Tax Dollars

It's time we as taxpayers take a long hard conscientious look at how our tax dollars are spent. The funding of Planned Parenthood must stop. It is a crime to think that Planned Parenthood holds itself out to be an organization that helps women. It is an abortion business receiving $1.1 billion tax dollars with $63 million left over after expenses. Planned Parenthood gets one-third of its annual budget from taxpayer funding, and it performed a total of more than 650,000 abortions in just 2008 and 2009 (the last years for which figures are available)

IT'S A GROWING problem: Agencies privatized by government increasingly seem to think they can spend public money with no accountability.We saw this with the Injured Workers Insurance Fund, which avoided competitive bidding in awarding contracts. It happened again with MMG Ventures, which invested Maryland tax dollars in out-of-state companies.Now comes the Anne Arundel Economic Development Corp., created by the county six years ago to lure new businesses. Its directors are volunteers who are supposed to put the county's interests first.

25 years agoAnne Arundel County Circuit Judge James Wray has ruled that (( the state's method of assessing residential property for tax purposes is illegal and orders it to institute annual reassessment whenever necessary. -- The Sun, Sept. 5, 1973.Two men painting a pier on the parallel Bay Bridge fell 40 feet into the bay when scaffolding lines gave way. William Vasliadis is still missing. Robert Daley was rescued with minor injuries. -- The Sun, Sept. 7, 1973.Anne Arundel County Executive Joseph W. Alton is calling for an independent study of the county's non-competitive bidding to let citizens know "whether there has been any waste of tax dollars."

How many of my tax dollars went to the FBI to set up this and other ridiculous sting operations ( "Arrest made in plot to blow up area military recruiting center," Dec. 9)? How much will be wasted on court costs and incarceration? Wouldn't it have been wiser to have agents pose as reasonable, mainstream Muslims and talk the poor, misguided guy out of being a radical? Or better yet, connect him with any of the fine mainstream Islamic organizations in the area who could easily bring him into the fold and teach him that such acts are not acceptable?

As a taxpayer who has to report yearly to the federal and state government how much I made and how I spent it, I find it hard to believe an agency that spends our tax dollars can dodge audits for years with no accountability and the leadership not get fired ("City parks agency turns over books for auditing after 3 years," Jan. 10). No wonder there is so much corruption. There should be full disclosure every year so taxpayers know how government agencies are spending our money. In the private sector you would be fired if you did not keep up to date records of money spent.

After reading Andrea Walker 's story about Marge Walker and Goodwill Industries, I felt that it should have appeared in a more prominent place in your newspaper ("Goodwill has grown; so have needs," May 29). Nonprofits like Goodwill perform outstanding service to the community. We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars incarcerating men and women for various crimes, often with little thought of their need for housing and job-training upon release to help them transition back into society and reduce the possibility of recidivism.

Plant a treeFrom: Virginia ThomasColumbiaI know that many Howard County residents are eagerly awaiting the opening of the Broken Land Parkway interchange with U.S. 29. With the opening scheduled for September, congestion created by the current intersection will soon be eliminated.While traffic flow will be facilitated with the completion of this and the Seneca Drive interchange, a price has been paid in terms of loss of trees and other vegetation at these sites. Although the State Highway Administration will be providing some landscaping, I am working with some community organizations who have volunteered to plant additional trees as offered through the Maryland TREEmendous program.

A commissioner ready to spend your moneyThank you for your Dec. 1 article about our county leaders' "secret meeting." Carroll County Commissioner Donald I. Dell just can't wait to start spending your tax dollars.When he first came into office, he was heard to declare the job of commissioner should be worth $50,000 instead of the $32,000 it pays. So what does the resourceful retired farmer do to solve the pay deficit?He gets his lame-duck buddy, Richard T. Yates, to help him raise the per diem for officials from $12 a day to $90 per day. At that outrageous rate, it won't take many days for Mr. Dell to make his goal.

PHOENIX -- Steve May knew from the time he was in his early teens that he wanted to be a politician, specifically a conservative Republican politician. He carefully built his life, he says, to shape an attractive resume, from his decision to enter ROTC in college and then serve as an Army officer to his efforts at building a track record as a small-business man.It worked. May served with distinction as a lieutenant on active duty in the Army and then entered the Reserve, and last November he was elected to the state Legislature, to represent the affluent, conservative district where he had grown up.Everything seemed to be going just right until last winter, when the usually affable and measured 27-year-old bitterly spoke his mind in the Arizona House, this time not as a Republican, a Mormon or a soldier, but as a gay man.May denounced an ultimately failed bill that would have barred the use of public funds to pay for health benefits of same-sex partners, and also attacked the legislation's conservative sponsor, Rep. Karen S. Johnson, a fellow Republican who had vigorously attacked homosexuality as immoral.

Yes, County Needs A Commission For WomenOn Jan. 22, I attended a meeting at the Carroll County Office Building with the intention of hearing well-meaning persons debate the concerns on the Carroll County Commission on Women.I listened as I stood against the wall in the back of this crowded room. After listening to those persons "for" the commission speak, I felt they had hit upon an area which desperately needs attention here in the county. . . .Then I listened, with gritted teeth, to the opposition.