I’ve just heard from an impeccable source that Barbara Mikulski, the Democratic Senator who is up for reelection this November, will choose to retire. Mrs. Mikulski is expected to make her formal announcement in the next few days.

Mrs. Mikulski seriously fractured her right ankle last fall just prior to Edward M. Kennedy’s death. Due to the severity of the fracture, she had to have open reduction surgery, that included the insertion of pins, as well as the use of special surgical boots, during recovery. She had tried to arrive in time for Mr. Kennedy’s funeral but was turned away.

Her recovery has been exceptionally slow and she is evidently still in a great deal of pain. Reportedly, she has told her physician that she does not desire to seek reelection. Additionally, friends and family have been saying in the near future she will announce her retirement. Because of the very slow recovery, she has been forced to use a wheelchair, a walker or a cane in order to get around.

If Mikulski does retire, then who would run for her job on both sides? Does Ehrlich jump in the Senate race and leave the race for Governor on the GOP side wide open again?

UPDATE: We are also hearing that Senator Barbara Mikulski’s campaign has done polling in the past week or two.

UPDATE 2
Chris Cilizza on Twitter

Rumors that Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) is retiring are NOT TRUE, according to informed D source.

Update 3
Mike Memoli tweets that he has 2 sources saying it’s not true.

Other blogging:
Hot Air
Red Maryland
Baltimore Republican Examiner
NRO

Tonight Baltimore County Republicans blasted the Democrat-led county government for a miserable response to a historic snowstorm; one that has left many neighborhoods paralyzed, days after the blizzard ended.

“Jim Smith used the response to Hurricane Isabel for partisan purposes, but today, he can’t blame Republicans for Baltimore County’s deplorable response to a historic snowstorm,” commented Chris Cavey, Chairman of the Baltimore County Republican Party. “Whole neighborhoods are still inaccessible days after the snowstorm ended, and citizens are confused about what to do with mounting garbage. It reflects years of underinvestment in public works, and a basic breakdown in services.”

This past Tuesday at the Spending Affordability Committee the County auditor revealed a $144 million revenue shortfall. “Poor planning will now drive us further in debt.” Cavey said, “I guess they will try to blame the budget deficit on harsh winter storms – too bad we know the truth.”

Cavey also noted the following:

· County Executive James Smith, normally in front of cameras for every press event, has been virtually invisible over the past few days, doubtfully he is snowed in.

· Neighborhoods are isolated, trapped under mounting piles of snow, while many county roads remain difficult to maneuver or unplowed.

· The county’s garbage collection is confusing and haphazard. On Monday, the county issued a press release that said there would be “limited” collection the next day. This implies that residents should pack up the piles of mounting garbage and haul it back to the house—through feet of snow—if the trash wasn’t picked up.

“Over the past two months, Democrats on the County Council spent their time debating their lucrative pension benefits and speed cameras when perhaps they could have invested a little time on how to prepare for winter emergencies,” Cavey concluded. “After 16 years, Democrats can add this latest breakdown to their legacy, which already includes traffic-choked roads and overcrowded schools.”

According to the Baltimore Business Journal and “Team Maryland,” GM was enticed to White Marsh with $115.5 million in federal, state, and county grants i.e., taxpayer subsidies. These aren’t tax credits or tax breaks mind you, rather money already taken from taxpayers.

A quick calculation reveals that taxpayers are subsidizing GM $577,500 per job. Jobs that will not come online until 2013!

Furthermore, GM reported only a 3% increase in retail sales of it’s core brands over it’s dismal 2009 performance. Meaning that the demand for the vehicles, for which the White Marsh plant supplies engines, may not support the jobs for which taxpayers are subsidizing.

Spending taxpayer money on corporate welfare, to paraphrase Marta Mossburg, that’s the kind of growth only government could love.

Then again, we already know Maryland Democrats are all about corporate welfare, especially when it benefits them.

Mark Newgent is a Contributing Editor at Red Maryland

Join us for Victory 2010
Fundraiser for
Kathy Szeliga, House of Delegates 2010
Baltimore and Harford Counties with special guest
Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr.!

$100 – VIP Reception and dinner begins at 6:00 PM
$45 – dinner w/brief remarks from Bob Ehrlich begins at 6:30

Sponsorships available too – $1,000 – $150

Call or email Kathy Szeliga for more details:
kathy@electkathy.com
443-570-1555

Donate online and mailing address available at
www.electkathy.com

By Len Lazarick
Len@MarylandReporter.com

After Gov. Martin O’Malley releases his budget today, there may be some confusion about how much he actually plans to spend.

The overall state budget – the one that shows up every year around page 7 in the official budget highlights book – will likely be about $31 billion. That’s the same as this year after all the cuts.

Many media reports focus on the “general fund” budget that is less than half that total, about $13 billion. Some accounts have even referred to this the “operating budget.” It is not.

“The general fund budget is what we’re all expected to focus on and balance each year,” said professor Roy Meyers, who teaches government budgeting at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. “It’s the focus of attention of people everywhere,” including the National Association of State Budget Officers, for instance.

The general fund is the pot that collects most of the state revenue – the income tax, most of the sales tax and most most lottery revenues. It also includes proceeds from the alcohol, tobacco and estate taxes.

But the general fund doesn’t include the taxes on gasoline, real property, real estate transfers, and many charges and fees, such as university tuition and the flush tax. It includes none of the federal money coming back to Maryland – 25 percent of all state spending.

“I think the best focus is the most comprehensive one that focuses on all the funds expended by the state,” Meyers said. “I think it makes the most sense to look at the total funds being spent including federal funds.”

In other words, about $31 billion.

He referred to Article III, section 4 and 5a of the Maryland Constitution. It calls the budget “a figure for the total of all proposed appropriations and a figure for the total of all estimated revenues.” It also says these totals must be in balance.

Warren Deschenaux, the legislature’s chief fiscal analyst, defended the attention that goes to the general fund.

“I don’t think it’s inappropriate to be focusing on the general fund,”he said. “That’s where the main taxes are going.”

Still, he acknowledged that it’s important to consider the whole of state spending.

“The focus can be misleading,” Deschenaux conceded. “It’s going to understate spending,” since it doesn’t include federal money and “special” fund revenues. Those are dedicated to specific purposes.

But special funds are often redirected into the general fund barrel. This year and next, real estate transfer taxes created specifically to fund conservation land purchases and farmland preservation are being taken out of the special fund and put into the general fund. Bonds will be used instead to buy and develop parks, forests and the development rights to farmland.

“We’ll be paying for those decisions for 15 years,” Deschenaux said..

OPERATING: So what is the “operating” budget? “It’s really a description of something that doesn’t exist,” Meyers said.

Deschenaux described it as the portion of the spending plan that “supports government operations” – “everything in the budget bill” minus some capital spending and money set aside in reserve, such as the rainy day fund. He said it is perhaps $25 billion.

The term “operating” budget is seldom used in budget discussions. Other terms are used to describe different ways to analyze state spending.

BASELINE: There is the “baseline budget,” the estimated cost of maintaining current services under “normal” budget conditions – which Maryland hasn’t experienced lately. This “baseline” includes cost-of-living increases and merit pay for state employees. It also assumes full funding of all the programs mandated by state law such as school, police, library and pension aid to the counties.

Many of these mandates and expected growth have slowed or been cut in the past year.

Professor Meyers believes the current “baseline” budget “includes a lot of estimates that may not be true.”

SPENDING AFFORDABILITY: Democratic legislative leaders made much of their decision to allow zero growth in the “spending affordability” budget recommended to the governor in December. The joint spending affordability committee recommended spending $20.8 billion, a target almost $8 billion higher than “general fund” budget figure being used as the standard in much reporting.

This $20.8 billion is a rather flexible number that does include money spent on roads and transit. It also includes all university spending and tuition payments.

In past years, the spending affordability number has never included federal taxpayer dollars, which largely go to fund Medicaid health care. But this year for the first time it does include federal stimulus dollars used to supplement state general fund spending.

Republicans say it still leaves a $1 billion spending gap in the estimated $2 billion deficit. They tried to pass a deeper 7 percent cut in the spending affordability plan. But Meyers said, “I wouldn’t make a big deal out of it,” because he thinks the baseline estimates for spending are too high.

So when somebody asks “How big is Maryland’s state budget?” you can respond, “Which budget do you mean?” Or you can probably look it up on page 7 of the budget highlights book.

“Transparency is clearly not our goal in the budget,” Deschenaux observed with his usual dry wit, “but obfuscating is not our intention, either.”

So the Coakley vs. Brown MA SEN race is for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat, right?  Apparently Chris Van Hollen forgot this fact when he stated:

Why would you hand the keys to the car back to the same guys whose policies drove the economy into the ditch and then walked away from the scene of the accident?

…into a ditch and then walked away“?  A DITCH?  Really?  REALLY?

I’ve been accused of speaking without thinking before, but Van Hollen goes into the HOF for this one.

Ted Kennedy.  ”Into a ditch and walked away”.

Wow.

(PS: DOOOOOOOOOOOOM!)

Incumbents in that district include two Republicans (Susan L.M. Aumann & William J. Frank) and a Democrat (Stephen W. Lafferty.)

5. Maryland’s 1st district (D): A recent poll conducted for state Sen. Andy Harris’ (R) campaign showed him leading Rep. Frank Kratovil (D) by a 52 percent to 39 percent margin. That Kratovil’s campaign didn’t release numbers of its own suggests the incumbent isn’t in a good place — not surprising given the Republican tilt of this Eastern Shore district. (Previous ranking: 7)

First, add the #mdtweets hashtag to your Twitter postings (“tweets”) on campaign events and news. Anyone with government and political news or events to promote can do the same. Others with events to promote are encouraged to use it as well. We will have some other news on the #mdtweets front in the near future.

Secondly, send your press releases for your campaign and its events to mail@insidecharmcity.com and we will run your unedited press release, or, if you have a site or blog with the news or event on it, we will link to it and post excerpts.