Paid for by Citizens for Colburn Committee. Authority John W. Phillips, Jr., Treasurer

Sen. Colburn defends voting record in speech to Chamber
By SARAH ENSOR PEARCE, Staff Writer
The Star Democrat

August 24, 2006

EASTON — Sen. Richard Colburn, R-37-Mid-Shore, Thursday defended his voting record against criticism during a lunchtime speech to the Talbot County Chamber of Commerce.

Colburn is running for re-election and will face either Hilary B. Spence, D, or Ron Warden, D, and Independent write-in candidate Moonyene Jackson-Amis in the Nov. 7 general election.

Colburn said he has been “blasted” by an opponent for his “conservative voting record.”

Many of the votes for which Colburn has been criticized helped earn him a 92 percent score from the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, he said. No candidate received more than 92 percent approval. Last session, he said, he received a 100 percent from the chamber for his voting record.

“The Maryland Chamber is the only business organization ... whose primary focus is lobbying decision makers in Annapolis to promote a statewide, pro-business agenda,” Colburn said.

He received the chamber’s political action committee endorsement, among other endorsements from various business groups and associations.

Colburn said he has been criticized for his votes on a minimum wage bill and the fair share health care (Wal-Mart) bill.

“Raising the Maryland minimum wage without raising the federal minimum wage really elevates politics over economics,” Colburn said.

He quoted passages from John Stossel’s book “Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity; Get Out the Shovel: Why Everything You Know is Wrong.” According to Stossel, a higher minimum wage helps some workers, but hurts more workers. The increase might help experienced workers, but takes away an employer’s incentive to hire new workers, according to Stossel.

“Raising the minimum wage has the unintended consequence of reducing jobs for unskilled workers because employers would not be able to afford them,” Colburn said. “Therefore, businesses stop hiring them. The tragic irony is that these people lose their jobs. It’s best that we do not enact policies that limit the number of entry-level positions at the state level.”

Colburn said the group in the United States “hardest hit by minimum wage laws are young, black, male teenagers.” As someone who worked as a teen to buy school clothes and other needs, Colburn said, he asked attendees not “to define a candidate as being for or against those who are at the bottom of the wage scales.”

Defending his vote against “the Wal-Mart Bill,” Colburn said, “This legislation would have ultimately driven up costs on our low and middle income consumers. Those are the same consumers who need the jobs that companies provide and depend on getting quality products at low prices.”

The bill that would have forced Wal-Mart to spend more on employee health care “was struck down because it violated a federal law on employee benefits,” Colburn said.

“Congress passed the law in 1974 so companies would not face varying benefit regulations as they crossed state borders,” he said. “The U.S. Supreme Court has previously said state laws that impose health or welfare mandates on employers are invalid under federal law.”

Colburn pointed to his vote against firing the public service commission.

“The public service commission, the subject of scorn during the electricity rate debate, remains in place because of an order from the Maryland Court of Appeals,” he said. The court now is considering the constitutionality of the bill.

“Many of my votes are holding up very well and are being validated by recent court decisions from the non-partisan judicial branch of Maryland’s government,” Colburn said. “I expect that liberals will continue to use lies and innuendos to distort my pro-business, my general assembly voting record.”