Vote on minimum wage may prove costly to Marylanders

Candidate’s Corner; Catonsville Times; 3/15/06

The Catonsville Times should be commended for the effort to get the views of all the candidates to the public by creating a candidates corner in the papers.

Unfortunately, Delegates James Malone and Steven DeBoy, Sen. Edward Kasemeyer, and Councilman Sam Moxley have refused to participate.

Is it because they can not truly defend their positions to the public?

One of the guidelines is that each candidate can only be published once a month.

I'd like to take this opportunity to touch on several issues.

Del. Steve DeBoy should be congratulated for not voting for the veto override of the Wal-Mart tax.

But I wonder if he would have changed his vote if it were needed to override the governor's veto, as he did three years ago, in committee, to support House Speaker Michael Busch's $1.2-billion tax increase.

The vote to increase the minimum wage was supported by our local delegates.

This increase cost the state of Maryland $280,000 in startup costs because Maryland is no longer in compliance with federal guidelines on wages.

Rather than the federal government, Maryland now has to investigate all claims of wage discrepancies.

Also, why was the University of Maryland System exempted from the minimum wage increase?

Can't they afford it?

Don't their employees deserve the same opportunity as private enterprise employees do?

In a state where voting irregularities nearly rival those of Chicago, Dels. Malone and DeBoy changed their "nay" votes to "yea" on the early voting veto override. Do you think they were voting for you or Speaker Busch?

On Feb. 28, House Bill 1510 was submitted. This is the small business version of the Wal-Mart tax.

The Democrats claimed that Wal-Mart had to pay its fair share for health care. Are they now claiming that small business is not paying its fair share?

This is the next step to socialized medicine, just like they have in Canada, where it takes months for elective surgery. Canada's health care is so bad that Canadians come to the United States for major medical care.

Albert Nalley

Republican candidate for House of Delegates, Dist. 12A

Authority: Citizens for Albert Nalley - Dave Amann, Treasurer