Annie,

Since you are a "whiz" when it comes to the state budget, please settle it once and for all, did the Ehrlich administration leave a $1.7B budget deficit for Marty or not?

I guess MOM is running out of smoke and the mirrors are cracking...

The budget was balanced through one time transfers and robbing Peter to pay Paul. It structural deficit is still there and the Governor chose to ignore it. A major tax increase must be enacted for the next fiscal year because of the tax and spend practices of Annapolis. O'Malley's touting of this year's budget solutions is the biggest lie ever to come out of his mouth.

We need that DEEP voice in the O'Malley commercials to present the facts. "If you elect O'Malley to another term as Governor you will suffer a cash income reduction therefore you will have less of your money to spend". No prior Governor in the State's history has acted to destroy Maryland, O'Malley's policies are intentionally destructive. O'Malley's legacy of punishing "working families", providing "leadership that failed", and outright LIES are criminal. O'Malley is a FAILURE!
The election in November 2010 is about removing the worse Governor in Maryland's history.
Voting for O'Malley is an approval for further destroying Maryland and your family.

As A State employees and dealing with Furloughs and layoffs as the leaders take lavish lunchs and travel i would never vote for this man.

This is the biggest lie to come from the Governor's mouth. I mean, first his negative ads against Ehrlich and now this, even after everyone stated that nearly 1 billion was left for OWE Malley that he blew through. This man is a absolutely beyond remorse. Continued spending and transfers all the while never dealing with the budget and taxing the middle class to the point many business had to fold up shop and move jobs out of Maryland. This Governor is a complete and utter failure.

Omalley cost taxpayers an estimate $2billion a year on illegal aliens. Millions $$ more every year to their groups like casa de md. Omalley allows them to work our state highways and landscaping projects through subcontractors. He also allowed them a drivers license in md using fake ids allowing them to vote. He allows them to work cash day jobs while on welfare and its freebies. Thanks to omalley, many citizens out of work yet illegal aliens in md are doing just fine. Where's the incentive for them to become productive citizens if our leaders allow them to scam tax $ from us and allowed to drive, vote and work cash jobs. Enough Already. I'm one democrat who won't go there any longer. btw. We were $2billion in deficit last year and $2billion to illegal aliens last year. The illegals pay back in votes people. The democrat vote.. Vote them out in november.

That would the the "MISHANDLING" of the budget Marty. Get it right!

The Bobby Haircut sycophants are out in full force, I see.

The tax problem in California was created when Gov Terminator cut the car tax by
approximately $4.5 billion annually. After 6 years the loss of revenue from the car tax exceeds the state of California's budget of
$19 Billion.

As an indication of the strength of the economy of California the voters approved four years ago a bond issue of three billion dollars to stem cell research. Maryland was able to get three MILLION
for stem cell research.

Please note that the last time that the state of California invested this kind of money and pledged the full backing of the research facilities of the University of California the result was SILICON VALLEY.

1. CALIFORNIA HAS A GREAT FUTURE.
2. CUTTING TAXES CAN DERAIL A PROSPERING ECONOMY SUCH AS CALIFORNIA'S BEFORE GOVERNOR TERMINATOR STATED THAT CUTTING THE CAR TAX WOULD INCREASE THE CALIFORNIA ECONOMY.

God Bless his brazen soul.

Raising taxes at the beginning of a recession and balancing the budget with fed money was genius. Not!
The only thing saving this state's finances is our proximity to DC. The feds are the only ones hiring and their pay is well above the average which makes me think whether they should be called public servants anymore.

Yawn! More lies, distortions and sleeze!

The add was not run in the DC area because the population in general is more educated than that of Baltimore. The add is most likely being directed to the semi literate segment of the Baltimore population.

A prudent plan for Maryland in 2007 would have been to cut costs and re-evaluate programs. Instead, they raised costs and taxes. Only then came the 'tough' decisions. O'Money did it bass-ackwards. And as carefully pointed out above, we blew well over 2 billion on illegals that could have gone to schools, public safety or simply returned to those that earned the funds. Instead we get nifty programs such as speed cameras.A fine is a penalty for doing something wrong. A tax is a penalty for doing something right.

I'm watching the Natl Governors' Assoc. mtg on CSPAN and they are talking about what each Governor has done to balance budgets in his/her state. Governor O'Malley talked about the sales tax hike but highlighted the his budget cuts as well as freeze on college tuition, triple-A rating, etc. When the moderator asked him if he dipped into rainy day or other funds to balance the budget, he said no. However, Annie, you write above that he did dip into an obscure fund - what's true?

Baltimore City... PG County... Montgomery County.....Game over O'Malley wins again!!! BOBBY BAD HAIRCUT falls down again and tears his skirt and cry's the Dems wouldn't let me win!!!!

Thank goodness for the remote - because if I see an O'Malley ad - I will change the channel.

As a State employee for 35 years who is now in the third year of a "Temporary Salary Reduction" I do not know one single State employee who is voting for Mr. O'Malley unless their job depends on it. Mr. Ehrlich - if you would make bumper stickers that say "State Employees for Bob Ehrlich" - I think you would run out of them in minutes.

This sums it up! Bribing people with their own money! Wake up AMERICA!

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
-Thomas Jefferson

We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
Sir Winston Churchill

Let me start out by saying i have been a md resident all my life , my father and grandfather were md residents and i am totally embarassed to live here now. My wife and myself went to delware park casino's yesterday and much to my dismay this place was absolutely gorgeous and better then almost any casino in Atlantic city. The place was filled to capacity and i bet you anything over 70% of the cars in the parking lot were from Md. The poker room has 20 tables and was filled to capacity by 2:00pm. There was a waiting list of over 300 players waiting to play. Now you tell me what is wrong with this whole picture. Philly opens up there casino's july 18th and this glorious state that we live in can't even begin to open a slot parlor. The politican's in this state should be ashamed of themselves. Wv, penn, now delware have all gotten casino's and this piss poor state that has huge budget defecits can't even begin to get there act together. Imagine all of the money md is losing by md residents spending huge amounts of money in other states. But nobody gives a rat's a$$ in this town. What a total shame.

To all the O'Malley supporters who took the time to post, I have a question.
If O'Malley is so darn good at balancing My state of Maryland's budget, why did he have to go and beg the federal government for more money? Federal money is also your hard earned tax dollars but in a much larger deduction from your pay check.

The same furloughs are in place for this fiscal year as were in place last year. Right off the bat, 5 forced days off (state workers get 'paid' but give the money right back to the state) + 3-5 additional days with out any pay. net result : a 3-4% pay reduction for state workers.

This is on top of the additional funds we are now pumping into the pension plan (our contribution was raised 3 years ago as well).

HELLO ALL STATE WORKERS!!! Stop complaining about furloughs. At least you HAVE A JOB! I am so sick of the bellyaching about furloughs and no pay increases when millions of Americans pray each and every day that a job, any job, will come along to feed their kids and keep a roof over their heads.

I am a MD Date employee who IS grateful to Gov. O'Malley for his stewardship of my state over the hell that has been the last 3 years. You hate him and this state, move to Nevada, NY, California, etc. where state workers by the THOUSANDS have LOST their jobs.

Oh, and by the way, most Governors of these sates with horrid budget problems are Republicans. Ehrlich had his chance and the voters rejected him after seeing how he would govern. They will reject him again.

Well I don't like either candiate, they both suck big time.

With that said, the biggest problem with the ad's are that Stats O'Malley forgets to mention that the State of Maryland received more Federal Stimulus money than any state in the country. Let's see him and or Bob do it without Federal assistance.

This is why we need political reform in this country, so we can get a candidate to run that is a positive force to represent the state.

I for one am tired of having to choose betweeen the lesser of two evils.

Oh by the way California has been in the red since Regan was Gov. and it will not change any time soon with the cost of living in that state. Maryland is working hard to catch up though.

Maryland's furlough plan equals a three percent to four percent temporary pay cut, depending on a state employee's income.

Bob Ehrlich repeatedly attacks Gov. O'Malley for the three to four percent temporary pay cut, but Bob Ehrlich's lobbying law firm permanently cut workers' pay ten percent due to the same recession forcing Gov. O'Malley to cut.

So Bob Ehrlich's employees took a cut twice as deep as state employees under Gov. O'Malley, and they did not receive days off as state employees did.

Mr. Ehrlich's furlough hypocrisy was on display when he endorsed Republican Anne Arundel county executive John Leopold, who enacted a furlough plan identical to Gov. O'Malley's the same week he attacked Gov. O'Malley.

Then Mr. Ehrlich attended a ritzy fundraiser in Virginia hosted by Republican Gov. Bob McDonald, who furloughed workers in his state, as did Gov. O'Malley and at least 30 other governors coping with the deepest recession since the Great Depression.

Bob Ehrlich exploits this issue for political gain, but if he really cared about workers and furloughs, he would have spoken up when his own firm cut employees' pay ten percent across the board, and he would criticize Republicans John Leopold and Gov. McDonald for relying on the same temporary saving measure employed by Gov. O'Malley.

- Steve Lebowitz, Annapolis

I'm not voting for either one of them - neither one gets the job done - too bad we can't get some new blood with vision and the capability to increase jobs and - most important - cut down on the rampant crime that is destroying the state.