Annapolis, MD—While he’s still in a defensive crouch on Brett Kavanaugh and Jim Jordan, Larry Hogan went on offense against the truth this morning as he continued his desperate attempt to hide his failings as governor and attack Ben Jealous’ bold proposals to strengthen working families in Maryland. There were many assaults on the truth during Hogan’s media blitz, so try to keep up:
Hogan’s Hoax: “I was happy to see [Ben Jealous] came out to support my plan for a lockbox to make sure the casino revenue goes directly into the classrooms.”
FACT: Ben Jealous has been advocating for a lockbox since June 2017, and has been a loud advocate on the issue since. Hogan, meanwhile, didn’t announce a plan until February 2018—a full eight months after Ben and two months after Democrats in the legislature announced their plan to introduce a Constitutional Amendment to send these funds to education. And worse, as Democrats in the legislature were fighting to pass the bill, Hogan tried to undermine that effort and used legislative gimmicks and to offer a weakened bill that would have retained his power to steal from students to fund other parts of his budget, which Hogan has done to the tune of $1.4 billion since he became governor.
Hogan’s Hoax: “We put a lot of money into the budget so universities didn’t have to raise tuition”
FACT: Since Hogan entered office, tuition at Maryland’s public universities have increased by more than 10 percent.
Hogan’s Hoax: “We went from losing 100,000 jobs to gaining 100,000 jobs.
FACT: Not only has Larry Hogan failed to add 100,000 jobs during his tenure, in the past 12 months, Maryland ranks last in the region in job creation. Maryland badly trails the nation and Virginia in job creation during Hogan’s tenure, as they have created jobs more than 5 times and 3 times faster respectively. And a report from the Pennsylvania Federal Reserve earlier this year named Maryland as the only state in the country with a negative economic outlook.
Hogan’s Hoax: “We’ve made Maryland a more business friendly place.”
FACT: Just this week, CNBC’s 2018 ranking of states with the best business climate revealed that Maryland dropped 6 spots since last year.
Hogan’s Hoax: “I was the first governor in America to declare a real state of emergency on [the opioid epidemic.]”
FACT: Massachusetts, Virginia, and Alaska each declared a State of Emergency on the opioid epidemic before Hogan did in March 2017. In fact, Hogan promised in 2014 to declare a State of Emergency to address the issue immediately upon taking office as governor, then waited more than two years to finally do so. While Hogan was waiting, thousands died from this crisis.
“It looks like unethical business practices and opposition to a woman’s right to choose aren’t the only things Larry Hogan has in common with Donald Trump, they share the same contempt for the truth,” said Maryland Democratic Party spokesperson Fabion Seaton. “The truth is that Larry Hogan knows that he can’t run on his real record, so he has to resort to just making up his own facts.”