Is there anything they won’t tax?

This just plain says it all, from the Maryland Senate Republican caucus:

For your full consideration, here is a condensed list of fees (which are the same as taxes) proposed by O’Malley and Democrat legislators to increase the tax burden of every Maryland citizen:

BUDGET RECONCILIATION & FINANCING ACT – O’MALLEY ADMINISTRATION

The BRFA of 2011 contains several fee increases where an assumption of additional special funds is accompanied by a general fund reduction.

·         Payroll garnishment fee of $2 per payroll transaction; $50,000 contingent general fund reduction
·         MHEC to charge fees to public and private institutions for academic program approvals; $253,208 contingent general fund reduction
·         Nursing facility quality assessment increase from 4.0 to 5.5% of revenue; fee generates $35.1 million — $11.8 million (matched with $11.8 million in federal funds) is used to hold nursing home providers harmless for that portion of the assessment based on revenue from serving Medicaid clients; $10.3 million (match with $10.3 million in federal funds) to support an estimated 1.6% reimbursement rate increase; and $13 million to offset a contingent general fund reduction

·         Hospital assessment increases – to support Medicaid expansion (averted uncompensated care) and for general Medicaid operations, expected to generate $254 million in additional revenues; a $225 million special fund appropriation in Medicaid is contingent on the BRFA

The BRFA also institutes new and increased fees which are simply general fund revenues:

·         Increase in the fee charged for the supervision of persons on probation (estimated by DLS to generate $2.8 million)
·         Repealing IWIF’s exemption from paying the premium tax (estimated by DLS to generate $1.9 million)
·         Levying a charge on drivers with a certain number of points against their license (estimated by DLS to generate $3.8 million)

O’Malley fee increases as “revenue enhancements” already assumed in the O’Malley budget:

·         Raising the cap on the user fees that are charged by the Health Services Cost Review Commission from $5.5 million to $7.0 million; the budget assumes an additional $0.4 million in spending in fiscal 2012
·         Raising fees for court costs; the budget for the Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund increases by $2.0 million accordingly.

TRANSPORTATION TAXES/FEES

            Gas Tax

·         10¢ per gallon increase
·         Increases state gasoline tax from 23.5¢ to 33.5¢ per gallon, 38% increase
·         Indexes tax to Consumer Price Index (CPI) in 2013

            Vehicle Registration Fee

·         Doubles current vehicle registration fees
·         Car/Truck vehicle registration increase from $128 bi-annually to $178.50
·         Motorcycle registration increase from $97 bi-annually to $132.00

            Bad Driver Fees – O’MALLEY ADMINISTRATION

·         $1, 500 fine for driver convicted of driving 85mph or higher, twice in 2 yrs. This is in addition to the $1,080 already imposed for the same conviction.
·         $100 per point over 5 points, charged for three years
·         $500 additional charge per year for three years, for drunk driver convictions

Tolls – O’MALLEY ADMINISTRATION

·         MdTA has announced they will be raising fees on Maryland’s bridges, highways and tunnels by the end of the summer.

SIN TAXES

            Alcohol Tax

·         Tax on Beer: From .09 to $1.16 per gallon = 1,189% increase
·         Tax on Wine: From .40 to $2.96 per gallon = 640% increase
·         Tax on Spirits: From $1.50 to $10.03 per gallon = 569% increase

            Tobacco Tax

·         $1 increase on a pack of cigarettes from current tax of $2 to $3 per pack
·         $3 tax per cigar – a new tax

            Snack Tax

·         Expands State sales & use tax rate of 6% to snacks – Potato chips, Pretzels, Cheese Puffs, Corn Chips, Pork Rinds, Nuts & Seeds

ENVIRONMENTAL TAXES/FEES

            Wind Tax – O’MALLEY ADMINISTRATION

·         Monthly increase to residential and commercial electric customers between $1.44 & $8.70

            Electricity Tax

·         Charge per kilowatt for electricity consumption beyond 1000kwh
·         $2.99 additional charge for average consumption of 1,230 kwh per month

Bag Tax

·         5¢ per disposable carryout bag a store provides to customer
·         5¢ credit for each bag provided by the customer

This is pretty useful because it summarizes, for the most part, what the majority party in Annapolis is trying to do to all of us. It wouldn’t surprise me if the total impact wasn’t over $1,000 a year on a typical working Maryland family. And what is the money being spent on? Certainly not primary functions of government:

Schools aren’t safe and just because Maryland is considered the best school system in the country; well, being the best of a bad lot isn’t much to brag about.

The roads are falling apart and traffic is terrible in many parts of the state.

Crime is rampant, Salisbury is a prime example.

One has to ask why taxes need to be raised so much when we could take the opposite tack, cut taxes, and allow increased business and job development to create revenue. Seems to me that worked for some guy named Reagan about a quarter-century ago. Even when he raised taxes a bit (while having faith that the other side would enact spending cuts which never happened) we still prospered because we were still ahead of the curve.

This time O’Malley’s not calling for the Special Session, but didn’t we tell you that 2011 would be the year of tax raising? I think we did…remember, fees are taxes too.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

3 thoughts on “Is there anything they won’t tax?”

  1. We don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. They keep spending all of OUR money.

  2. I totally agree with you that we should be trying the opposite approach (we’ve been at things this way for so long and its only gotten worse).

    But, as you point out, cutting taxes and sitting back to wait for revenues to increase is rather contingent on cutting spending at the same time. And at this point each recipient of gov. spending has a lobby group to help avoid getting cut. This makes any real cuts almost politically impossible.

    So I am not optimistic. I think things will have to get much worse in MD before we are willing to try the other path. We’ll have to fall from our positions of prominence before anyone on the left is willing to admit that their policies don’t work, and even then they might try to pin it on the other guys.

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