Want to feel rich? Think like the government of Maryland

State of Maryland uses tricks and dodges not available to most citizens

by Marta H. Mossburg

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Feeling pinched this Christmas season? Are your credit cards tapped from buying gifts? Are you underwater on your mortgage and wondering how you will be able to retire before 90?

The answer is simple: Use government accounting! It will have you feeling rich in no time.

Let's start with bills. If you do not have enough in your checking account to cover monthly expenses, take money from your children's savings accounts, their college savings fund and your retirement account — and run up your credit card bills, if you have any credit left on them. To replace those funds, send IOUs on nice stationery and pretend they are cash.

As a reminder, that is how Maryland balances the budget. It takes hundreds of millions from accounts dedicated to pay for roads and cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay, issues bonds, puts the cash in the general fund and bills future Marylanders for money spent years before they were born. Voila! Checkbook balanced.