On July 18, Gov. Wes Moore appeared on Fox News “Special Report” with Bret Baier. The governor was shown an excerpt from a column I authored that was published in The Baltimore Sun.
The excerpt questioned the governor’s financial management and delineated specifics of how a $5 billion surplus left by Gov. Larry Hogan’s administration had become a $3 billion deficit in two short years.
Gov. Moore told Baier the surplus was a “myth” and had been “debunked” multiple times. He claimed that the Hogan administration had actually left him with a structural deficit that he had turned into a surplus and anyone who said differently did not understand budgeting and basic mathematics.
That is both interesting and perplexing. That is because on Jan. 20, 2023, Gov. Moore said this in presenting his first budget to the General Assembly:
“We anticipate ending the current fiscal year 2023 with a more than $2 billion General Fund balance and an additional $2.9 billion in the Rainy Day Fund – $5 billion in combined General Fund cash reserves.”
The current fiscal year budget he refers to is the Hogan administration’s final budget. So there it is. Moore talking about the $5 billion surplus just as I and other members of the Hogan administration have said and proven repeatedly.
The question Marylanders would like to know the answer to is this: Governor, what changed so dramatically in 30 months? How did a $5 billion surplus that you welcomed and celebrated in your own words and budget documents become a “myth” that required “debunking”?
The only debunking Marylanders want now is to the tax and fee increases that cover seemingly all aspects of life in Maryland, from fishing licenses to vehicle registration to a new set of tires to computer services.
Moore has now joined a long list of politicians who have learned that facts are a stubborn thing. This is especially true when those facts are in your own words, in the public record and you are preparing to seek higher office.
We should all thank Gov. Moore for his military service. However, hard-working Maryland taxpayers would be better off if the governor and his team had exhibited a modicum of humility and been willing to take some sage advice from members of his own party like former Comptroller Peter Franchot, who publicly warned the governor three weeks prior to his inauguration, “An economic slowdown is here.”
Kevin Igoe was chief of staff of the Maryland Department of Budget and Management from 2015-2023. He has worked on Capitol Hill and was an adviser to the Housing Commission of the Bipartisan Policy Center. He is the former deputy chief of staff of the Republican National Committee and former executive director of the Maryland Republican Party.