Today I had forwarded to me an interesting e-mail. Awhile back, I talked about State Senator E.J. Pipkin grousing about the state’s budget. Now I receive word that the esteemed Senator has started a website (paid for by his campaign) called Stop Maryland Tax Hikes. On first read, the website does two things: asks the person stopping by to sign an online petition decrying the proposed increases (which I did) and acts as a clearinghouse of sorts with links to news articles pertaining to the tax increases and links to those in charge of state government (including one of the Delegates from my district, Norm Conway.) Or, to quote the website itself:
This site is an outgrowth of conversations with many Marylanders about their opposition to new taxes. They often ask “What can I do to stop these tax increases?” This is your opportunity to directly register your feelings through the online petition. It is also a place to keep informed about these tax increases.
As pointed out by Senator Stoltzfus on Saturday, the increases sought will be more than enough to cover the deficit that mysteriously blossomed from $1.1 billion to $1.6 billion almost overnight. And I don’t think the idea here is to replenish the rainy day fund O’Malley took $1 billion out of this year to cover his budgetary needs. No, I think the idea is to spend all of that and more, thereby justifying further increases. Sometimes I think that it weren’t for the federal government, we might be the Michigan of the East Coast economically – and some may argue that we on the Eastern Shore are.
On a related note I was reading O’Malley Watch today and one of the commenters had a good link to a post by Thomas DiLorenzo on Lewrockwell.com. Called “Hillary in Drag?” the post comapred O’Governor’s initial year in office to Bill Clinton’s. But the paragraphs that hit me were these:
So in order to pay off his campaign debts with taxpayers’ money, O’Malley has proposed a surge of tax increases. His major objective, besides raising money, seems to be to incite envy and class warfare. With stern talk about the “unfairness” of “the rich” residing in the state, he has proposed increasing the state income tax rate from a flat 4.75% to 6% for families with incomes over around $200,000 per year and 6.5% for those with incomes above $500,000. In Maryland there is a state income tax and a local “piggyback” tax (isn’t that a cute and cuddly name for a tax?). The latter averages about 2.5%, which means that, for the families or small business owners with $200,000 in income, their tax rate will be 8.5%, much higher than in any of the surrounding states.
The people who drive Maryland’s private economy will be able to give themselves an immediate 8.5% annual pay raise by simply moving to one of the zero income tax states like Florida or Tennessee. (emphasis mine.)
It also seems to be the hot rumor in Annapolis that our governor doesn’t want to be long for the job because he has something higher in mind. But here’s the rub. It’s not like Hillary wouldn’t carry Maryland anyway (or more precisely, carry the city of Baltimore, Montgomery County, and PG County by massive margins) so adding O’Malley to the ticket doesn’t help her with a swing state and, if this tax increase really does prove hugely unpopular, could even put Maryland in play. Sorry, I’m not voting like Baltimore City did last November to make their problem the whole state’s problem. That O’Malley guy is a menace as governor to people who believe in actual freedom in the Free State but having him one heartbeat away from the presidency – the thought is scary.
Finally, I’ll shift gears to talk about a future post – well, now two. In starting to look at where Alan Keyes and Fred Thompson stand on the issues, it appears I’ll need a post each to evaluate them. So that will likely be Thursday and Friday’s work for me. It was something I promised in an e-mail I send out during the weekend highlighting some of what I’ll talk about over the next week. If you don’t receive it and would like to be put on the list just let me know. Yeah, shameless self-promotion on my part. But in glancing at these two I’d have to say that my people at the top of the list could have some company because I liked a lot of what Keyes and Thompson say.
Crossposted on RedMaryland.
