Cartoon time

This is an interesting cartoon. My only complaint is that it does not seem to recognize that some people don't organize their stuff in cupboards that they carry around everywhere. I put all my crap in my iPhone, ya know? Cupboards are so stone age. Cupboards = religion for those who have not watched the cartoon.

Disagreement

Obama did two things of significance yesterday. First, he promised to end DEA raids of medical marijuana facilities. Second, he rescinded the so-called “conscience rule” that Bush implemented two months ago. This rule allowed pharmacists and medical providers not to provide services related to birth control/abortion if doing do would violate their personal beliefs.

I had an interesting discussion with someone about these two actions. We both agreed that item number one (medical marijuana) was a good thing, but we disagreed on item number two. I thought that forcing someone to provide services that violate their moral conscience was a bad idea. The other person disagreed and cited a hypothetical example in which a rape victim might be denied the morning after pill because of a pharmacist’s moralizing. This is an interesting disagreement considering that both of us are pro-choice.

I admit that a pharmacist who denies a rape victim the Plan B pill has done harm. In fact, I would not purchase cold medicine from a pharmacist if I knew that they had such a hard line on the morning after pill. But we are supposed to live in a free country, and freedom means that we should have the right to do things that others may find reprehensible. The proper response from those harmed by such moralizing is not to use the force of law to coerce the pharmacist into providing the pill, but rather to seek out a pharmacist whose head is not lodged as deeply into their sphincter. Vote with your dollars. Despite heavy government regulation, there is a pharmacist on every corner.

At the root of this is a philosophical disagreement about the effectiveness of social policy. I believe that the best way to ensure fairness is to allow individuals to enter into voluntary transactions with each other. There is no greater force for racial, gender, or religious equality than free market capitalism. I have no idea what color the man or woman was that grew the coffee beans for my morning coffee. Nor do I know what language they spoke, what country they lived in or what sky fairy they worshiped (if any). The only thing I care about is that they provide the coffee beans at a competitive price. Capitalism quickly makes irrelevant characteristics (like skin color, gender, etc.) unimportant.

Social policy that forces people not to discriminate is a failure compared to capitalism. One only needs to remember the Jim Crow laws to know that social policy does not come from benevolent angels. Any argument against capitalism as a tool for social equality applies with much greater force against democratic social policy. After all, who votes on the policy? The same people who vote with their dollars; albeit subject to the problems of rational ingorance.

More on the tennis facility

I am a little skeptical of the proposed 30-court tennis complex that is proposed for Elkridge. I was initially unclear as to how the facility was supposed to be funded. At first I thought that private corps would fund the whole thing, but then I began to suspect that the County would at least be asked to guarantee the debt which was expected to be paid by user fees. According to Explore Howard, the entire facility is supposed to funded with private money and was approved on the basis that the thing could be built without money from the county. The group spearheading the project would just be leasing land already owned by the county. If that is the case, that is not as bad as I thought.

However, one thing that gives me a pause is how the group spearheading this effort, the Howard County Tennis Patrons, was originally reported to have $500,000 in equity to put into the $25 million project. Now all of the sudden they have $8 million to put into the project. How does $7.5 million show up out of the blue in less than 2 months, especially in this economic climate? That is very suspicious.

Tollick said the complex would cost about $25 million to build. He said $8 million of that will be raised by HCTP, the remaining $17 million financed through other means, such as private partners.

Enright said that the county is unlikely to take part in funding the project.

"This project was approved based on no county funding being required to complete the tennis facility," he said.

While $25 million seems like a steep price considering the current economic turmoil, Tollick said the fiscal upside of the project outweighs the negatives.

"We think this holds great economic potential," he said. "We have already talked with the USTA about bringing tournaments here, and we'd like to even bring in the (Women's Tennis Association)."

Both Arthur and Enright noted the potential boon for local restaurants, hotels and businesses if such tournaments -- especially WTA events -- could be brought to Elkridge.

Let's hope the county does not have to put in any money. I'd be totally jazzed about this facility if the county was not involved at any level. But something just does not add up with this, and if anyone is being played for a sucker, it will be the county.

Whatcha gonna do when they come for you

Howard County Police Chief William McMahon finally spoke publicly about the tactical team raid on an innocent man’s home that resulted in the murder of an equally innocent family pet. The officers were hoping to recover a Sig Sauer assault rifle that was stolen from a police car. I was surprised to learn that this tactical team was used 108 times during 2008.

McMahon said that since Howard County began its tactical team in 1975, “probably there’s been some expanded use, but I think there’s reason for that. There’s a higher propensity for violence.

“Many of these search warrants are drug-related. And I think there’s a higher correlation now between drug activity, drug transactions and weapons.”

I wonder if Chief McMahon would have that quasi-grin on his face if he had the acuity to understand the reason there is violence associated with drug activity is precisely because drugs are illegal. McMahon’s job is to enforce laws, not editorialize about them. But can he really be so ignorant as to not comprehend that the reason drug dealers carry guns is because they cannot rely on their attorneys to peacefully settle disputes? Nor can they rely on police to protect them and their property? The social ills that result from drug activity are because of drug laws, not in spite of them.

I’d hardly be surprised if some drug dealer stole the Sig Sauer assault rifle from the police car in the first place. Few others would find that rifle worth the trouble.

Although no one from the police department has apologized to the homeowner for assaulting him, invading his home and shooting his dog, McMahon assures us that no one "feels good" about the dog's death. How arrogant.

Mortgage interest

Thomas Schaller, a Sun editorial writer who has traveled far down the road to serfdom, reminds us today that every blind squirrel sometimes finds a nut. His criticism of the mortgage interest deduction is right on target.

But the mortgage crisis also reveals the dark underbelly of the mortgage interest deduction. For one thing, it disproportionately benefits high-income earners who buy expensive homes. In 2003, taxpayers with incomes over $75,000 filed 16 percent of all tax returns yet accounted for 54 percent of the deduction's total tax savings; the 52 percent with incomes under $30,000 claimed just 9 percent of the tax savings.

This tax benefit also encourages people to buy a bigger house than they otherwise might afford. Indeed, because the deduction applies regardless of whether the borrower pays a high or low interest rate, makes a big or small down payment, or pays down principal monthly or opts for an interest-only loan, the mortgage deduction has the perverse incentive of rewarding higher-interest, lower-down-payment and interest-only loans - precisely the sorts of loans that got many Americans in trouble in the first place.

The worst legislation often has two fathers: misinformed, but well intentioned do-gooders and special interests. The home mortgage interest deduction is a clear example of this. Do-gooders want to do everything they can to encourage home ownership, and the mortgage lenders and residential homebuilders are happy to reap the benefits of such ill-conceived ideas as deductible home interest. Baptists and bootleggers.

Lawsuit

This should be interesting. A group of 13 county residents are suing Ken Ulman, Jim Robey, the Council, Marsha McLauglin, and several other county staffers. The very unusual suit alleges that the county has essentially deprived citizens of their right to vote by using processes that are not subject to voter referendum.

This is despite the fact that there have been very few referendums even with a low threshold for signatures (5,000). Of course, the plaintiffs of this suit would suggest that is because all the controversial decisions are made by processes not subject to referendum. Whether or not that is true will determined by the courts. The plaintiffs are suing for $10 million, arguing that they have been especially aggrieved by bad zoning decisions.

Although I think this suit will get nowhere, without people willing to stand up for what they believe, we'd probably be a slaves to the government already. So three cheers for freedom.

I would actually like to see significantly less government involvement in land use decisions. I am far more frightened by anti-growth special interests than by market driven developers. That line of thinking does not seem to wildly popular in this town.

Update: Suit can be read here (.pdf).

Dangerous Precedent

Another interesting exchange from the article about the tax credit/Soil District partisan pissing match:

State Del. Frank Turner, who proposed the reconsideration, had the same explanation for his votes.

“I oppose this,” he said. “I think this bill would set a dangerous precedent.”

Bates dismissed that explanation.

“It’s a dangerous precedent to credit residents for paying for a service they don’t receive?” she asked. “I don’t buy that.”

There are a large number of government services from which I receive a negative return on my tax dollar. Libraries, a golf course, parks, a swimming pool, public schools, etc. are all things that my local tax dollars are wasted on in which I don’t get much benefit from. In my opinion, the government has no business providing these things in the first place.

Many people claim that some things are so important to everyone in the community that these things should be subsidized by and/or provided by the government, rather than being left to the free market. I am specifically thinking about public schools here, since public schools are both controlled by the local government and financed by the local government via taxation. How often do we hear the refrain: “everyone benefits from an educated citizenry, therefore everyone should chip in and pay for education.” You know, the whole “positive externalities” argument. Almost everyone who makes this argument suddenly sees the fallacy of it when asked if they support government subsidy of private schools. After all, private schools provide the exact same benefits to society that public schools do.

When the government tries to make people pay for positive externalities, they end up creating an entire class of free riders. Free riders get far more than they pay for, sort of like an Amish person that pays no taxes yet still gets the benefit of national defense. The benefits from education (be it from public or private schools) overwhelmingly flow directly to the students and parents of students at that school. Obviously, students cannot be expected to foot the bill, but their parents or guardians certainly can. To make someone with no children shell out the same amount of tax dollars as their neighbor that has three kids in public schools is one of the most arrogant and irresponsible abuses of power that I can think of. This could be corrected by requiring that public schools charge tuition as I have suggested in the past.

I should point out that positive externalities are not only the result of education. Anyone who maintains a flower garden that their neighbor can see has produced a positive externality. A beekeeper whose bees pollinate a farmer’s field has produced positive externalities. Having a cool local restaurant like Clyde’s in the community creates positive externalities. Amazon.com creates positive externalities. In fact, positive externalities are everywhere. Unfortunately, so is gummint.

This is just scary

The scariest thing I read today:

State Del. Elizabeth Bobo, who voted for the bill last week and against it today, agreed.

“I did not vote (on Feb. 11) the way I intended to,” she said. “I thought we were voting on the soil conservation bill. That’s not responsible of me, but it’s the truth.”

State Del. Frank Turner, who proposed the reconsideration, had the same explanation for his votes.

Liz Bobo and Frank Turner appear to have no idea what they were voting on. When Gail Bates makes you look bad, you know you screwed up.

Call me whatever you want if you pay my taxes for me

The article in Explore Howard about the umpires is interesting, but it also has me scratching my head as to how a screw up like this could occur. Basically, an individual who worked as an umpire for a county sponsored recreation league part-time lost his or her full-time job and filed for unemployment. This person listed an entity that operates the rec leagues as an employer. An audit of the rec league by the DLLR found that the entity operating the rec leagues had not been paying unemployment tax. This is because the workers were considered contractors by the county, but employees by the DLLR. Faced with $15,000+ in back unemployment taxes, the entity may go bust, which will mean that another organization will take over the rec leagues (or the sports leagues will cease to exist).

McCauley said the umpires in his organization have always considered themselves independent contractors, not employees of the group. He said individual umpires are free to accept or decline any game and are paid on a game-by-game basis.

“No one has ever been fired from umpiring; anyone is free to perform the job, provided they take a training course,” he said.

“I’ve done this for over 30 years,” McCauley said. “I call the game as I see fit, (and) I act as my own boss. …I don’t see us fitting as anything but independent contractor under this criteria.”

But state labor officials said the state now considers the officiating organization to be an employer with employees, not an independent contractor, meaning it has to pay state unemployment insurance taxes.

Alan Kittleman has decided to involve himself, and is introducing new legislation because he does not think that we have enough already. He probably understands very little about the implications of mislabeling a contractor as an employee, or vice versa.

There is one very important question here: were these workers given W-2s or 1099s at the end of the year? I assume that since the DLLR is considering them employees, they were given W-2s.

Here is the problem: these umpires have been avoiding paying Social Security and Medicare taxes by pretending to be employees when they were really contractors. When you are an employee, you get a W-2 at the end of the year which you use to report your income to the IRS. When you are a contractor, you get a 1099. Everyone knows how a W-2 folds into your tax return, and how the employee pays half of SS and half of Medicare, and the employer pays the other half. Yawn.

A 1099 is a bit trickier, because it subjects the contractor to SE tax (self-employment tax, which is the similar to the “employer portion” of FICA and Medicare, but it’s paid directly by the contractor). So in other words, contractors are supposed to directly pay both the employer and employee portion of SS and Medicare taxes. By pretending to be employees, they have stuck the county with the employer portion of their SS and Medicare taxes. The umpires weren’t bitching about being mislabeled as employees someone else was paying their SE tax.

If the sports entity does not have to pay the back unemployment taxes, everyone who has worked as an umpire should have to pay back SE taxes to the IRS. The sports entity should get a refund of SS and Medi tax that they paid on behalf of the contractors. The SE tax is going to be a hell of a lot more in the aggregate than unemployment tax, I guarantee it.

Important Update: word on the street is that the umpires did get 1099s, not W-2s. This fact is supremely important and was not stated at all in the Explore Howard article. This means that the umpires were clearly being paid as contractors, and the DLLR is smoking crack by trying to stick the sports entity with back unemployment taxes when they had no employees. The umpires were not avoiding taxes, the DLLR is being greedy. Umpires: 1; DLLR: 0

Good news for some

Word on the street is that Ken Ulman has withdrawn the legislation that would have moved the work currently done by the Howard Soil Conservation District to DPZ. Although this would have saved taxpayers $200,000 and allowed DPZ to offer faster customer service, many in the community were critical of putting this work in DPZ's shop. Many argued that keeping this work under the umbrella of a separate entity was a good check and balance. It will be interesting to see if any positions are cut from DPZ, now that it has been advertised that DPZ is not at full capacity. I am betting not.

This meeting won't take long

I love this blurb on the County website:

U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski will be in Howard County on Tuesday, February 17, to chair an official U.S. Senate Field Hearing. The hearing will explore the successes of the Healthy Howard Access Plan and how the innovative plan can help shape thinking for national health care reform efforts. Executive Ulman will testify at the hearing. For more information click here.

It won't be long before this whole health care mess is cleaned up. What we need is more government involvement! Yay!

I really don't know but I try...

Now that tax time has rolled around again, I am reminded about how completely ridiculous our tax code is. One of the things I find most annoying and illogical about our tax system is the tax favored status that children have. Of all the things to give someone a tax break for, having spawned is by far the most moronic. The “do it for the kids” argument is a logical fallacy, but it’s one that gets you everywhere if you are in politics. Parents are the biggest special interest group around.

If anything, having a child should mean that you have to pay more in taxes. After all, children use government services, too. They produce trash, they consume police services, medical services, etc. In fact, when you throw in the costs of public schools, children use far more public resources than adults.

I don’t have anything against kids, don’t misunderstand me. What I do have something against is that certain type of parent who views their children as a license to steal from the rest of us. Those parents who have no problem arguing that no expense should be spared on public education- but Allah forbid if those same parents have to incur $10 in fees for their children to take a field trip or a cooking class that isn’t fully paid for from the public till. Unfortunately, our legislators are all too happy to oblige those kinds of parents.

Remember that health care forum?

Remember that health care forum that was held back in late December of last year? The one that was held at the request of the incoming Obama administration? The report (.pdf) was posted to the county website. It has probably been posted there for awhile, actually. I was expecting something much more elaborate. Much to my disappointment, the report is really lame.

My favorite line is the bit about the failed business model of profit seeking institutions supplying our health care and health insurance. If only the government was in charge, that would fix it. Yep.

A rose by another name would smell like crap

A well chosen name is half the battle in getting public support for something. I'd be curious to know if the "stimulus bill" that congress recently passed would have received a single vote if it was more commonly known as the "deficit spending bill". The latter name is a more accurate description of it.

Regardless of what the bill does in the short term, the money will have to be funded eventually. This will mean lower government services in the future. HA! Fat chance of that. This will mean higher tax rates in the future, unless our incomes will be much higher in the future than they are now, such that tax rates at current levels can pay our debts (fat chance of that, too). It could also mean a future collapse of the dollar if money is created to pay our debts, and with the resulting inflation the public begins to realize that the promise of the US Government is basically worthless.

This whole thing is a big freaking economic experiment, forged in the fires of politics. Scary times.

Funny t-shirt

At Spencer's in the Columbia Mall:

Who Needs Drugs?

No seriously, I have drugs

The library sucks

I have blogged in the past (here and here) about how the media selection at the Howard County Public Library is a royal joke. I like to read, and much of the stuff that I am interested in reading is not at the library. Within the course of the past 7 days, there are three books that I heard someone talking about or saw online that looked really interesting. None of them are at the library.
1.
Tommy Angelo; The Elements of Poker
2. Wendy Chapkis and Richard Webb; Dying to Get High
3. Peter Leeson; Invisible hook

I will probably end up purchasing these books on Amazon, which is fine. But it is irritating to know that some of my money is stolen from me to purchase 100 copies of Harry Potter for the HCPL.

At the root of the library system is the belief that there is nothing wrong with stealing someone’s money and spending it for them on books. I don’t know what share of my tax dollars goes to support the library, maybe $100 or something per year. As far as I am concerned, I may as well of shoved that $100 up a pigeon’s ass and let it fly away. It is shocking to hear, but the HoCo gummint has budgeted over $100 million to build and operate libraries over the next 5 years.

Ken Ulman used to tell a well rehearsed story during the campaign about how his daughter had a party and asked all her friends to bring a book so that the books could be donated to some worthy literacy cause. Rather than stealing from people to purchase books as a publicly funded library does, Ms. Ulman was able to harness the power of private charity to promote literacy. I think that is a great idea, and she would probably make a better leader than any elected official out there.

Come to the anti-government side, young children. We have cookies!

Howard Soil Conservation District

I had a chance to swing by the office space used by the Howard Soil Conservation District. As noted in an earlier post, Ken Ulman is being criticized for wanting to cut two employees from the HSCD to save taxpayers $200,000. He says the work can be done by DPZ, and they have the resources to take on the additional work. Given the downturn in development, this makes sense. I am no defender of Ulman, but I think he is on the right track with this one. Although, he will probably find something else on which to waste the money he saves on the HSCD.

Let's take a look at the physical resources that the HSCD is using:

They have this truck:



They have three more trucks:



They have a car which appears to be associated with a federal agency:



They have an office space which does not even indicate what they do there:



Here is an inside shot of the office:

Hostile Takeover?

Ken Ulman is being unfairly criticized by some folks connected to the Howard County Soil Conservation District for trying to remove some redundancies. The redundancy in this case is the Howard County Soil Conservation District.

Ulman said the motivation behind moving the process of reviewing grading and sediment control plans to the county was nothing more than an attempt to trim costs in a tight budget year.

The change, he said, would eliminate two jobs at the Soil Conservation District.

Employees within the Department of Public Works and the Department of Planning and Zoning already do similar reviews, he said, and could absorb the work.

“When there’s areas of duplication, we try to root them out,” he said.

But Bob Ensor, district manager of the Soil Conservation District, said the people who handle the work have specialized knowledge.

“We provide an essential check and balance role,” Ensor added, noting that his employees are removed from the rest of the development approval process.

I like how the cost cutting move is being described as Ulman’s attempt to do a “hostile takeover”. That way, the conclusion that Ulman is the devil incarnate is conveyed with having to deal with the pesky fact that this move is likely to make taxpayers better off.

No Knockin' on Heaven's door

The Keystone cops, er, the Howard County Police received some really bad press today. They served a no-knock warrant on a local man because they thought he had a weapon that was stolen from a police car. Turns out the gentleman did not have anything stolen or illegal and no arrest was made nor any charges filed against him. The police did, however, shoot and murder the man’s Australian cattle dog. Just to recap, the Howard County Police Department shot and killed a family pet while serving a no-knock warrant on a man who was innocent of any wrong doing. Nice job, officers.

Let’s back up for a second. Awhile ago it was reported that two unmarked police cars were broken into in Elkridge and a weapon was stolen, although the type of weapon was not identified. It turns out that it was a Sig Sauer rifle similar to the one pictured below:



According to the original article reporting the theft, the rifle was “secured in an interior rack in the car”. Presumably, the rifle was clearly visible to an outsider looking into the vehicle. Would you, dear reader, store your $150 iPod like that? Would you store a $1,000 laptop like that? Would you store a $2,000 semi-automatic Sig Sauer assault rifle like that? If you were a HC Police Officer, the answer to the last question is a definite yes. Now, the weapon is in the hands of criminals that the HCPD thinks are dangerous enough to justify the need for the HCPD to use such a weapon in the first place. Oh yeah, and the police still don't know where the rifle is. But, there is at least one less dog you have to worry about urinating in your yard. Nice job, officers.

New local blog

Check out Owen Brown News!

The Audacity of Dope

Michael Phelps, the Olympic Swimmer from Maryland, was photographed smoking marijuana at a party on the campus of the University of South Carolina. What did he do that is so wrong?

"I engaged in behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment," Phelps said in the statement released by one of his agents. "I'm 23 years old and despite the successes I've had in the pool, I acted in a youthful and inappropriate way, not in a manner people have come to expect from me. For this, I am sorry. I promise my fans and the public it will not happen again."

From his reaction, you would think that he did something morally wrong. But actually, it is only wrong because some jackass politicians say that it is wrong.

A Study in Contrast

Don't draw the wrong conclusion from this comparison, because the fund raising requirements of a CE and a State Delegate are wildly different. But I found this contrast between the fund raising strategies of two members of the same party amusing:

Fund raising, Ulman style:

County Executive Ken Ulman, a Democrat, has raised roughly $250,000 each of his first two years in office. His expenses are high, too, and his latest report shows $97,613 spent and $303,609 left. If his current pace continues through next year's election, he will have far exceeded his total raised over the past four-year cycle leading up to the last election, when Ulman raised $785,848. His sizable financial head start is also likely to discourage some would-be challengers to his expected re-election bid.

"We're on target for where we'd like to be," Ulman said.

Ulman also paid Art McGreevy, his former campaign manager, a $25,000 win bonus (which I have no problem at all with).


Fund raising, Guzzone style:

"I have one fundraiser a year. It's $35. People come," Guzzone said, explaining his success.

Getting crazy in Daisy

Another article appeared in the Sun on the car lot in Daisy issue. It offers a fair summary of what has occurred so far, although there is no mention of traffic concerns that some residents have. I don't think that concerns about the additional traffic in this area are legitimate anyway. This article makes it sound like the opposition is really just against a car dealership. I don't know if that is the case, but I have to wonder if the proposed car lot would be selling John Deere tractors instead of cars if this would even be an issue.

The site in Daisy has been zoned commercial for more than 50 years, and other vehicle-related businesses operate there. But more than 200 residents met to protest when they learned about plans for a 3,850-square-foot building and 155-vehicle lot on 4.2 acres at Daisy and Union Chapel roads. County officials have said they can't stop the legal use of a property owner's land. The crossroads has been a commercial center since 1873.

To defeat the used-car lot, leaders of a group called Concerned Citizens of Western Howard County asked county government to change zoning regulations for all commercial properties in rural areas.

County planners and the Planning Board unanimously rejected that. The board decision said the group was effectively trying to obtain a zoning change via an inappropriate process.

Despite that, the group is happy that the Planning Board also said that the lot doesn't fit in the rural setting and recommended that the County Council request "a comprehensive study of the commercial properties in the Rural West ... as soon as possible." Daisy residents want some kind of interim measure to block the car lot until the study is done.

This is the first bit I have heard from the owner of the property (who is also a local resident), who basically is moving forward with the project in March unless he is bought out:

Meanwhile, the owner of the land, Frank Saglimbeni of Woodbine, said he is poised to move forward with the project, but he is giving residents until mid-March to buy him out. He would not disclose his asking price.

"My deal is done," he said. "They can't block me."

Saglimbeni needs only to submit a final plan to get a building permit, but he said he has delayed that at the urging of county officials.

"I've given them the opportunity to buy my property," he said about the residents.