I don’t need to be as shrill as the people at Progressive Regressive Maryland who want to drive more jobs out of the state by adopting combined reporting for business taxation purposes.
In the category of it’s always advantageous to see what your enemy is up to, I got this advisory from them last night regarding today’s meeting of the Maryland Business Tax Reform Commission:
Gov. O’Malley’s Under Pressure from Out-of-State Corporations to Save Their Loophole to Pay NO TAX…CALL HIM NOW…to “Save, Don’t Cave on Combined Reporting; Md. Needs the Hundreds of Millions!”
Tuesday 2:00 pm, The Maryland Business Tax Reform Commission meets to decide the fate of combined reporting, a vital tax-fairness reform Progressive Maryland has fought for as a high priority for years.
Two weeks after Maryland voters re-elected Gov. Martin O’Malley, with significant help from progressive Maryland and allies, he is under great pressure from politically powerful corporations based out-of-state, who pay NO STATE INCOME TAX, to kill the one vital reform that would close the unfair loophole that lets them get off free.
Call…and leave a message – “Don’t cave to corporate lobbyists.”
In the past, Governor O’Malley has been a vocal supporter of combined reporting, a reform that would help create a level playing field for Maryland businesses trying to compete with big multi-state corporations and bring in hundreds of millions in lost revenue for our schools, health care, and other vital services.
But right now, corporate lobbyists are trying to get Governor O’Malley to do their bidding and stop this reform…and we hear that it might be working. O’Malley’s appointees on the commission will decide whether to follow the lead of 23 other states and recommend combined reporting to our legislature, or to cave in to corporate pressure and let it die in committee.
Taken another way, we can follow the lead of 26 other states (most of which are probably employing a much higher percentage of residents in the private sector than Maryland is) and scrap the idea of combined reporting.
It’s also worthy of note that the Progressive Regressive Maryland says O’Malley favors this idea. Yet he’s politically savvy enough to figure out that it’s a loser if he pushes strongly for it himself, so he has his own version of a “blue-ribbon commission” to push the blame to if they recommend the tax code change (which they will) and it passes the Democratic-controlled Maryland General Assembly (which it probably will since the next election is a safe distance away.)
And it’s a funny thing about the projected “hundreds of millions” in revenues the group claims is waiting to happen if combined reporting comes to pass. Seems like every time the state counts on revenue magically appearing thanks to a tax increase, the number comes up short – imagine that! How much of that revenue will be spent on additional unemployment benefits to help the workers tossed out of work by increasing the tax burden on certain employers?
Nor is it pointed out by our liberal friends that businesses do not pay taxes – consumers do. They’ll pass along the increased costs to their customers, making our state that much less competitive at the retail level. All around, this isn’t a smart idea to embark on such a course in a time of recession (and pretty dumb during times of plenty as well.)
So go ahead and call (410) 974-3901 – apparently it’s a line into the Governor’s office. Tell him combined reporting is a bad idea and a killer of Maryland jobs. Remind him the unemployment rate has doubled on his watch, so just because he made sure his voter base turned out doesn’t mean we the people of Maryland support making the state even more business-unfriendly.
There is no reaching some people. They have a have blind allegiance to an ideology that history shows as failure. Let’s look at the millionaire tax, what was the result? Capital moved elsewhere. What will be the result if this legislation passes? Will those EVIL corporations pay up or will they do what hundreds of other businesses in Maryland have done? Of course those who have an ounce of reasoning ability recognize that even more private sector jobs will of of course move elsewhere, just like it always does.
I often find that the use of the terms “fairness, justice, or equality” are good reverse-barometers when used in reference to economics. Not always, of course, but generally policies enacted for the sake of these values bring with them so many unintended consequences that the bad far outweighs the good.