( - promoted by Jana Avtor)
Maryland's most powerful public employee union yesterday stood up with advocates of health care and other key public services to urge the Governor and the legislature find alternative funding sources and use "the state's untouched rainy-day reserve fund," according to the Washington Post. "It is time to dip into the rainy-day fund because it's raining out there and we need shelter from the storm," said Patrick Moran, Maryland director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). "Mr. Governor, please, please consider your rainy day funds," added Mary Townes, an employee at the Baltimore City Department of Social Services, who said workers there are staying late into the night, and struggling each day to find enough resources to identify and protect the city's most vulnerable children. "It's unfair to say we care about the children and then not invest in enough people to protect them," Townes said.
Governor O'Malley continues to resist suggestions that he dip into the state's rainy day fund and has not moved aggressively to close corporate tax loopholes or otherwise find sources of funds. He has instead cut public services that many people across Maryland rely on. The rumble between O'Malley and Maryland's working people heated up early this week when it was revealed that the governor's nominee to lead the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation had worked for a union-busting law firm. The blog Maryland Politics Watch pointed out that the governor had chosen Virginian Alex Sanchez to lead DLLR over at least two well-qualified, labor-friendly Marylanders. While O'Malley received strong union backing and support from working Marylanders in his 2006 race for governor, his administration hasn't been as pro-active in addressing the needs of working families as had been hoped. Readers of Free State Politics will remember how in early 2008 it was revealed that one of O'Malley's departments was bragging to businesses about a supposedly "anti-union climate" in Maryland. In the same week, O'Malley signed the first ever family child care providers contract with SEIU 500, according the the DC Labor Council's web site. 
Let's hope that O'Malley's relations with working families in Maryland trend more toward the last case than the others. |
