NEXT WINERY MEETING FEBRUARY 21!

2022 Republican nominee for Governor Dan Cox will be our special guest to talk about what's going on in Congress and the Maryland General Assembly. Dan is now running for US Congress in District 6 to represent Western Maryland.

Be sure to join us! The meeting begins at 7pm.

Harford Vineyard & Winery

1311 Jarrettsville Rd

Forest Hill MD 21050

State of Republicans in Harford County

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan remarked, "Tax rates affect prices for working, saving, and investment. And when you raise the price of those productive activities, you get less of them and more activity in the underground economy and tax shelters. And if you're in business, you know you can't force the public to buy products that aren't selling by raising the price. Too many in Washington and across the country still believe that we can raise more revenues from the economy by making it more expensive to work, save and invest in the economy."

Here in Harford, however- your elected "republicans" on the council aren't figuring out how to cut spending and taxes in order to help their struggling constituents during these uncertain economic times- they are fighting over how best to keep former County Executive "Blank Check" Barry Glassman's gravy train rolling to divvy out political favors to their supporters, using your tax dollars.

The Councilman from District Snee- Aaron Spendman- recently unleashed another one of his immature rants against the current County Executive, Bob Cassilly. You can read it HERE. Once again, Sgt. Spendman accuses Cassilly of not working well with others- yet more than half of Spendman's own colleagues on the council can't stand him, and abhor his embarrassing, childish antics. You can read Cassilly's response and explanation of the veto HERE.

Someone with true conservative credentials would be looking for ways to trim the fat and get more money back into the average taxpayer's pockets by cutting both spending and taxes. As we have seen in the past, the seemingly bewildered councilman appears to be more interested in keeping the status quo than pursuing any sort of spending reforms or real cuts to the budget. He has also refused to take any serious action to oppose the insatiable desire of HCPS and other bureaucrats feeding at the taxpayer trough for more money.

Another example is Council President Vincenti's Decoy Museum in Havre de Grace. Vincenti is an officer of the Decoy Museum, and his day job is making duck decoys- hence the little ducks on his campaign signs. If you CLICK HERE, you can see the Decoy Museum received over $140,000 in government grants in the year 2020. The forms don't break down which government agencies gave them the funding, but it is likely several, with a sizable portion also likely coming from the hotel tax. Studying the documents, you'll observe the museum receives far more in grant funding than private funds raised on their own.

Voting to hand out taxpayer cash to a private organization of which you are a member certainly seems like a conflict of interest to most normal people- but then again, this council is no stranger to conflicts of interest. Two councilmen currently hold dual employment prohibited by section 207 of the county charter (yes, I realize some judges ignored what the law plainly says and told these two individuals it was OK- even though every other council until now understood the law to mean exactly what it said). Another council critter owns a real estate and site preparation/ excavating company, but gets to sit as a member of the zoning appeals board and cast votes that may enrich her personally. With only 7 members on the council, that means more than half the membership is compromised on many important issues affecting Harford County today.

When it comes to having an ethical council, these guys are all wet. They really need to get their ducks in a row here. I'm really hoping this council stops bringing up bad bills. These council critters need to read the Maryland Constitution, read and understand the county charter- because right now, it feels like they are just winging it. Honestly, it feels like a lot of them are just feathering their nests. Sorry for all the negativity, I'm in a fowl mood. I think I'm going to duck out now.....