Spending
Ehrlich increased spending by over 30 percent.
Ehrlich increased general fund spending by over $3 billion, dwarfing the increases of other governors.
Ehrlich routinely ignored spending affordability guidelines in his budgets.
Ehrlich’s FY 2005, FY 2006, and FY 2007 budget proposals each exceeded spending limits recommended by the Spending Affordability Committee. (Department of Legislative Services, The 90 Day Report, Part A, 2004-06)
Ehrlich dismissed any need for fiscal responsibility.
According to The Baltimore Sun, Ehrlich in 2006 said the spending affordability guidelines “are simply not something he feels the need to follow.” Ehrlich “declared that the conditions that made spending affordability a key issue for Republicans when he was elected to the legislature 20 years ago no longer apply.” Ehrlich said: “It's a different game, it's a different day, it's a different paradigm in terms of Maryland politics.”(The Baltimore Sun, “Ehrlich’s Free-Spending Budget,” March 5, 2006)
Ehrlich proposed the largest-ever increase in state spending.
Ehrlich’s FY 2007 budget proposal contained the largest-ever increase in state spending. It spent nearly $700 million more than revenues and included nearly 300 more positions than recommended by the Spending Affordability Committee. (The Baltimore Sun, “Budget deja vu,” January 18, 2006; Department of Legislative Services, Budget Analysis, January 23, 2006 (pdf))
Ehrlich put Maryland’s future at risk with massive spending.
A January 2006 Baltimore Sun editorial criticized Ehrlich for his spending increases, arguing they were reckless because they would cause budget pain in future years if the economy declined: “But it's hard to endorse a management philosophy that doesn't look beyond 2006 - or take into account the possibility that the economy might eventually sour.” (The Baltimore Sun, “Budget deja vu,” January 18, 2006)
Ehrlich fought for his massive spending against Democratic cuts.
Ehrlich launched an unusual public campaign to ward off legislative cuts to his budget proposal. The Democratic legislature ultimately sliced nearly $200 million from Ehrlich’s budget to make it conform to spending affordability guidelines.
After losing, Ehrlich left Maryland with a $1.5 billion deficit.
Under Ehrlich’s final budget, the Department of Legislative services wrote in 2006, a structural imbalance between ongoing revenues and spending persists and is projected to exceed the billion dollar level in the out-year forecast.” Even Ehrlich’s own proposal included about a billion dollar deficit by FY 2010. (Emphasis added; Department of Legislative Services, 90 Day Report, 2006 (pdf))
In Congress, Ehrlich cast the deciding vote for Republican big spending.
Ehrlich was a big spender in congress, too, helping Republicans during the Bush years rack up bigger deficits. In January 2002, for example, Ehrlich voted for S 2578, which raised the national debt limit by $50 billion to $6.4 trillion. 2002 was the first year in four years in which the government ran a deficit. The bill passed 215-214, so Ehrlich cast the deciding vote. The bill was signed by President Bush in June 2002.
Ehrlich’s “budget surplus” myth
Ehrlich and his allies have claimed that he left office with a budget surplus. However, Ehrlich’s own budget secretary acknowledged in 2006 that the “surplus” was actually already spent on the next year’s government operations – and still left the state with a projected deficit: “We know today that the operations of the state government will require all of that money to come close to balancing the fiscal ’08 budget based on current projections.” (Testimony of DBM Secretary Cecilia Januszkiewicz, February 2, 2006)