ROCKVILLE, MD – The Maryland Public Policy Institute today released the 2011 edition of The Maryland Journal, a compendium of state-specific policy research edited by prominent Johns Hopkins University economist Steve H. Hanke, Ph.D. The Journal focuses on issues ranging from transportation to teacher pensions, education reform to electricity deregulation — and beyond — and offers original analysis from leading thinkers in market-oriented public policy.

• In “Maryland’s Fiscal Slide,” Eileen Norcross, lead researcher for the State and Local Policy Project at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, notes that in FY 2011, Maryland will enter its third year of recession, and its fifth year of structural deficit. Although Maryland has a constitutionally defined balanced budget rule that requires the Governor to present — and the legislature to pass — a balanced budget, Norcross argues that any appearance of budgetary balance has been achieved not through fiscal discipline but, rather, through fiscal maneuvers such as fund sweeps, debt finance, federal aid, and raiding the state’s Rainy Day Fund. This long-standing game of budgetary Three-card Monte has created the illusion of fiscal restraint, while exploding the state’s structural deficit.
  
  
• In “Rethinking Teacher Pensions in Maryland,” University of Missouri economist Michael Podgursky, Ph.D., Martin Lueken of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville’s Department of Education Reform, and Evan Lin of the Williams College math department deconstruct the long-term budgetary ramifications of the state’s defined benefit (DB) pension plan, which provides a guaranteed annuity payout to retired teachers. Podgursky, Lueken and Lin contend that the current system is both unsustainable and undesirable, producing a through-the-roof unfunded liability that the state cannot hope to meet in perpetuity, while at the same time imposing a huge penalty on teachers who don’t teach in Maryland long enough to accrue any real pension wealth. The latter, Podgursky et al. argue, could hinder the state’s ability to recruit and retain talented young teachers, who may see far more appealing — and flexible — retirement options within the private sector.
  
  
• What happened to Baltimore? How did a once-thriving city become synonymous with urban blight and poverty? Over the years, the narrative has been that Baltimore was decimated by a perfect storm: the mass exodus of affluent whites fleeing an increasingly diverse urban population, coupled with the same manufacturing downturn that doomed all of America’s industrial cities to decline. In “How to Make Baltimore a Superstar City,” Loyola University Maryland economist Stephen J.K. Walters, Ph.D. and Baltimore teacher Louis Miserendino acknowledge the basic truths within the prevailing narrative, butargue that the whole story of what drove Charm City to the brink is far more nuanced. While bothwhite flight and deindustrialization certainly can be counted as contributing factors that led to Baltimore’s decline, Walters and Miserendino point to the city’s punishing property tax rates as the dominantforce behind Baltimore’s continued economic distress.
  
  
• In “Transportation Policy in Maryland,” public policy consultant Wendell Cox examines the state’s highway and transit systems. Cox begins with the proposition that the primary purpose of transit and highway policy should be to maximize economic growth, which in turn would reduce poverty. As one of the nation’s most urban and densely-populated states, Maryland has seen its highway traffic volumes skyrocket, increasing over 17 percent from 1998 to 2008. During that same period, roadway capacity increased by only 7 percent. As a result, traffic congestion in the state has become the stuff of legend, with no sign on the horizon of improvement. Cox argues that the state should adopt a policy focus that maximizes mobility, while minimizing travel times, and suggests as a starting point developing urban access indicators that would gauge the performance of the transportation system based on the quality of access from residences and to employment.
  
  
• “Reforming How We Reimburse Doctors” by Maryland Public Policy Institute senior fellow Marc Kilmer addresses a perennial problem facing Maryland’s physicians and lawmakers alike: how much should doctors be paid for the work they perform? With no real consensus on how much doctors should be paid, the question has been left open to special-interest interpretation, with physician advocacy groups claiming that low reimbursement rates contribute to doctor shortages and jeopardize patient care. Kilmer argues that there is no “objectively right” rate for doctors’ payments, and that physicians should be subject to the market price for their services. Until then, concludes Kilmer, doctors and legislators will continue grappling with this issue, while Maryland’s taxpayers foot the bill.

These are just a few examples of the provocative and comprehensive analysis that can be found in the inaugural edition of the Journal. Also included: a primer by Maryland Public Policy Institute senior fellow Thomas A. Firey on the unintended consequences of deregulation of Maryland’s electricity market; an analysis of Maryland’s retirement benefits by Maryland Public Policy Institute senior fellow Gabriel J. Michael; and a study of the legislative roadblocks to expansion of Maryland’s charter school law by Baltimore attorney George W. Liebmann.

“It is distressingly easy to rattle of a laundry list of problems plaguing this state. Everyone seems to have an opinion on what’s wrong,” said Maryland Public Policy Institute president Christopher B. Summers. “Harder to come by are explanations of how we got to this point. The Maryland Journal aims to fill that void, first by offering in-depth historical analysis, and then taking it a step further with forward-thinking policy prescriptions.”

The Maryland Public Policy Institute is a 501 (C) (3) nonpartisan public policy research and education organization that focuses on Maryland public policy issues.