O'Malley to Constellation Energy - Good Riddance!

You know Constellation Energy CEO Mayo Shattuck is looking out of the window in his office thinking, "Thank God I don't have to sit around letting Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley piss on me in front of the voters every few years anymore!"

Last week Constellation Energy announced plans to be acquired by Chicago-based Exelon Corporation. The move strips Baltimore -area of its last Fortune 500 corporation. There remain only a few money managers such as Legg Mason, which on its current track will be gone in a year or less, T. Rowe Price, and.....I can't think of anyone else. All of the other major employers in the city are smaller divisions of companies based in other states.

Martin O'Malley has always shown his cards when it comes to for-profit corporations. He hates them. He hates that they charge money for the services they provide. He hates that they have to raise their prices to cover expenses. And especially with Constellation Energy, the parent company of the soon-to-be-gone BGE, he really loved to takes dumps on them.

And as much as most rational-thinking Marylanders hate O'Malley, you have to give him credit as a skilled politician. You'll remember a few years ago BGE's decision to raise rates 72% to national average levels at the expiration of an ill-conceived bargain struck by Democrats in the Maryland General Assembly allowed O'Malley to criticize Bob Ehrlich for not fighting an ultimately kicking him out of office. You may remember the commercials that O'Malley ran vowing that he'd fight against the evil money-hungry corporations.

And now that the money-hungry corporations are gone, O'Malley must be so happy that he's peeing in his pull-ups. "We showed them!" I can hear him saying. Unfortunately, I think all of this is lost on him. What corporations can call Baltimore home? What glamor does the city have when it doesn't show up on any lists as the headquarters? Where is the concern when the top-paying jobs depart for the new headquarters in other cities and leave only entry-level, supervisory, and regional manager positions? Where are the major hometown corporate sponsors for special events in the city? From the offices in Annapolis we only hear silence or misguided happiness.

In the next session in the General Assembly, do you think we'll hear politicians discussing the demands of Marylanders to make Maryland a more business-friendly state? I seriously doubt it. Our elected officials will be more concerned with issues like raising taxes to fund the out-of-control spending and in the eyes of the Montgomery County delegation, the biggest issue confronting our society - gay marriage.

BGE - it was nice knowing you.