Saying One Thing Doing Another on Bond Bills
According to Delegate Michael Smigiel’s Facebook page, on January 18th the Maryland House Republican Caucus voted to send a letter to House leadership that they were not in favor of any bond bills.
However, several Republicans, including members of the caucus leadership Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio, Adelaide Eckardt, along with their Senate colleague Richard Colburn have already filed over $3 million worth of bond bills.
Haddaway-Riccio is Minority Whip, and Eckardt is chair of the party caucus. Since 2007 the pair has proposed over $10 million in bond bills.
It’s not that these bond bills represent a huge chunk of the state’s structural deficit—they don’t—but like federal earmarks they are a gateway drug to the big ticket items that fuel Maryland’s tax and spend addiction.
Trending: President Trump Must Be Reelected
This hypocrisy just reiterates to the legislature’s Democratic majority that Republicans are so dysfunctional they can’t even present a unified front. Until this keystone cops routine ends, Speaker of the House Michael Busch and President of the Senate, Thomas V. “Mike” Miller will continue pick off feckless Republicans with bond bills and other treats, like former Delegate Page Elmore, who in 2008, sold his votes on the tech tax and the budget in return for getting the Smith Island cake named Maryland’s official dessert.
Time for the Republicans to stop playing enabler and put up a real fight.
Here is a list of the Republican filed bond bills, the amount, the recipient, and their Republican sponsors. You can view a list of all filed bond bills here.
HB21/SB26: $300,000 for Construct Replica Choptank River Lighthouse. Sponsors: Adelaide Eckardt, Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio, Richard Colburn
HB30/SB28: $250,000 for Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum Bulkhead Replacement. Sponsors: Adelaide Eckardt, Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio, Richard Colburn
HB56/SB29: $250,000 for Talbot Hospice Expansion. Sponsors: Adelaide Eckardt, Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio, Richard Colburn
HB95/SB27: $75,000 for Dorchester Center for the Arts – Atrium Entrance. Sponsors: Adelaide Eckardt, Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio, Richard Colburn
HB29: $125,000 for Construction/renovation of Carroll Field Puglise Stadium Field Lights. Sponsors: Tony McConkey
SB34/HB106: $500,000 for Blandair Regional Park. Sponsors: Allan Kittleman
SB35: $200,000 for Mount Pleasant Farm Buildings. Sponsors: Allan Kittleman
SB36/HB107: $144,000 for The Arc of Howard County, Graeloch Home Renovation. Sponsors: Allan Kittleman
SB37: $500,000 for Troy Regional Park. Sponsors: Allan Kittleman
SB38: $450,000 for Former Ellicott City Post Office. Sponsors: Allan Kittleman
SB106: $400,000 for Hospice of Queen Anne’s. Sponsors: EJ Pipkin, Richard Colburn
