A Glimpse Behind the Curtain: Tales of Real Policy Making
This is the fourth and final installment of a multipart series providing insight into government operations from a former staffer
The 19th-century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck supposedly said, “[L]aws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.” While others sometimes get credit and the exact wording is flexible, the concept is clear: The process is ugly. I wrote three essays confirming Bismarck’s observation; politics and governing is nasty, sloppy, flaw riddled. In short, it is a business run by humans. I am going to conclude this series with some personal stories to illustrate this from my time as a budget analyst for the Maryland State legislature. I omit names and certain details, but the stories are my own experiences.
While I was an analyst, the state senate’s new office building opened. Named after then Senate President Thomas “Mike” Miller, who also has a building at the University of Maryland named after him, it is a beautiful complex but includes a strange feature. On the top floor, are a series of small meeting rooms that are sparsely furnished and not regularly used.

The Thomas V. “Mike” Miller Senate Office Building in Annapolis, MD
These rooms had one main purpose: to serve as a place for Senators (the delegates in the House have the same) to meet out of the view of the public and press, which is illegal due to the so-called sunshine laws.[1] So what is this all about?
First, some background. The way the Maryland budget process works is the Governor writes the budget, submits it the legislature, who can only cut it, they cannot add to it. So, the legislative leadership decides they’re the budget strategy, which means they set two goals: how much the legislature will cut as part of their duty and what programs they will threaten to cut to incentivize the Governor to submit a supplemental addendum to the budget that includes the programs the legislature wants. This is an annual dance in Maryland. The job of my colleagues and myself was to comb through the budget (we were each assigned a portfolio of agencies) and find cuts to recommend in the report we would present to budget committees. At the committee hearing, I would present my report, and the agency (usually the head and senior staff) would respond.
The thing that is not obvious is how much all of this was coordinated ahead of time. For example, the Comptroller of the Treasury was in my portfolio. One year, I was instructed to reduce their budget by several million dollars and cut three positions from their staff. I had a good relationship with the Comptroller’s budget director, and I just told him my orders and asked him to tell me where he wanted the cuts and what positions to eliminate. We worked it out. I wrote my report, and at the committee meeting, I presented my report. The Comptroller and his staff responded by saying what a brilliant staffer I was and how I was able to find good cuts and made the Comptroller’s Office just that much more efficient.
But what about those rooms in the office building? Well, just like I coordinated some things with the Comptroller’s budget director, those little rooms on the upper floor of the Senate building are where the committees meet to coordinate what they are going to do in the public meeting. After all the agency’s budget meetings have been held, the committees need to make decisions and finalize the state budget, agency by agency. This could be the ugliest part of sausage making. So the committee’s meet out of the public eye to discuss, argue, and coordinate what is going to happen when they meet in public. The public meeting is all coordinated beforehand. Decisions have already been made, even arguments and disagreements have been scripted.
For example, I served during some tough budget years, and some big cuts were needed. One committee was ordered by leadership to make cuts to the higher education budget, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities. One senator knew his constituents would not be happy but went along with the cuts because he had been ordered to do so by Senate President Miller. He told the rest of the committee they had to say he fought the cuts and resisted them and tell the press he held out. They all agreed. No action is official until the committee meets in public and has a public vote on each issue. These meeting have no force of law, but they are binding in the minds of the members. In one public meeting on the House side, things were not going according to plan on one agency. It seems a lobbyist had persuaded a member to change his vote after the secret meeting, and the chairwoman, a lovely grandmother, turned to me in some exasperation and asked, “This is not what we decided is it?”
The Federal Congress works differently in many ways, but much more of what you see and hear about is orchestrated and pre-designed for public and media consumption than most realize. Those little rooms and the secret meeting were the worse kept secret in Annapolis. Everyone in government budgeting knew about them, as did the seasoned journalists and lobbyists. But there’s a lot of money and power at stake, and everyone wants a piece. So, they all have an interest in maintaining the façade, but the public needs to realize how much of what we see in government is for show.
[1] https://www.marylandattorneygeneral.gov/Pages/OpenGov/Openmeetings/default.aspx