Lords of Annapolis, who themselves have no easy choices to make? How difficult will it be for them to navigate between Montgomery County’s economic interests and the pressures coming from the rest of the state?
We’ll start getting answers to those questions in a matter of weeks.
Update: Dagnabit, the great Ann Marimow beat me to the punch by more than an hour and a half. But at least I printed the “working man’s opera” reference!
Update 2: This blog’s site traffic was at about half its normal level during the CFM meeting this morning. That should give everybody a good idea as to who is reading.