It’s been a rough week for Governor Larry Hogan. The week kicked off with Hogan losing his 4th legal challenge in his quest to prematurely end pandemic unemployment benefits. After suffering his latest embarrassment and wasting hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars in legal fees, Hogan announced his administration would drop the legal fight and allow the pandemic benefits to continue.
Then yesterday, on the very day Maryland parents began receiving checks as part of the American Rescue Plan’s Child Tax Credit expansion, Hogan was slammed in a Baltimore Sun op-ed by Baltimore moms over his opposition to this middle-class tax cut. Starting this week, many Maryland families with children began receiving monthly payments of up to $300 per child. Thanks to the legislation, which Larry Hogan opposed, 90 percent of families with children will begin receiving a tax cut that will total $4,380 on average for families. Simply put: middle-class Maryland families are receiving tax cut payments that will help them afford child care and pay the bills, no thanks to Larry Hogan.
Following that, today, End Citizens United (ECU) published a column in Maryland Matters taking Hogan to task over Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s promises of unlimited special interest money to push Hogan to run for United States Senate. Republican insiders told the Washingtonian recently that McConnell was “aggressively” recruiting Hogan to run, and promised “significant” outside spending to boost Hogan’s potential candidacy. ECU noted that Hogan can put these matters to rest right now by rejecting McConnell’s offer and announcing his support of the For the People Act.
“This would be a strong declaration from Hogan that he wouldn’t be beholden to McConnell’s special interest backers. Anything less than his full-throated support of this legislation will be confirmation that a Senator Hogan would be nothing more than a puppet for McConnell and his allies. Maryland deserves better than that.”
We couldn’t agree more.