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Cuts create unsafe conditions, reps say

Detention, juvenile centers operating with smaller staffs

Kevin Spradlin
Cumberland Times-News

CUMBERLAND — Representatives of the association responsible for negotiating for six of nine elements of Maryland government workers engaged in “a lively conversation” with all four members of the District 1 legislative delegation on Monday.

Sue Esty, assistant director of the Maryland chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and Steve Berger, the organization’s Western Maryland representative, gathered with three correctional officers and Ed Shoemake, a resident advisor at Mountain Meadow Youth Center in Grantsville. They stressed during a 90-minute meeting with Sen. George Edwards and delegates Kevin Kelly, LeRoy Myers and Wendell Beitzel that state employees shouldn’t shoulder the load of resolving the state’s budget problems.

There have been enough furloughs and layoffs of state workers. It’s had “serious and tragic consequences for many of AFSCME’s 30,000 members across the state, Esty said.

One female correctional officer said North Branch Correctional Institution has eliminated overtime on her shift and has “collapsed posts” — reducing the number of required officers per shift at certain stations — on certain days of the week. She said the change has created “an unsafe environment for her and her colleagues.

The Times-News has opted not to identify the three correctional officers. Esty said all three feared the possibility of disciplinary action at work.

Berger said NBCI and Western Correctional Institution both are maximum-security facilities but are operated like medium-security facilities in that inmates have access to a gym, an outdoor recreation area and they eat meals with each other.

One male correctional officer said despite budget constraints within the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, which oversees all state prisons, programs for inmates have not been reduced.

“There’s a G.E.D. program for inmates with life sentences,” he said.

Shoemake, at Meadow Mountain Youth Center, said policy requires at least one staff person for every six children at the Garrett County facility. In reality, it frequently operates with a radio of 10 children for each of its four employees. Shoemake said he suffered injuries after being involved in an altercation with a child who stood 6-feet, 8-inches tall and weighed 360 pounds.

“I didn’t have staff to back me up, Shoemake said. “You cannot staff that facility with that amount of people” in a facility that never closes.

“Not only am I at risk, but the public’s becoming at risk,” he said.

Esty and Berger offered eight revenue-producing possibilities — including six taxes on alcohol, gasoline, Internet purchases and services such as auto repair that met with something less than enthusiasm from the delegation. The two also suggested using $325 million from the state’s Rainy Day Fund and removing the sunset provision of the “millionaire’s tax” which, they claimed, could generate an additional $100 million.

Kelly said Allegany County is the second poorest county in Maryland and resented efforts to increase taxes on an already burdened constituency.

“Do you support new revenue?” Esty asked Kelly.

Kelly said that every one of Esty’s proposals were a tax on the people.

“I can not think of any (taxes I support) right now,” Kelly said.

Esty argued that the “economy has changed” and the proposed solutions each are “things that are responding to the economy.”

By taxing the services in a service-based society, she said, it could even lead to a lower tax rate.

Edwards countered that the solution can’t simply be to “tax people.” He said the delegation could consider refusing to endorse any new tax ideas without first changing the attitude in Annapolis.

Edwards said a primary goal should be to get lawmakers to consider cutting programs before considering any new taxes. He also said state colleges might have to raise tuition costs instead of freezing rates for a sixth consecutive year.



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Budget cuts, taxes concerns for Garrett County residents

Kevin Spradlin
Cumberland Times-News

MCHENRY —­ Don’t mind Joyce Bishoff if she is a bit perplexed.

During a November tourism conference in Ocean City, the interim president of the Garrett County Chamber of Commerce heard Gov. Martin O’Malley state that tourism is the only industry in the state that is showing a return on government’s investment.

Why, then, Bishoff asked Sen. George Edwards and Delegate Wendell Beitzel, would the state Office of Tourism slash Garrett County’s appropriation by 40 percent?

Bishoff said state tourism officials have signaled to her that the remaining 60 percent soon could be unavailable.

“This is causing some severe pains through the tourism industry,” Bishoff asked on Wednesday during the legislative delegation’s pre-legisative session at Garrett College. The two-hour event was coordinated by the local League of Women Voters chapter. Twelve speakers at the meeting discussed a wide range of topics, including tourism, wind turbines, natural gas, emergency services and funding for public education.

Bishoff said a request to the delegation by the Garrett County commissioners to introduce legislation that could lead to an increase in the accommodation tax, which would impact all hotels and beds-and-breakfasts in the county. The commissioners want the ability to increase the tax to up to 8 percent from the current 5 percent rate.

“We will continue our dialogue with the county commissioners as to our reservations,” Bishoff said. “We’re very concerned about raising any taxes. With so many areas of our economy in crisis, I think we need to do what we can do to encourage people to come here and spend their dollars from the city.”

James R. “Smokey” Stanton, chairman of the Garrett County Democratic Central Committee, asked the legislators to reject the commissioners’ request.

Stanton, who is expected to run for the District 1A delegation seat currently occupied by Beitzel, called it “a bad bill” and that area businesses depend on tourism. If rates were to go up, consumers would have a choice of other places such as Ocean City. Stanton said if such a bill is introduced, funds raised from that legislation should not be earmarked for a specific purpose.

“I would suggest that is a really bad idea,” Stanton said.

Representatives of Garrett County vacation rental agencies expressed their displeasure at the proposed legislation during the commissioners’ public meeting with the delegation in Oakland on Nov. 17. Wendy Yoder, county director of finance, said an increase of 1 percent could generate about $300,000 in new revenue.

Edwards said either bill would only permit the county commissioners to consider passing such a rate increase. It would not require them to do so “if they didn’t want to,” Edwards said. Most of the issues discussed during the public forum regarded state and local budgets. Beitzel said some economists have said the current crisis is the worst financial meltdown since the Great Depression. But one key Garrett County industry — coal mining — is at risk despite its economic benefits, Beitzel said.

“I know there’s been a big effort to stop mountaintop removal of coal,” Beitzel said. “We don’t do that in Western Maryland (but) it turns out it may actually apply to all mountaintop mining. Coal has become a dirty, four-letter word, and we really need to fight and defend that industry here in Western Maryland.”

James M. Raley, member of the Garrett County Board of Education, said at the board’s meeting Tuesday, members learned that the board is looking at a decrease in funding from either the state or the county — or possibly both.

Next year, Raley said, the board is looking at a $2 million deficit, and there’s concern that there will be a push in Annapolis to shift the burden of funding teachers’ pensions to county governments. Currently, it is a state responsibility.

“That just compounds (the county’s) problem in regards to funding public education,” Raley said.

Garrett County Commissioner Fred Holliday shared Raley’s concern.

“There is no way we could eat it,” Holliday said. “We’d have to raise taxes. Then the commissioners are the bad guys.”



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