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March 10, 2024

A day after his pumped-up divisive State of the Union address, unsurprisingly headlined “fiery” by the copycat media lackeys, President Biden speaking in Pennsylvania reverted to his old befuddled self.

“Pennsylvania, I have a message for you: send me to Congress!” 

“Last night [at] the U.S. Capitol — the same building where our freedoms came under assault on July the 6th!”

“We added more to the national debt than any president in his term in all of history!”

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Well, the last statement is true. I’ll give him that. And large budget deficits is a pattern in Democrat-run cities and states. Democrats pay off cronies and constituencies with government money and then raise your taxes because they’ve spent more than they were able to squeeze out of the economy.

Nearest to me, that pattern is evident in Maryland and Washington, D.C.: They look the other way at rising crime because they defunded the police and decriminalized conduct and then bemoan empty purses as people and businesses flee. They locked down their states and were surprised to learn that capped the revenue spigot. They made ridiculous, frivolous expenditures like bike lanes and street cars, and painting BLM on a major street and then can’t pay for necessities like cops, road repairs, and schools.

Maryland’s budget problems worsened Thursday with tax receipts failing to hit estimates for the fifth consecutive time since the pandemic ended. The news quickly ratcheted up the rhetoric among Democrats, who are divided on whether now is the time to raise taxes.

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Democrats, who have controlled the State House for decades and usually deploy a united front, are ensnared in a behind-the-scenes fight over how to pay for policies that are driving multibillion-dollar deficit projections not seen since the Great Recession.

The latest bad news comes from lackluster income tax receipts, which are now expected to bring in $255 million less than projected over the current and incoming fiscal years, state economic forecasters said Thursday. Tax collectors are seeing less money withheld from Maryland residents’ paychecks than anticipated over the past three quarters, despite record-low unemployment, which suggests a strong labor market.

D.C. is no better:

D.C. leaders are bracing for another tight budget — and a possible tax increase — for the next fiscal year, as the city continues to feel the effects of the pandemic on office vacancies and tax revenue.

D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) estimated that the deficit for the city’s fiscal 2025 budget could be in the range of $600 million to $800 million, while Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) has told lawmakers to focus on core services and not as much on new spending. Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee recently released modest revenue growth projections for the city, but he also cautioned the council and the mayor about long-term economic risks as they begin drafting the budget while the commercial real estate market continues to face headwinds. [snip]

Combined with Lee’s relatively flat revenue projections, Mendelson said that other financial hurdles include leaders’ stated commitment to increase Metro funding by up to $200 million, to help stabilize the transit system and avoid extreme cuts; $300 million needed to replenish reserves; and the mayor’s request to increase the per-pupil funding formula for D.C. Public Schools by 12.4 percent, among other major expenses.