Delegate Smigiel’s Official Blog Moves to New Address on the Web

I created a blog to share information directly with 36th district constituents late in 2008. Readership grew rapidly as I became aware of the value this new medium provides for communicating directly with citizens. Thus I am moving the weblog to its own address on the World Wide Web and I have done a complete redesign of the site. Using a friendlier magazine format, it is designed to help anyone trying to stay informed about matters in Maryland. My hope is that this improved product will provide you with better, easier to find content and help you find the information you need. I will expand upon this magazine theme in the months ahead, adding more features to help with open exchanges. Feel free to communicate with me by posting your thoughts. I read every one of your posts.

Click here to go to my new blog.

Please add this new site to your visits and check in at the new address often as all posts will now be done at www.delegatemike.com I will continue to maintain the first WordPress address in order to archive the original posts and comments.

The Governor’s, Taxpayer Web Site Hides Public’s Concerns From Public View.

Governor O’Malley is requesting that the citizens of Maryland go to his state web site and give the Governor suggestions on how to address Maryland’s current fiscal crises. 

When I first heard about this, I thought, What a great idea! Unfortunately, like most things in government, the devil is in the details.

To my surprise, I could not read what people were writing to suggest that the governor do about our fiscal crises because the web site does not allow citizens to view what other citizens have had to say to the State’s highest elected official.  So much for the claims of transparency in government.

It is not hard to allow the public to view and participate in an online conversation.  Just look at the end of this blog, there is a comment location where you click to leave a comment or to view the comments others have left and to perhaps respond to the comments of others, if you so choose. It costs nothing for me to do this and is easy enough to learn how to do.

Instead of sending a signal that the O’Malley administration is open to hearing from the citizens of Maryland how they would like to see our fiscal situation corrected, the governor has sent out a message that he does not want the public to know what people really think of his fiscal policies.

I fully expect that we will soon hear that those contacting the governor are telling him to raise fees, tolls and taxes, yet we will never be able to see those suggestions or to comment on them ourselves.

Likewise, we will not be able to read the many good suggestions to save money by cutting truly wasteful programs.

You can visit the governor’s website by clicking here.

Since you can not share your suggestions or comments with the rest of the world at that site, I ask that you please copy and paste your comments to the governors site, also at my comment section below.  This way everyone can see what others have had to say to the governor about taxes and government spending in Maryland.

For those who need a few ideas on what message you can leave the governor I have suggested a few below.

1. Stop saying everything is ok because we have a triple A bond rating.  All that is needed to get a Triple A bond rating is a willingness to raise any tax, on any one, at any time.

2. Write to each of the millionaire’s you chased out of Maryland with the millionaire’s tax and tell them, it was just a joke. Tell them we would like for them to come back, start a business and hire some employees.

3. Eliminate the newly formed department of technology and transfer the duties back to the departments that have handled them previously.

4. Reject Marx and Engels and embrace John Locke and Adam Smith. In fact, why don’t you buy copies of “The Wealth of Nations” and require your staff and Agency heads to read it.

5. Stop saying you have reduced the size of government when you have added just as many new jobs as you have eliminated.

I have many other suggestions but will hold back so that those sending suggestions to the governor can leave copys of their suggestions in our comment section below.  Let the governor and or I know what you think the elected officials in Maryland should do to reduce the size of government and lessen the tax burden or if you prefer tell us why we should continue down the road to socialism and bankruptcy. (I know I slanted that a little but its my blog I get to be opinionated some times)

Cecil Courthouse Garden

Standing outside my office one beautiful summer’s day last week, I watched as they began digging up the new garden outside the Elkton Courthouse. As I wondered what the end product would look like, a woman approached me. Turns out she is one of the folks who got the project going, Ms. Julia Hodge.

 

Ms. Hodge began telling me about the process that she and her team had gone through to get the money and the various approvals to see the project come to life. She is currently a bit frustrated because people are under the (erroneous) impression that the garden is funded with taxpayer dollars.

 

According to Ms. Hodge and an article in the NY Times last year (here), the garden is ENTIRELY funded through private contributions and not public dollars. An organization called TKF Foundation (here) funded most of the project. TKF, according to their website, is “…a private grant-making foundation whose purpose is to create ‘Open Spaces, Sacred Places’. It partners with organizations to create sacred places which increase a sense of community and contribute to a deepening of human connections.”

What TKF didn’t fund, Julia Hodge’s team is making up for in local contributions and in-kind donations.

 

The project is also an opportunity for some middle ground between jail time and getting off scot-free for some kids.  The garden gives judges an option to have children with legal issues work in the garden when they can’t send them to jail but don’t want them to just go home as if they’d done nothing wrong. The really cool thing is that the garden is meant to be a place of meditation and here is a chance for some problem kids to give to the community and contemplate their options if they continue down the same path that brought them to the court system.

 

So, the next time you drive past our courthouse, please stop in and enjoy the new garden. It serves as a fine example of private initiative for a public purpose.