Now that the Maryland General Asylum has indeed convened in yet another “Special Session” I’ve heard a number of our fellow citizens lament how this latest extra gathering is a ‘bad day for the state’s taxpayers.’
To those citizens we say: where the hell have you been? Every day is a bad day for Maryland taxpayers – particularly the 1900 or so sunrises seen since Gov. Martin O’Malley has been in office.
Earlier today – in a 27 to 19 vote – a majority of the Maryland State Senate (that bastion of big egos and even bigger failures) kowtowed to the tax-raising whims of said governor… all in the name of more wasteful spending (of your money) and a looming Prince George’s County gambling payoff to placate Senate President Mike Miller.
First: here’s to the seven senate Democrats who voted “nay” to an income tax increase on those ‘rich’ Marylanders with salaries that top $100,000 (and the greedy couples who pull down $150,000).
It is minimally encouraging that at least a handful of Martin’s Marionettes broke free of their puppet strings.
Speaking of flunkies… Speaker Michael Busch and his House of Delegates will take up the tax issues today and tomorrow, and unless the predicted Mayan Calendar disaster comes to fruition on May 16 that august body will assume that recognizable sycophant position and give this gluttonous governor the imbursement he’s been seeking seemingly every day of his political life.
Laughably, all three of this state’s highest ranking burglars read from the same playbook as this three-day farce got underway.
“Only 16-percent of Marylanders are being asked to pay a little more,” is the familiar refrain being uttered by the Three Taxketeers, as if 100-percent of us (well, the percentage that actually pays taxes) have forgotten all the rest of the “little mores” that have been pillaged from our pocket since 2007.
What the speaker fails to mention is the “little more” – a mere $36 million - in new taxes slapped on companies that back mortgages on commercial development and homebuilding.
Looks like the latest effort to Move Maryland Forward rolls right over more state businesses.
How have they taxed thee since O’Malley took office? Let us count the ways. There was the 20-percent increase in the sales tax; an 18-percent jump in Corporate Income Tax; 20-percent increase in vehicle excise taxes and 117-percent increase in the vehicle titling fee.
Additional “little mores” came in the form of toll increases – a purse-raiding package that even the Baltimore Sun Democrat had to describe as the “largest toll increases in the state’s history.” Increases on our highways and byways ranged from 33-percent (the Hatem and Nice bridges) to 60-percent (Chesapeake Bay Bridge) to what will eventually be (on July 1, 2013) a 100-percent increase in tolls for the Key Bridge/Fort McHenry Tunnel/Harbor Tunnel.
More “little mores?” The cost of vanity plates doubled (is EFMDGOVT still available?), as did the fees for both land recording and birth certificates. Hospital assessments were reassessed at a rate that is 2.5-percent higher and nursing home fees saw a 1.5-percent increase.
The licensure fee for a secondhand precious metal object dealer or pawnbroker has gone from $75 to $300 and a $1,000 registration fee was established for Debt Settlement services. They also established a $100 per vehicle registration fee if you use said vehicle to transport waste kitchen grease. And if you have need of an out-of-state attorney that fee is now $100.
Last year’s alcohol tax was increased 50-percent and during the just-concluded ‘real’ session the Assembly thought a doubling of the “Flush Tax” was just the peachiest of ideas.
And that’s not even the whole enchilada. All told, more than $2 billion in tax/fee increases are yours thanks to Martin O’Malley and his obedient band of deceitful cohorts.
Which brings us to this special session – a gathering called in order to stave off a “Doomsday Budget” – through income tax increases - that would have brought about such apocalyptic societal ills we would have been inundated with obese, uneducated children; senior citizens that had to choose between food and prescription drugs; millions of residents (legal and illegal) dependent on state entitlements; and crumbling infrastructure and pathetic governmental services.
Wow, I just realized “Doomsday” means ‘the status quo.’
And if you thought the “little more” quotes are funny, get a load of the Montgomery County Delegation and their horrified reaction to the burden an income tax increase places on their constituents.
“I don't like the income tax plan,” Del. Charles Barkley, one of the Montgomery County Democrats, told the Baltimore Sun Democrat. “I don't think it's fair to the taxpayers.”
While fairness to taxpayers has never been on the to-do list of Montgomery County’s ruling class there is one revelation that simply gobsmacked Maryland’s bastion of failing progressive policies: the rich in this state happen to be liberals, and it’s no fun soaking the ‘haves’ if they’re not Republicans.
It seems that this income tax hike will affect the pockets of Maryland’s version of the one-percenters in a disproportionate manner.
While Baltimore City residents will be asked to contribute “little more” than 4.2-percent of the increase, those members of the MontCo commune would fork over “little more” than 40-percent of the total pilfered revenue that we’re told is needed to move this state ‘forward.’
As a result – and with the knowledge that liberals are a whole lot better at spending other people’s money than their own – Del. Barkley and a number of his fellow Berkeley wannabees support another uptick in the sales tax, bringing it in at a tidy 7-percent.
Now you’re talking - that’s just the kind of bold thinking this leadership-challenged governor can get behind.
It is certainly the same thought process shared by the voting lemmings that return the Buschs and Millers to office, and elevate an inept, failed mayor of Baltimore to the state’s most powerful position.
Elections do indeed have consequences, and the penalty and the bill for the last two are now due.
Oh, and when your local taxes (property particularly) begin to skyrocket thanks to the Assembly using this session to pass the disastrous results of their poor pension planning to the counties be sure to forward your Thank You notes to those lawmakers with a “D” next to their names.
Because, as everyone not living under a rock is already aware, the one thing Marylanders have to realize is that as long as these same democrats remain in charge the taxes they take will never be enough.
It must be noted, however, that the assembled lawmakers made an effort to both address a topic other than taxes and at the same time prove that their multitasking skills aren’t limited to just breaking wind and chewing gum at the same time.
In response to a Maryland Court of Appeals ruling that declared pit bulls to be “inherently dangerous,” a handful of special sessioners moved to overturn the court’s action.
Failure to attend to this canine catastrophe, we’re told, could result in displaced pit owners, a spike in euthanized critters or even a mass abandonment of the pets that could put entire neighborhoods at risk.
Alas, the discussion was tabled for yet another special shindig where it will share the spotlight with gaming and gambling… fitting, if anyone wants to bet they will also use that occasion to raise even more taxes.
What a choice: Maryland’s elected swells continually gathering in special sessions or an encounter with inherently dangerous packs of roving animals that could use your internal organs as chew toys.
Hmmm… don’t know about you, but I’ll take my chances with the dogs.
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