Will Maryland do another tax hike in 2013?

The Washington Times ^ | May 17, 2012 | David Hill

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

After voting this week to raise income tax rates on the state’s highest earners, Maryland lawmakers aren’t ruling out more tax increases next year.

The General Assembly passed legislation that will raise taxes on the top 14 percent of earners in an effort to balance the state’s $35.5 billion budget and cut half of Maryland’s $1 billion structural deficit, which measures expected revenue shortfalls in the future.

Lawmakers could look to eliminate the remaining $500 million deficit over the next year by methods such as expanding gambling in the state, cutting spending or passing a long-debated tax increase to fund transportation — a move that some officials have called inevitable in coming years.

“This is an ongoing process,” Gov. Martin O'Malley said this week. “I think we recognize that we’re investing less and less in transportation infrastructure, and our traffic is therefore becoming worse and worse.”

Senate leaders say lawmakers can take a major step toward balancing future budgets without tax hikes by voting to legalize table games and a new casino in Prince George’s County during an expected special session this summer.

However, they warn that if the plan falls through, legislators might be forced to make some unpopular decisions when they return to Annapolis next year.

“It’s going to be much harder now if they want to go this same route [of tax increases],” said Senate Budget and Taxation Committee Chairman Edward J. Kasemeyer, Howard County Democrat. “People don’t want to go through it, legislators don’t want to go through it.”

Despite the tax hikes, Senate Democrats have characterized this year’s regular and special sessions as missed opportunities to pass even larger increases. They say such action would have better stabilized state finances while saving lawmakers the political pain of having to hunt for more revenue next year.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Here we go again!

[Lancey Howard]

(shrug) Who cares?
Maryland voters elected scumbag Democrats and are only getting exactly what they deserve.
The decent humans who work for a living and pay taxes (”Republicans”) should simply vote with their feet.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Trust me, I’d be outta here if I could.

[Viking2002]

“I think we recognize that we’re investing less and less in transportation infrastructure, and our traffic is therefore becoming worse and worse.”

IOW, fiscally enslaving the rest of the state to pay for the ease of transport for the federal bureaucratic rodentia that skitters off and nests in Montgomery and P.G. counties at the end of the day. Make everyone bend over just a little more each year to pay for the 95/495/695 B.W. corridors, which, if you turn it sideways, resembles (appropriately enough), a dumbbell.

"As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

--H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920

[hal ogen]

After 25+ years in the marxist hellhole of maryland (aka: state of despair and Freak state), I left two weeks ago for Utah (a much more reasonable place). I hope they squeeze every dime from the maryland voters. They keep electing this political liberal trash.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Speak for yourself. I didn’t vote for these turkeys!

[Viking2002]

I was born there in the mountains (AKA 'Almost Maryland') half a century ago. My mother was born there in 1940 and hasn't lived more than a mile and a half from the home she was born in (which is now the site of a local library, and a block up from our family church). There are generations of families who have seen the state slowly encroached upon by every manner of parasitic, migrant human filth, and have found themselves, despite all of their Constitutional rights, helplessly becoming serfs to the interlopers who serve and comprise the Royal Court of Annapolis. So, I take extreme exception to 'squeezing' every last dime from the indigenous population. People like my mother are a part of our cultural state history, as were her parents, and so on; she and my late father built a home on a mountain ridge and raised a family there. She isn't going to surrender her guns - at her age - to a gaggle of hardline, slavering, multi-culti fleabags. The politics of the state are a soap opera. Our couple of our reps up there identify themselves as Democrats to keep their legislative tenure, but generally vote to the right of Reagan to keep their jobs. It's a bizarre tightrope they walk. The secessionist talk of the Maryland Panhandle AND the bolt of WV's Eastern Panhandle from Charleston makes for lively conversation up there.

"As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

--H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920

[Dr.Deth]

Will Maryland do another tax hike in 2013?

[cherry]

well here’s the deal....these rats KNOW that mostly the govt class gets the big wages, and since the govt workers will never quit because of the benefits and the pensions, they apparently can be taxed to death....suits me I guess...

[cherry]

my grandparents lived in Annapolis....I mean right smack in the middle of Annapolis in an appartment that was one block from the State House.....as kids we roamed the entire area, free of fear....lovely town, lovely docks, and the Naval Academy.....we used to go to the Bay Bridge to swim but sometimes went to some sort of "private" beach area that cost my parents $6 dollars which was a lot back then...

fresh corn...lovely Greek food....St. Mary's carnivals.....I have good memories of Maryland...

[Viking2002]

Yeah, back in the day. What we had then has been ground into the dirt, pushed out of our common culture, or otherwise intimidated into irrelevance as the Leftist/bureaucratic machine has expanded into our back yards like uninvited Gypsies. I don't even recognize the state where I was born and raised - every year I come home, as a good son should, and I find a new reason to think, "It's now illegal here to do what?!?!?"

"As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

--H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920

[KC_Conspirator]

I can feel the surge here in northern VA already.

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

Will Maryland do another tax hike in 2013?

Will the sun rise in the East?

Spend and Tax, Spend and Tax that's all these azzhats know how to do.

[VRW Conspirator]

fresh corn...lovely Greek food....St. Mary's carnivals.....I have good memories of Maryland...

Ok Cherry, it is a Saturday and some friends have asked you over to sit on a picnic table in their back yard to do what?

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

To their credit, Annapolis legalized fireworks in 2006 or 2007. That’s about the only good thing they’ve done recently, off the top of my head, besides the “castle doctrine” lawsuit-limiting bill.