Kipke Takes Principled Stand on Furlough Issue

As usual, Delegate Nic Kipke takes the high road and demonstrates leadership in the process. How many of his colleagues will follow his lead?

Annapolis, Maryland – Today, Delegate Nic Kipke (R-Pasadena) volunteered to participate in the state furlough plan that was announced last week by Governor O’Malley. “I believe it is only fair that elected officials be included in the furlough plan that is being forced on our state employees. We are the people who make decisions that determine the direction of state spending and should not be immune to the consequences of our actions,” said Nic Kipke.

Current law exempts members of the Maryland General Assembly from being forced to accept a pay cut during any four year term in office.

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Earlier this year the 2009 state budget was debated in the General Assembly, but passed easily. Since taking office, this was the first budget that Delegate Kipke voted against. “My feeling then was that we needed to prepare for a pull back in the economy and even for a possible recession. While businesses and families were cutting back to prepare for tough economic times, the state was planning to grow the government’s budget by hundreds of millions of dollars. This is not to say that that any of us could have predicted just how bad the economy has become, but it was plain to see that we needed to level fund important programs and cut spending on non-essential services. The terrible side-story in all of this, is that the budget shortfall comes on the heals of an enormous tax hike last fall,” said Nic Kipke.

Nic Kipke is serving his first term in the Maryland House of Delegates after being elected in 2006. He is a member of the Health & Government Operations Committee, the Health Insurance Subcommittee, and the Minority Health Disparities Subcommittee.

Crossposted



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