Dan Gainor
2007-03-20 07:00:00.0
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BALTIMORE -

If you make enough money to pay any amount of income tax, the state of Maryland has a message for you.

Move.

That’s right. Get the heck outta Dodge. (Or Dundalk, in this case.) Why? Because the Tax Man cometh. And when he gets here, it won’t be pretty.

Del. Sheila Hixson, D-Montgomery, who heads the committee that writes tax bills, wants to really stick it to the successful. She has already proposed a bill to raise tax rates by 25 percent if you make more than $225,000.

That would increase the rate to 6 percent, on top of the federal rate, Social Security taxes, unemployment taxes, property taxes, phone taxes, estate taxes, snack taxes, cigarette taxes, licenses, fees and taxes on the taxes you already paid. (I made that last one up. I think.)

There is nothing wrong with financial success. Personal success shouldn’t be a ticket to Easy Street — for a greedy government.

Hixson, Gov. Martin O’Malley and much of the legislative leadership are already sending up warning signs that they will raise taxes next year — or even this year — because they can’t kick the spending habit.

In the meantime, they aren’t even done sticking to taxpayers this session. They might raise gas taxes, sales tax or other revenue, according to a recent Examiner article by Len Lazarick.

And, because they haven’t figured out how to penalize the successful enough already, the General Assembly is also considering taxes on businesses. This fits with the current “eat the rich” attitude of those who advocate class warfare to protect their phony baloney political jobs.

It’s the same strategy that pushes a minimum wage hike or living wage hike and ignores a crushing tax structure. The current structure is what’s known as a “progressive” tax because it hurts wealthy folks more than the poor. The sales tax is often criticized because everybody has to pay equally, even the poor. That’s called a “regressive” tax.

Neither is particularly fair. The first penalizes accomplishment. And the second does harm the poor more. But those aren’t the only tax plans on the planet. Eastern Europe, once it was removed from Soviet tyranny, began to blossom because of the flat tax. Places like Slovakia, Romania and Estonia are the new growth engines of Europe, thanks to a system that taxes people with one equal rate.

Then there’s the FairTax, which would replace our current insane tax system with a national sales tax that includes an equal rebate to everyone. That rebate ensures that poor people aren’t harmed by the plan. The problem with both those ideas is not enough people are talking about them.

This close to Tax Day, it’s essential to remember there are options. It’s the politicians who won’t let us choose them.

Dan Gainor is The Boone Pickens Free Market Fellow at the Media Research Center’s Business & Media Institute, a career journalist and media commentator. He can be reached at gainorcolumn@gmail.com