Judging by the comments Gov. O’ Malley made at the MACO conference, in which he defended (forcibly, and unambiguously) the proposed guidelines for growth throughout the state as set forth in the draft of Plan Maryland, he must’ve taken to heart Theodore Roosevelt’s remedy for dealing with intransigent opponents; namely, to “walk softly but carry a big stick.”
(What a sharp contrast that is to the beliefs of many of us, that it’s best to tiptoe through life and carry a small twig, so as not to attract unwanted attention.)
And when county executives from Western Maryland expressed their misgivings about the plan, which they regarded as the state attempting to usurp the land development prerogatives at the local level, it obviously got his “Irish up.”
For were a shillelagh handy, he’d no doubt been tempted to bop a few of them on the head for bringing into question the state’s underlying motives for Plan Maryland.
But he instead settled for reading the riot act to them, by stating in no uncertain terms, “that localities that don’t comply with the provisions of Plan Maryland (that he’d be signing into law down the road) could lose school construction, road and wastewater funds.”
Now, I’m sure you could have heard a pin drop in the room after he dropped that bombshell, with mouths gaping open-especially among our board members-as widely as that of a Largemouth bass.
And as he later said to reporters, that “Plan Maryland won’t prohibit counties from making stupid decisions on growth, but we’re not going to subsidise it anymore.”‘
I must say, that I hadn’t heard of more honest, straightforward words being spoken by a politician since Harry Truman said, “My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician; and to tell you the truth, there’s hardly any difference.”
Personally, I’m pleased that, at long last, a ray of sunshine broke through the dark clouds that have been hovering over the county office building ever since the Board declared its opposition to many of the concepts set forth in the draft plan.
And of its more than implied refusal to hop aboard the Plan Maryland Express, even if forced to rescind the recent piddly reduction in property taxes, with the very real possibility of then having to raise them much higher, were the Governor to follow through on his thinly veiled threat to withhold funds from recalcitrant counties.
What a revolting development that’d be for taxpayers, even for those who’d put them in office and who today praise them for “sticking to their BB guns” in the upcoming mano a mano with the state’s arsenal of weapons.
Quote of the week: “Those who’d poke their thumb in the Governor’s eye for fully supporting Plan Maryland stand to suffer much more hurtful pain at the polls.” Your’s truly
Footnote: That forum held at the Community College on the 29th doesn’t deserve more than a footnote, what with it ending as it started, with the line in the sand drawn so deeply between the commissioners and state planners respective views on land-use, you’d need planks to cross it. And that watching them fencing for four agonizing hours was enough to make one wish it was with real swords rather than just barbed words.
Grand Times 