Good editorial from Ulman/Beilenson

Ken Ulman and Peter Beilenson almost- but not quite- begin to make sense in their op-ed piece in the Baltimore Sun today. They essentially concede that the federal guvmint is dysfunctional:

Whatever reform of America's broken health care system can be accomplished in Washington over the next few weeks is likely to be meager. We can't allow the failure of comprehensive health care reform at the national level to be the endgame. We can't wait another 15 or 20 years for another grand national campaign to fix the remaining problems. That is not fair to the tens of millions who suffer without any or adequate insurance; nor can our challenged economy sustain the current growth rate of health care expenses.

What they propose is that states attempt to solve health care problems on their own, trying different approaches and seeing what works. Where Ulman and Beilenson screw the pooch is that they want the federal guvmint to subsidize state efforts, which just seems really stupid to me. They also want the feds to essentially regulate the end goals of the state plans (they insist that states must strive to bend the cost curve and have the intent of achieving universal coverage), which is also dumb.

I believe that knowledge needed to reform healthcare is concentrated far outside of Washington, and having a central planner in a country this large is a recipe for disaster. Would GM have gotten in such bad shape if the taxpayers in Michigan were responsible for a bailout? Probably not. Would Fannie and Freddie have caused such havoc in mortgage markets if individual states had to foot the bill for mortgage bailouts? Unlikely.

Allowing states and counties to be in control of what their policies are just makes a lot more sense than the one size fits all "solutions" coming from Washington. In fact, don't just limit this Federalist approach to health care, let the states do everything for themselves (save for perhaps national defense).

While I advocate for a free society, I do not assert that it is right for everyone. Many people like subsidized housing, government regulations, government intervention in health care and so forth. Let those folks live in their Socialist utopia- and let them pay for it themselves. Meanwhile, I'll choose to live in a freer society.

Anyway, with the exception of a few warts the editorial was a refreshing change from the normal B.S. coming from political "leaders". Every blind squirrel can sometimes find a nut.

Campaign Finance Database

The Baltimore Sun has an article on campaign contributions. Ken Ulman leads the pack by a long shot, with over $900,000 in contributions received since the last election. Who gave Ulman $6,000? How much did Virgin Mobile give to Ulman? You can find the answers to those questions, and questions you may have about any other candidate, by searching the campaign finance database.

Spoiler alert: Howard County Home Builders PAC gave Ulman $6,000, and Virgin Mobile gave $4,000. But no special favors were given for those contributions, of course.

SOTC Video

If you'd like to see Ken Ulman read the SOTC speech, do so here. If you're on a Mac, the video does not work with Safari but works with Firefox.

According to Ulman we had two murders last year- the Halloween shooting and another one that I can't remember. A full three months after the Halloween shooting, no one has been charged with any crime (save for possibly the homeowner for not cutting her grass or some other nonsense). Since I am also a product of the Howard County Public School System, I too can do some basic math. This means that at least 50% of last year's murders remain unsolved. This is despite a 54 officer increase from the prior year.

Just sayin'.

AAA credit rating

Thanks to an anon commenter on this post for pointing me to Jefferson County, Alabama, who used their AAA credit rating to borrow money and screw themselves very badly.

Jefferson County, Alabama, had $3.2 billion of bonds slashed to below investment grade by Standard & Poor's, putting it at the center of turmoil in the U.S. municipal bond market that has driven up borrowing costs.

The downgrade, made after the markets closed on Feb. 29, came after the county, which includes the state's biggest city of Birmingham, said it may be unable to pay banks holding floating-rate debt for its sewer system or make payments on related interest-rate swaps. Jefferson County, with $193 million in sewer reserves, faces the prospect of having to pay more than $1 billion to banks to buy back debt and unwind the swaps.

And later...

After the insurers' ratings were cut from AAA in January, rates on the county's debt soared to as high as 10 percent when dealers failed to find buyers for the debt or use their own capital to purchase the securities. The county said it paid $6 million more in interest on its sewer debt in the four months ended in January.

Compounding the problem, interest-rate swaps the county bought to shield it against rising borrowing costs have backfired. The floating rates it pays on its bonds have climbed while the variable rate banks pay the county under the agreements have declined, pushing interest costs higher.

The county, in a notice to investors on Feb. 28, said it could ``provide no assurance'' that revenue from the sewer system would be sufficient to pay its increasing debt costs. The disclosure prompted S&P to lower the county's sewer debt by six levels to B, five steps below investment grade, and keep the bonds under review for possible further downgrade.

Beware of anyone who wants to leverage our public finances in the midst of an economic crisis.

State o' da Union

Most of Obama's SOTU speech was pure BS. In fact, I have never been more pessimistic over a speech than after watching that nonsense. Below are two of the most absurd things that stuck in my mind after watching it:

And let's tell another one million students that when they graduate, they will be required to pay only 10 percent of their income on student loans, and all of their debt will be forgiven after 20 years –- and forgiven after 10 years if they choose a career in public service, because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they chose to go to college.  (Applause.) 

The flip side of that is that no one should choose to go to college because they had no fear of being able to repay student loans. And putting more restrictions on how the lenders can be repaid only makes them less willing to lend. Over-investment is bad, be it in houses or education. The frightening thing is that after all our nation has been through with the current economic crisis, that lesson still has not been learned by policy makers.

Third, we need to export more of our goods.  (Applause.)  Because the more products we make and sell to other countries, the more jobs we support right here in America.  (Applause.)  So tonight, we set a new goal:  We will double our exports over the next five years, an increase that will support two million jobs in America.  (Applause.)  To help meet this goal, we're launching a National Export Initiative that will help farmers and small businesses increase their exports, and reform export controls consistent with national security.  (Applause.)

I am very much for free trade, because trade is not a zero sum game- it makes both parties better off and thereby increases overall wealth. Also, it makes sense to specialize which is why Adam Smith wrote about the division of labor on page 1 of The Wealth of Nations. Japan, for example, could grow some grain on their tiny country but it makes more sense for them to build grain in their automobile factories. Trade is really a technology for turning cars into grain (and vice versa).

Because both parties have an incentive to trade, we don't need Obama to tell us to increase exports. It will happen on its own when it makes sense. It scares me that politicians still think they are smarter than the collective wisdom of the market.

State o' da County

Oh, Ken, why do you continue to use the same misleading anecdotes every time you mention the Healthy Howard Access Plan?

From the State of the County (.pdf) address:

AND SINCE I JUST MENTIONED SAVING LIVES, HERE AS MY GUEST TODAY IS HENRYETTE NEAL. AFTER SUCCESSFULLY BATTLING BREAST CANCER, SHE LOST HER JOB AND HER HEALTH INSURANCE WHEN HER EMPLOYER WHEN OUT OF BUSINESS. WITHOUT INSURANCE, SHE PUT OFF FOLLOW UP VISITS AND IGNORED CHEST PAINS. FINALLY, AS A MEMBER OF HEALTHY HOWARD, SHE SAW A DOCTOR AND WAS IMMEDIATELY RUSHED TO JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL IN BALTIMORE, ONE OF OUR PARTNERS, WHERE SHE UNDERWENT TRIPLE BYPASS SURGERY THAT VERY SAME DAY. BECAUSE OF THE STRENGTH OF OUR PARTNERSHIPS, THE COST TO HENRYETTE OF THIS LIFE SAVING CARE WAS $102. HENRYETTE HAS SAID THAT HEALTHY HOWARD SAVED HER LIFE. WELL HOW FITTING IS IT THEN THAT SHE'S HERE ON HER BIRTHDAY.

If you are at all curious how the HHAP, which is not insurance, provides triple bypass surgeries for $102, here is the answer:

IT DOESN'T! Patients like this get transfered to MHIP which picks up the tab, and the patient pays the much higher MHIP premiums. More details here. I swear, if people actually understood HHAP they would not be so impressed. HHAP did one thing in this case: it got the patient to her primary care doctor who evidently found a serious health issue. I am not dismissing the importance of that. However, this anecdote is always told in such a way that makes it appear like HHAP paid for the triple bypass surgery and that is misleading to put it mildly. The patient was not even a HHAP member when the surgery was performed. Jeez.

I hope to post more about the SOTC address later this week. In the meantime, check out Ulman's twitter frenzy.

Census 2010

Yay, it's time for a new census. The federal guvmint uses census data to determine how it will redistribute $400 billion dollars that it has taken from citizens back to the citizens it was taken from. This infuriates me because it shows that government is upside down. The Feds should be doing national defense, and that's about it. Funding for local amenities should come from the local tax base.

According to the county website, Howard County will lose $700 per year for each person that does not return the census documents by mail. This means that I will cost the county $7,000 by placing the form directly into the trash can. That also creates an incentive to overstate the number of people living in your home.

I recall that some old lady from the census bureau actually came to my house and started asking me questions last time this thing was mailed out and I didn't return it.

Oh, proving that government is 20 years behind everyone else, you can't submit the form online.

Slow news week

The latest edition of "And Then There's That" was pretty good. The guest was Allan "AK47" Kittleman (OK, I made up that nickname). I agree with much of the fiscal restraint and anti regulation message that Sen. Kittleman spoke of. He even stated that he does not support the bill that would cap the number of liquor stores that Dels. Guzzone and fellow Republican Miller have sponsored. That shocked the heck out of me, frankly. I guess the Kittleman/Bates/Miller trifecta is not as unified as I thought.

One of the topics was the three most popular articles on Explore Howard. Those articles perhaps explain why I did not post anything this week- it was a very slow news week locally. The front page story on Explore Howard as I write this is an article about how Verizon does not broadcast all the Caps games. Really? Front page? All the interesting stuff happened nationally with Ted Kennedy's senate seat going to a republican and, perhaps more interesting than that, the fact that Fed Chairman Bernanke's confirmation is on the ropes. The most interesting thing locally is all of the CB58/59 public hearings, but I have very little interest in that minutia.

One year

January 15th was the one year anniversary of the botched Howard County Police SWAT team raid on an apparently innocent man's home that resulted in the shooting death of a family dog. The SWAT team was looking for a Sig Sauer assault rife that was stolen from a police car. The rifle, to this day, still has not been located. And the Howard County Police Department has released no more information about the incident since the above linked article (from February 2009) and refuses to respond to any citizen inquiries about the ordeal.

I've heard it said that you can tell a lot about a society by how they treat animals. Since this botched raid and dog shooting, the HCPD has also botched a murder investigation.

Tax dollars at work!

Warning label

OMG:

Still, that optimism, and the possibility of rising interest rates as the economy recovers, led school board member Frank Aquino to suggest that the county borrow more money by selling bonds to do needed school renovations while construction costs are also down.

"We need to invest now," he said.

Todd Snyder, another member, agreed.

"Borrow as much as you can now," he said. Basu seemed to agree, noting that Howard is among the wealthiest places in America.

In the spirit of government warnings, I offer the following for anyone who purchases HoCo muni bonds:

WARNING: HOWARD COUNTY IS A RATED AAA BOND ISSUER. THIS RATING WAS ISSUED BY A VERY PRESTIGIOUS RATING FIRM. SUCH RATING FIRMS HAVE PROVEN THEMSELVES TO BE UTTERLY F@#KING CLUELESS. THEY HAVE LOST TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS FOR THOSE UNFORTUNATE BASTARDS WHO RELIED UPON THEIR RATINGS. WHILE PAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT INDICATIVE OF FUTURE PERFORMANCE, BE ADVISED THAT A CRACK WHORE COULD HAVE ACHIEVED BETTER PAST PERFORMANCE. THEREFORE, BONDS ISSUED BY HOWARD COUNTY GOVERNMENT MAY LOSE VALUE. IF THEY DO NOT, IT IS PROBABLY BECAUSE HOWARD COUNTY RESIDENTS ARE BEING RAPED WITH HIGHER TAXES AND ARE FORCED TO SELL THEIR CHILDREN TO RESEARCH LABS WHICH WILL CONDUCT DANGEROUS EXPERIMENTS ON THEM. YOUR ONLY CONSOLATION WILL BE THAT YOUR CAPITAL SERVED TO EDUCATE THIS GENERATION OF HUMAN GUINEA PIGS. DON'T BLAME THE RATING FIRMS WHEN YOUR PORTFOLIO BECOMES WORTHLESS, AS THE RATING FIRMS GET PAID EITHER WAY.

Know your place

I don't know why I find this so funny, but I get such a kick out of the fact that the White House press people had to assure the public that the President's first State of the Union address won't preempt the final season premiere of the TV show 'Lost'.

Some like to think that politics is such a big deal, but when the rubber meets the road a popular TV show takes priority over an address from some blowhard, even in a world of DVRs and TiVos. Loosely reminds me that the doctrine fiat justitia ruat caelum (let justice be done though the skies fall) is proclaimed by those who are pretty sure that doing justice won't bring down the skies.

All major charges dropped in Halloween shooting

The Howard County Police Department is batting a big fat zero on the investigation of the infamous Halloween shooting that left one person dead and another paralyzed. The attempted murder charges on the paralyzed victim were dropped early last month, and the murder charge was recently dropped as well. Given my already low opinion of the HCPD, it would not at all surprise me to learn that they have been chasing the wrong suspect all along.

Ivan Bates, another of Dixon’s attorneys, said Wednesday that he had about seven witnesses who could testify that Dixon was not at the scene of the shooting. He said the gun that was found in the house where Dixon was arrested was registered to the owner of the house and was not in Dixon’s possession.

Bates also said police should have checked cell phone records and interviewed all possible witnesses before arresting him.
“I was very bothered because it was definitely a rush” to arrest Dixon, he said.

He added that Dixon and Quick were friends and his client had no motive to shoot him.

Although the murder charges against Dixon have been dropped, police and prosecutors are still investigating the case, Kirwan said. “We felt it wasn’t appropriate to move forward at this time. However, our office is working with the police department.”

While the HCPD was busy screwing the pooch on the murder and attempted murder charges for the shooter, County Executive Ken Ulman was leading a lynch mob to harass the homeowners with petty violations. It is surprising to me that Ulman took such an interest in going after the hosts of this party but not the hosts of whatever party led to the recent death of a popular high school athlete.

Par for the course

You can now donate to Health Howard Access Plan online, if you feel so inclined. In true HHAP fashion, this new method of accepting donations was instituted (or at least Twittered about) just in time to miss the bump in year-end charitable giving.

Paid parking

Every now and then I will read something that leads me to a completely different interpretation than what the writer had or perhaps intended. A longtime Columbia resident wrote a letter to the editor in which she recounts a harrowing and unpleasant experience trying to find a parking spot at the mall. I presume this occurred near the holidays, because that is the only time in which traffic near the mall is bad. This person had to drive around looking for a spot and eventually resorted to following shoppers leaving the mall in order to take their soon to be vacated parking spot. When she finally secured a parking space, she felt as though she had “won the lottery”. She then had to sit in her car for a few minutes to recover from the parking ordeal. She then alluded that someone else looking for a parking spot gave her an obscene gesture for sitting in her car.

The writer complained that, if GGP's development plan is approved, there would be a “moat of parking garages which would probably be charging [her] to park.” Her specific objection to this is that tax dollars would most likely be used to pay for the parking garages. That is a valid objection which I agree with. It seems obvious to me that the developer should pay for these garages, and of course get all of the parking revenues. However, that particular quarrel is with the county, not the developer. I guess the county wants to pay for the garages, and use the revenues to offset debt or other spending. That seems dumb to me, but whatever. I am in agreement with the writer on these specific points so far.

What did not make sense at all to me is the writer did not seem to realize that the parking garages, regardless of who pays for them, would solve the problem of an insufficient number of parking spots. If her parking experience proves anything, it is that free parking is anything but “free”. When demand is high and supply is low, obtaining the scarce resource becomes a real hassle. This is why she compared finding a parking space to winning the lottery. A parking garage which charges a fee would allow the parking spaces to be allocated efficiently. People who want to park in a close garage would be able to do so for a couple of bucks (which they would be glad to do if it saves them an experience like the one above), and people who weren't as concerned with a close spot could park somewhere farther away (maybe by Lakeside Cafe) or perhaps even do their shopping online. This is not really a point for debate, as this something that any first year economics student can figure out.

People who are more interested in Columbia than I am can take issue with the other, perhaps larger, points that the writer made. But as far as the parking bit goes, yay for paid parking!

Bummer or not

Pat Hiban nicely explains why your property taxes may actually increase despite plummeting assessed property values. But if you have kids in public schools, you have NOTHING to complain about. If you don't have kids in public schools, well, you should be used to getting screwed.

Now some men like a fishin', but some men like the fowlin'

Dumbest. Law. Ever.

So much for free speech in Ireland. Or alcohol in Iraq. Is it just me or is the whole world going to hell?

Booze tax

An interesting article on a possible increase in the alcohol tax. There is a $2 BILLION state budget shortfall, so something needs to be done. My own opinion is that spending needs to be cut to the bone before you even think about raising taxes. Let's see what a sample of our fearless "leaders" have to say:

ROBEY:

Senate delegation chairman state Sen. James N. Robey has said numerous times that he would not favor tax increases, but he said he might consider the alcohol tax.

"I've said all along I would not raise taxes. This is one exception I might consider if a compelling enough case is made," he said. "We can't just keep cutting, cutting, cutting, cutting and cutting."

Actually, you can keep cutting and you need to keep cutting just like the private sector is doing. Thus far, the state budget cuts haven't been very deep. For starters, our state legislators need to look at their own expense reimbursements.

GUZZONE:

Delegation chairman Del. Guy Guzzone said he'd consider it only if the revenue were dedicated to helping thousands of developmentally disabled people who have been waiting years for state aid.

Guzzone wants the tax to raise revenue but he already has the money earmarked for new spending. That's not how you get out of a $2 billion hole, Mr. Guzzone. Seems to prove the point made by next three:

BATES/MILLER/KITTLEMAN:

Republicans state Sen. Allan H. Kittleman, and Dels. Gail H. Bates and Warren E. Miller all said they strongly oppose any move to increase taxes, feeling that the state must structurally cut the budget to make spending match revenues.

"We don't have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem," said Kittleman, the Senate minority leader, repeating the mantra for all three. Using higher alcohol taxes to reduce drinking is "social engineering," Kittleman said.

I agree with most of this, but I'm pretty confused about the social engineering malarkey. What is the ban on gay marriage/civil unions if not social engineering?

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy new year. Hopefully we'll inch closer to leaving the real estate boom/bust and resulting economic disaster that defined the past several years behind us.

The past two Januaries, both in 2008 and 2009, the Howard County Police Department engaged in botched raids that resulted in two family dogs being shot. Hopefully, this is a trend that will end this year. County Executive Ken Ulman, who allowed both of these shootings to occur on his watch without so much as a word from his office about it (despite the fact that Ulman was more than happy to get involved in the investigation of the infamous Halloween shooting, but seems to have no interest in the fact that the police dropped the ball on that one), wasted no time launching a new campaign website.

Another election year begins.