I was looking for something in my basement the other day. As is so often the case, I did not find what I was looking for. But I did find something better – two photo albums filled with snaps I had taken during a trip to Albania in 1987. This prompted a frantic search for […]
A great swathe of the intellectual establishment has come around to viewing Baltimore through Calvert-colored glasses. Now that he need no longer fear the electoral wrath of the unions, even Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke (D) is making approving noises about adopting privatization as one means of introducing an element of value for money into the […]
As Baltimore’s disappointing Schmoke era draws to a close, Calvert recently attempted to elicit answers from potential 1999 mayoral candidates to some key questions. Surveys were mailed to seven people, either announced candidates or folk whose names have been mentioned as possibilities. These were Lawrence A. Bell III, the city council president; Mary Conaway, the […]
Prudent families only borrow when they must. They know that the results of over borrowing can be dire. No such worries appear to exist in Maryland with respect to incurring debt. The state constitution requires the state to pay its bills on time and in full. An apparently unlimited supply of tax dollars ensures the […]
A casual approach to the cost and size of government has been a tradition in Maryland. State and local personal income taxation is among the very highest per capita in the country, a fact that has elicited remarkably little interest among the intelligentsia. This is despite a recently published warning by the Glendening administration’s own secretary of business and economic development, James Brady, that such confiscatory fiscal policy serves as a “red flag” to businesses.
Last year, Frederick F. Siegel, a history professor at New York’s Cooper Union for the Arts and Sciences, released a somewhat pessimistic book on the fate of America’s cities, The Future Once Happened Here.1 During one of his recent visits to Maryland, the Calvert Institute conducted a lengthy interview with Siegel. In particular, the institute […]
Though conservatives have long been aware of it, many of Maryland’s opinion leaders seem blissfully unconcerned about the state’s traditionally casual approach to the cost and size of government. State and local combined personal income taxation is among the very highest in the country, a fact that has elicited remarkably little interest among the intelligentsia. […]
About the Author Kantayhanee Whitt is currently an assistant program manager with a Baltimore-based non-profit enterprise that provides training and technical assistance to organizations and institutions involved in community development. She received her master of arts degree in policy studies at the Johns Hopkins University in 1997. In 1995, she received her bachelor of science […]
Despite recent self-congratulation due to Maryland’s declining crime rate over 1997, the fact remains that this state compares most unfavorably. According to FBI violent crime data taken from the Census Bureau’s Statistical Abstract of the United States for 1996, in 1990 Marylanders experienced 919 violent crimes per 100,000 state residents. This made the Free State […]
We continue our series of interviews with the major contenders in the 1998 gubernatorial race. In this issue, we talk with Ellen Sauerbrey, the Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1994 and the former minority leader in the Maryland House of Delegates. Calvert Question. What accomplishments were you most proud of as minority leader in the House […]