Sept 17, 2008: The Examiner
Senate Minority Leader Allan Kittleman, right, and
Minority Whip Nancy Jacobs were elected Tuesday
Len Lazarick/Examiner
llazarick@baltimoreexaminer.com
 Republican members of the
Maryland Senate on Tuesday unanimously elected Sen. Allan
Kittleman as minority leader and Sen. Nancy Jacobs as minority
whip, and the new leaders had a message for Gov. Martin O’Malley
about the current budget problems: We told you so.
Republicans in the Senate the past year offered proposals to
balance the budget without raising taxes and “had those words
been heeded back [then], we wouldn’t be in the difficult
situation as we are right now,” said Kittleman, who represents
parts of Howard and Carroll counties.
Instead, Jacobs, who represents Harford and Cecil counties,
noted that O’Malley and Democrats in the General Assembly voted
to increase taxes last year in order to cure a structural
deficit. But on top of the tax increases, during the 2007
special session, they added $200 million in spending “at a time
when we could least afford the spending,” Jacobs said.
“We’re going to do everything we can to reduce government
spending,” Jacobs said.
 Kittleman had been minority whip and
succeeds Sen. David Brinkley, Frederick-Carroll, who resigned
the post. Kittleman was appointed to the Senate four years ago
after the death of his father, Sen. Robert Kittleman, who had
also been the House Republican leader. Allan Kittleman had been
elected twice to the Howard County Council.
Jacobs is in her third term in the Senate after serving one
term in the House.
She said the Republican caucus would continue to represent
the 46 percent of Marylanders who voted for Republican Gov.
Robert Ehrlich in 2006 and “feel underrepresented.” “Part of our
goal is to have all the voices of Marylanders heard,” Jacobs
said.
O’Malley put out a newsletter on Tuesday that continued to
tout reductions in spending, and said the state was in better
fiscal shape than other states experiencing revenue declines due
to the economic downturn.
But the Republicans said O’Malley made the situation worse.
“Our problem is an insatiable appetite to spend,” Kittleman
said. “Even as they were taxing us to fix our problem, they
still added additional spending.” OTHER STORIES
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-md.gop17sep17,0,1698411.story
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/annapolis/2008/09/senate_gop_stays_neutral_on_sl.html
http://wjz.com/local/republican.whip.female.2.819413.html
http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?StoryID=80289
http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080918/NEWS01/809180412
http://www.gazette.net/stories/09162008/polinew150256_32503.shtml |
