CLSI's Latest Poll Results

The results from AACC's Center for the Study of Local Issues latest survey are in, and they hint at the tension between higher taxes and better services that many residents in the County feel. The most important problems, in residents' eyes, remain growth (16%) and taxes (15%). As the survey's author, Dr. Dan Nataf says, "everybody is a liberal on spending and a conservative on taxes."

The spring 2007 data indicate that half of the 529 residents surveyed favored "a school system which is absolutely top quality regardless of the cost." However, in response to the recently proposed 17 percent increase in the county public school system's budget, only 25% said "fully fund this proposal by raising some county taxes." Twenty percent wanted to "fully fund this proposal by reducing other county services," while 43% wanted to have their cake and eat it too, desiring to "partially fund this proposal to the extent possible without increasing taxes or reducing other county services." How, exactly, that final option could even occur (massive assessment hikes?), is not entirely clear.

Among hot legislative topics in the news, a whopping majority of respondents want to ban roadside soliciting (76%), raise the cigarette tax to defray healthcare costs (72%), and ban smoking in all restaurants and bars (68%).

As has been discussed here previously, most County residents (61%) are "not very familiar" with the issue of "changing the method of selecting the Anne Arundel County school board." I suspect the percentage is actually far higher than that. Nevertheless, 20% of respondents are content to keep the existing system, 42% want an elected school board, and 40% favor a board "selected by citizens representing elected officials and other community groups such as the teachers' union and the chamber of commerce."

The damage to County government's political capital wreaked by the previous administration is still evident in the fact that a majority of respondents (52%) do not "trust the county to find the right balance between paying for these expenses and keeping taxes as low as possible?"

Spring CLSI Poll Released

The spring 2006 version of the Center for Local Issues biennial poll has been released. According to those surveyed, "growth and overpopulation" is still the most pressing issue in the county. Yet, almost none of our local legislators are doing anything to seriously rein in "growth and overpopulation."

And the Beat Goes On

Banging the drumbeat against uncontrolled development can get rather monotonous after awhile, but someone has to do it. There's some solace in the fact that Dan Nataf's most recent survey out of the Center for the Study of Local Issues confirms what most of us already know: We're sick and tired of having more development and its attendant traffic foisted upon us. Thirty-six percent of county residents surveyed identified growth and transportation as the biggest issues facing the county (up 8 percentage points from the spring).

Good news from the poll is that 70 percent of respondents back increasing bus and light rail service, even if it results in higher taxes. And, 56 percent support paying an annual $60 watershed restoration fee, to help repair the impacts of stormwater damage to the environment.

Bad news on the horizon: The projected growth in west county as a result of the expansion of Fort Meade is going to cost the County billions of dollars in infrastructure upgrades that will, according to County Executive candidate Dennis Callahan (D), leave little spending available for "luxury items."

Why can't we get some politicians in office who will actually do something about these issues, rather than just give lip service to them? Only 362 days or so until we can do something about it.

Selling the Future

Upon receiving word that Governor Ehrlich is determined to have a fire sale of various State-owned properties around the County, it appears that Executive Owens has done the right thing and tried to step in to block their sale. The 3.9 acre parcel at the northwest corner of Ritchie Highway and Jones Station Road in Severna Park and the 64-space Park & Ride lot in Earleigh Heights are on the Governor's hit list and represent yet one more step in his ideological drive to avoid tax increases by any means necessary. Slots and selling public lands are apparently the most creative solutions he can muster.

Meanwhile, the Severna Park plot is used regularly by not only commuters and those utilizing the B & A trail, but it has also hosted a farmer's market for 11 years. It has been a site for the Severna Park community to gather for recreation and commerce, and holds the potential to become an even more substantial hub for public transportation between Annapolis and Baltimore in the future, and once the public loses it, it's going to be gone for good.

Rather than auctioning our assets off and mortgaging our future, perhaps we should consider Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.'s famous words, "Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society." Future columns will focus on the public's cognitive dissonance between wanting more services (and effective funding of those currently in place) and the widespread disdain for paying more taxes, but let me leave you, dear reader, with a teaser. The October 2003 survey [pdf] by the Center for the Study of Local Issues, at Anne Arundel Community College, found that when asked "Which is the best approach for dealing with the State budget deficit?", only 24 percent of residents suggested raising taxes or creating new ones. Only 27 percent suggested reducing spending. Can you guess which alleged silver bullet almost all the rest chose?