YOU'RE GETTING

WARMER!

All summer, George Leventhal, Nancy Floreen, Marc Elrich and Hans Riemer kept telling us there was no budget shortfall next year.

I kept telling you the shortfall next May would be at least $900,000,000, and that there would be an additional $175 million in teacher pensions shifted to the county from the state.

By October, my opponents began to admit there was a shortfall. But their figure was laughable: $140 million. Even their good buddy Charles Duffy, who shut myself and others out of appearances on his public access show Political Pulse (while giving hours of free TV time to my Democratic opponents at taxpayer expense), said it was a little higher than that at a September debate.

But I corrected him - $900 million, I insisted.

Watch it yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhY-VbIbI7U

Now, in November - and after the election, conveniently - the county executive has announced that the shortfall is at $200,000,000!

So, let's see, we went from $0 in September, to $140,000,000 in October, and to $200,000,000 in November.

What's behind door number 4?

If you are one of those people who voted for all 4 Democrats: Elrich, Floreen, Leventhal, and Riemer, you must be feeling voter's remorse right now.

I'm trying to do the math that many voters didn't bother to do, and which our reelected council is simply incapable of doing, based on their pathetic record of failure in managing our county's finances:

Continuing at this rate, and adding in some lesser-yet-inevitable "surprises" from the county, we are easily on track for at least the $900,000,000 I warned you about all year. In fact, the truth is, we are already there. The county "owes" $900 million more than it is going to take in in revenue for the FY12 budget in May. They choose to hide that fact by letting the facts out one increment at a time, to support their theatrical claims that each of these was a completely-unexpected new expense.

The news that the state budget shortfall is now at $2,000,000,000 (!!), and that Martin O'Malley has promised no new taxes, means - guess what? - those teacher pensions are coming back to Montgomery County: $175,000,000 worth!!

Come on! The shortfall is real. It is structural, meaning that it is built in to each budget for the coming years. And it is at least $900,000,000 plus $175,000,000 in teacher pensions.

As John Edwards once said, telling 99% of the truth is no longer enough!