State Senator Rich Madaleno at District 18 Breakfast Club

The District 18 Breakfast Club is a very educational club run by Susan Heltemes, whom you may have seen on Cable TV's "21 This Week," a political talk show about Maryland politics.

This Monday morning the guest at the District 18 Breakfast Club was District 18's State Senator, Rich Madaleno. He is the Vice Chair of the Maryland Senate's Budget and Taxation Committee and in just an hour he gave an explanation of the Maryland budget and Governor Hogan's budget policies that was masterful. Everyone who was there left with a much better understanding of what's going on fiscally in Maryland.

The main point is that Maryland's fiscal situation is not nearly as dire as Governor Hogan has been saying. It's just that it will look better when the legislature adopts a balanced budget, as it does every year, if people are led to believe that it only happened as the result of "new" policies.