On this snowy day, the House majority party put up an
icy front as they rejected efforts by my Republican
colleagues and me to trim the overly generous pension
plan for legislators.
I argued on the House Floor in support of a motion by
Baltimore County Republican Bill Frank that could have
saved the state $1 million a year by slicing
legislators' pensions beginning next January.
During the blizzard on Wednesday, with no spectators in
the gallery and an empty press box, the House of
Delegates hunkered down in the Chambers. Before us was a
once-every-four year report on legislators' compensation
and benefits. We all rejected the report's
recommendation for increases in salary and travel
allowances.
Unfortunately, the report was silent on pension reform
for legislators, even though Maryland's pension system
is falling millions of dollars behind in obligations to
retired workers and teachers. And this, at a time when
taxpayers are outraged at sweetheart pension deals for
former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon and Baltimore County
Council members.
Now is the time to scale down legislators' pension
benefits, which are significantly better than those of
most state employees. If we take no action, we have to
wait four more years.
The House Speaker and his party snuffed out this chance
by using a procedural maneuver to make sure our pension
reform proposal would not go to the Appropriations
Committee for consideration. They claimed Delegate Frank
stood up two seconds late for his motion and amendments
to be considered. Of course, who would notice when all
of Maryland was focused on shoveling snow?
Maryland's pension system is unsustainable. Any reform
has to begin with us--the General Assembly. That's why
my colleagues and I met the last several weeks with
non-partisan Department of Legislative Services staff to
get a grasp of this crisis and get advice on how to
proceed.
The current pension system is unsustainable. Our bond
ratings could suffer. Of course, there is always the
majority party's usual remedy: Ignore the problem, and
raise taxes after the election.
It's time to take a different course. We must set aside
procedural issues. We must lead by example.
For more information on this week's legislative
issues, you may want to read the
Legislative Wrap-Up, prepared by the state
Department of Legislative Services every Friday.
