Tag: Analysis
Bond-rating firm differs with Treasurer Kopp over Purple Line debt
One of three national bond rating agencies, S&P Global Ratings, cited important differences with State Treasurer Nancy Kopp about how Purple Line debt is recognized in its May 26 opinion supporting Maryland’s $1 billion bond sale next Wednesday. S&P is going to count payments as debt; Kopp says it doesn’t have to be.
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Political prosecution of police helps restore order in Baltimore
Marilyn Mosby made a calculated political decision to prosecute six Baltimore police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, and you have to wonder what kind of weekend Baltimore would have had if she hadn’t.
Mosby’s quick “rush to judgment” as the police union’s lawyer put it illustrates why Maryland and much of the rest of the country still has popular elections for top local prosecutors.
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Analysis: Hubris at the Board of Public Works?
Whether you call him the new sheriff in town, or the public-sector incarnation of the muscle-bound wrestler “Hulk” Hogan, Governor Larry Hogan has meted out his own brand of “whoop ass” on flat-footed state bureaucrats while presiding over his first six meetings of the Board of Public Works, a three-member panel that approves major state procurements.
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Hogan Week 3 ends on upbeat note
The third full week of the Hogan administration ended on an upbeat note for the new governor.
The Maryland Senate unanimously approved 12 cabinet appointments, while Hogan launched an expanded outreach campaign to the legislature.
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Larry Hogan’s improbable path
What got Larry Hogan to the place where he raises his right hand for the oath as governor is what one Hogan insider concedes was a perfect storm. The right political environment, a message to match it hatched by the candidate himself, a campaigner disciplined enough to communicate it relentlessly, and a campaign that made few mistakes and profited from the lackluster campaigns and mistakes of his competitors.
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The O’Malley years: Tough choices, but good choices or bad?
Will Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley be remembered as author of the biggest tax increases in Maryland history or the biggest spending cuts?
Did he preside over the most businesses shuttered in the Great Recession or add the most people to the health insurance rolls and provide the biggest increase in school funding?
Read MoreMaryland ranked as 3rd wealthiest, but still tops in income, millionaires
Maryland is tied for third place with Connecticut as one of the top wealthiest states, but continues to rank as the state with the highest household incomes, according to a new rankings produced by WalletHub. Just last month, 24/7Wall St., a financial news web site, called Maryland “the wealthiest state in the nation,” based on those high incomes.
According to a different study, for a third year in the row, Maryland has the highest percentage of millionaires — people with over $1 million in investable assets, not people who make that much money each year.
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Analysis: GOP poll could be more valid than the CBS-Times poll
Is it possible that a partisan Republican poll in the Maryland governor’s race has as much or even more validity than a poll done for some of the most respected names in the media?
That’s the surprising conclusion from looking at the numbers and methodology behind the two most recent polls pitting Democrat Anthony Brown against Republican Larry Hogan Jr.
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Analysis: Md. appeals court issues union-busting opinion in PG case
Last week, a court in Maryland (that’s right: Maryland) published an opinion which could become an epitaph for public sector unions in the Old Line State.
In 2013, Prince George’s County asked Maryland’s Court of Special Appeals (a step below our state’s highest court) to decide which of two competing considerations enjoys higher dignity: “public policy” or a union contract. The court chose public policy, opening a Pandora’s Box for public sector unions which may be hard to close.
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