Posted on 01/03/2008 10:47:10 AM PST by JZelle
ANNAPOLIS — A package of taxes and fees passed during the recent General Assembly special session took effect yesterday after a Carroll County judge declined to impose a stay while a lawsuit challenging the validity of the session makes its way through the courts.
Smokers yesterday started paying $1 more per pack of cigarettes, while taxes increased for car buyers, corporations and high-wage earners. A penny increase in the state sales tax is to take effect tomorrow.
Republican legislative leaders are still awaiting the outcome of a long-shot legal case that could overturn the tax increases.
Irwin Kramer, the lawyer representing five Republican lawmakers and a Carroll County businessman who brought the lawsuit, is scheduled to depose the key witness in the case this morning in Annapolis.
Mr. Kramer has taken the unusual step of requesting a judge be present when he deposes chief clerk of the House of Delegates, Mary Monahan, because he thinks lawyers with the state Attorney General's Office will try to block questions during the deposition.
"I know when I ask the first question they are going to say, 'Don't answer that,' " he said yesterday.
The case, based on an obscure provision of the state constitution that lawmakers may have violated during the frenzied session in November, has turned on charges that someone may have doctored the House Journal in an attempt to conceal the constitutional misstep.
But even if Carroll County Circuit Court Judge Thomas F. Stansfield rules in favor of the plaintiffs and finds that the Senate adjourned without the proper authority, it is far from certain whether he will invalidate the tax increases and the slot-machine gambling referendum approved during the session.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
So, have the citizens of Maryland had enough yet?
I didn’t think so.
Life is Hell in the People’s Republic of Maryland. First the BGE price hikes, which O’Malley said the people couldn’t afford, then his own tax hike. It’s worse than ever.
They do that a lot here in CA, then the lawsuits flow and years later they lose and have to pay it back and people must file all the forms and the politicians warn the world will end with the additional fees.
If Maryland elects its judges, that Westminster judge better look for another job. He’ll get tossed in the next election.
Judges are appointed in our one-party state.
Cool! So Florida and Maryland will have the same sales tax rate.
But Florida has no income tax :)
Get me out of here!
Yep, you could smell that one coming. Can’t do without the revenue, now can we?
(Actually, we probably could, but the wish list must be fulfilled.)
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
I imagine the stores on the Virginia side of the border are gonna love this, Virginia has just about the lowest cigarette tax in the nation, or at least they did when I lived there about 5 years ago..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.