Maryland Libertarians

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Libertarian Quote of the Day

"Whenever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been discovered that the best way to ensure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery."

Benjamin Disraeli, 1874

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Interesting City Council Meeting Tonight

Tonight's Salisbury City Council Meeting was very interesting and the hot issue was Health Insurance for the City Council. Unfortunately, Councilwoman Debbie Campbell was not present to contribute to the discussion due to being under the weather.

Here is how the voting went on the agenda.

Adoption of Agenda - Passed Unanimously (4-0)

Consent Agenda - Passed Unanimously (4-0)
May 11, 2009 Minutes

Resolution No. 1785 - appointment of Melanie L. Perreault to the Historic District Commission.
Resolution No. 1786 - appointment of Muir Boda (yours truly) to the Recycling Advisory Committee.
Resolution No. 1787 - reappointment of City Councilwoman Debbie Campbell as Council member on the PAC-14 Board of Directors.

Award of Bids - Passed Unanimously (4-0)

American Paving Corporation awarded contract to "furnish, deliver, and apply bituminous concrete paving on variety of city streets" for $175,898.50. There is also a clause that may require more or less funds depending on market price of asphalt.

FY10 Budget -

Resolution No. 1779 - adoption of water and sewer rates. This increased water and sewer rates. Passed Unanimously (4-0).

Ordinance No. 2078 for 2nd reading - adoption of FY10 budget. Passed Unanimously (4-0).

To break this out a little, there was discussion on exhibit A and the ordinance stated "AND BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED by the Salisbury City Council that these summary amounts shall be spent under the limitations of the attached list herein known as the FY 10 Budget Items Adjusted by Council Exhibit Awhether the amounts are added deleted reduced or increased."

This is the Council's changes to the Mayor's Proposed Budget. The Council had reached consensus on every item with the exception of Health Insurance for the City Council at a cost of $21,429.00 that was not in the submitted budget by former Mayor Barrie Tilghman. On Friday, May 22, 2009, Mayor Ireton said he was going to submit corrections to the budget by adding this item back. He was citing historical precedent by previous Mayors who had added items back into budgets.

City Council Vice-President Gary Comegys offered an amendment that would officially place this item in the budget. By voting "NO" Council Members would be removing Health Insurance from the budget. Mr. Comegys and Mrs. Shields voted "AYE" and Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Cohen voted "NAY", the amendment failed because there was a tie. If City Councilwoman Campbell had been present and voted "NAY", they would have removed Health Insurance from Exhibit A.

Over thirty minutes of discussion on this issue, they finally voted and passed the FY10 Budget, with City Council Health Insurance. The other issue that rose out of this is there was no reduction in the Tax Rate Percentile to offset the increase of the Phase In Assessment property value, essentially raising property taxes.

Resolution No. 1784 - Passed Unanimously (4-0). Approved the transfer of several small pieces of land to SHA for some work that needs to be done on the Rt. 13 Bridge that crosses Rt. 50. One piece will be transferred back to the city once the work is done.

City Councilwoman Terry Cohen offered an amendment to switch from a Program/Performance Budget to a Line Item Budget. There was no second so the motion failed.

Mrs. Cohen also made another motion that did get seconded and passed. It changed a particular Resolution into an Ordinance, I didn't catch the number. It did pass unanimously.

I have several concerns about the FY10 budget and a couple of other issues, the health insurance is one, that I will post about later this week.

Two Sentz - Thanks for the Plug

Thanks for the plug Two Sentz.

Gotta Love Michael Swartz's Perceptive Humor

"The Nation will live to regret what the Court has done today. I dissent."

— Justice Antonin Scalia.

"The Nation will live to regret what big government has done over the last several decades. I dissent."

— Michael Swartz, writer of monoblogue.

Michael Swartz from monblogue has this quoted in the upper right corner of his sight. It always gives me a chuckle because he is so humorously perceptive of the world. I don't hold it against him that he is a Republican, he is one of the good ones.

Too Much Legislation

"One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation."

Thomas B. Reed (1886)

Every time there is a problem or a crisis, those in government feel they must write new legislation. An example unnecessary legislation is Hate Crimes. It is already against the law to murder someone. Now say someone murders someone because they are gay or are of another race? We now have to make a law that makes the motive specifically for such cases.

What if someone kills someone just because they hate that person for being that person. They have never like that person, a personal vendetta that was years in the making and has nothing to do with race or sexual orientation. It is a hate crime, does it qualify?

The bailout legislation was ridiculous. They left certain wording in considering contracts that paid bonuses. Then ridiculed the companies that accepted bailout money for paying bonuses when legislation left it in. Then they want top tax bonuses at 99%. Congress has simply become a waste of time passing wasteful legislation that more than anything wastes paper.

We need congress to take two years off and not pass any legislation. We don't need more laws, we need more freedom.

Constitution Class by Micahel Badnarik - Part 2

Libertarian Quote of the Day

"The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people."

George Washington

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

Second Amendment to the Constitution

Memorial Day Quotes - In Honor of Liberty

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

The Declaration of Independence

"If the government can't keep drugs away from inmates who are locked in steel cages, surrounded by barbed wire, watched by armed guards, drug-tested, strip-searched, X-rayed, and videotaped – how can it possibly stop the flow of drugs to an entire nation?"

Ron Crickenberger