Rural Senators Propose Tax Increases for Urban Counties
Residents of Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Montgomery and Prince George's counties would pay more in either sales or gas taxes to fund transit projects.
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Residents of five jurisdictions in Maryland would pay more in sales or gas taxes to fund transit projects under dueling proposals sponsored by two rural Republican state senators.
Sens. Richard Colburn and George Edwards are each proposing increases to the sales tax of between one-half to one penny. Edwards has also proposed a more than 2 percent sales tax on gasoline.
All of the proposed taxes would affect only residents of Baltimore City and of Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Montgomery and Prince George's counties. The money would go to fund transit projects in the respective jurisdictions.
Colburn, a five-term Republican from the Eastern Shore, is proposing increasing the sales tax a full penny to 7 percent in those jurisdictions. The money would be placed into a regional transit account and used to pay for projects including subway and lightrail systems in those counties.
Edwards, an two-term Republican from western Maryland, proposes increasing the sales tax in those same jurisdictions by one-half a penny with the money going to transit projects.
A second proposal sponsored by Edwards would impose a 2.1 percent sales tax on wholesale gas sales in those five jurisdictions. Money generated from the tax would go to transit projects.
All three bills were introduced in advance of Gov. Martin O'Malley's plan to phase in a 6 percent tax on wholesale gas sales over three years across the entire state, not just in five jurisdictions. The governor outlined the plan during his State of the State address but has yet to introduce a bill.
More from the web
- Maryland General Assembly Edwards' Sales tax-Mass Transit
- Maryland General Assembly Edwards' Gas Tax-Transit Funding
- Maryland General Assembly Colburn Sales Tax—Mass Transit
Paul Amirault
3:14 pm on Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Do these two even have a clue? Here is the population by County in Maryand.
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/mdmanual/01glance/html/pop.html#county
A very simple argument is we are already paying the bulk of the gas, sales, property, and income taxes in this state! I recommend those two secede from the state and see where that leaves them.
Tim
3:16 pm on Wednesday, February 8, 2012
They live out on the Eastern shore. Of course they don't.
I almost spit out my drink when I saw this headline, I was laughing so hard.
Tom
7:28 am on Thursday, February 9, 2012
Knock yourselves out, guys. I live 2 miles from the PA line and already do ALL of my shopping, including gas, there. Unless absolutely necessary, I do not and will not make any purchases in MD.
Tim
10:04 am on Thursday, February 9, 2012
Bart: This is EXACTLY why I actually support the idea of a gas tax increase in the state.
It's the severity of the tax I completely disagree with.
Bart
10:04 am on Thursday, February 9, 2012
The state tax on gas in Pennsylvania is $0.325 per gallon, while Maryland's is $0.235. The sales tax in Pennsylvanis is up to 8% depending on the jurisdiction, the tax in Maryland is 6%.
Able Baker
9:09 am on Friday, April 6, 2012
Wait, so you want to pay *more* taxes? Is that why you don't shop in MD?
Kris
8:26 am on Thursday, February 9, 2012
Enough taxes already! These two clown's mugshots says it all. The guy on the left looks like Milton from Office Space. Has anybody seen my stapler?
Neal Baker
9:05 am on Thursday, February 9, 2012
They are Republicans, it won't get passed until a Dumb a crat suggests it, see slots.
Phil
10:20 am on Thursday, February 9, 2012
Someone should tell these two dumbos that the alternative to raising taxes it to cut spending. Something our current bunch in Annapolis has never heard of.
Might also consider raising fares on mass transportation so that fuel taxes are not paying so much for the "free ride".
John OHare
1:26 pm on Thursday, February 9, 2012
It's hard to tell the Republicians from the Democrats in Maryland. I think that it is ironic that a Representative from the Eastern Shore and Western Maryland are proposing a transportation tax increase in areas that hardly need it. An increase in taxes to fund transit programs is a sham. We could build a bridge from Baltimore to Atlanta with the billions of dollars that has already been poured into the state to fund transportation programs. It is just a poor excuse to increase tax revenue that will be spent on O'Malley's pet projects.
Notice how O'Malley first proposed a gas tax increase and everybody screamed. Then he proposed a sales tax increase of one cent which is closer to 15%. Now we get to chose which one we like the best. What a politician.
Paul
2:59 pm on Saturday, February 11, 2012
By "free ride" are you referring to the use of general tax funds to support roads? Gas taxes cover less than half the cost of road construction and maintenance. If you are serious about cutting spending, the road budget is a much bigger pot to attack than is the transit budget.
Kris
11:49 am on Thursday, February 9, 2012
Agreed. I know it'd radical thinking- that if you dont spend so much money, you dont have to tax everyone to death to pay for it. But hey, the heck with that, lets pay for illegal aliens to go to college!
Donald Lehr
12:54 pm on Thursday, February 9, 2012
can't cut jobs, who are they going to get the people that leans on shovels while one works at
Able Baker
9:59 am on Friday, February 10, 2012
I know these bumpkins think they're the Real Americans whose taxes pay for welfare queens to buy cadillacs etc, but the fact is that Montgomery, PG, Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Howard and Baltimore City contain most of the population and generate the vast majority of the tax revenue. The roads and the bridges that connect these freeloading rural counties to the places where people actually work and generate tax revenue are subsidized by the urban counties, not the other way around.
David Epstein
11:13 pm on Saturday, February 11, 2012
Not only are our rural brethren failing to understand that the urban counties are paying the bulk of taxes in absolute terms and when calculated per capita, but they also conveniently overlook the fact that the rural counties aren't paying their share of snow removal, road maintenance, the cost of operating the State government, etc., etc.
Tom Cunningham
3:41 pm on Sunday, February 12, 2012
Someone once told me that no inbreeding ever occurred on the eatern shore....its been confirmed!
DARRELL HAMMERBACKER
7:34 am on Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Sounds like these two Republicans have been exposed to to much Maryland Liberalism. NO NEW TAXES !!!!! What don't these Politicians UNDERSTAND !!!!!!
Damion
7:50 pm on Thursday, April 5, 2012
What these two understand that you all don't is this. O Malley's free loading pets live in the urban counties. So let them pay their own way once.
Able Baker
9:12 am on Friday, April 6, 2012
Sorry dummy. The urban counties generate the vast majority of the wealth and taxes. The welfare queens in the rural counties rely on us to build the roads, not the other way around.
Tim
12:19 pm on Friday, April 6, 2012
What he said isn't entirely false, Able.
Just because the urban counties generate the most wealth, it doesn't preclude the vast majority of poor/freeloaders from living in the same area. It's quite commmon. Moreover, it's the businesses in the city that generate the wealth - not the actual living population.
Able Baker
1:48 pm on Friday, April 6, 2012
No, sorry, it's false. The cost of the roads, sewers, bridges and power lines that connect rural Maryland to civilization massively outweighs the cost of urban welfare programs (which are mostly federal anyway).
So what? Those businesses aren't in rural MD either. Neither are the vast majority of the taxpayers.
Tim
2:46 pm on Friday, April 6, 2012
You are combining corporate income for the state versus individual. It dilutes your argument.
You aren't right but you aren't wrong either. It purely depends on the dataset you choose to use.
Poor people don't live in the suburbs.
Part of this debate would have to be centered on what was the definition of "urban" versus "rural" because that too is a sliding scale and subject to interpretation.
again, what Damion said was factual. Most of O'Malley's "freeloaders" live in Baltimore City. There's a reason he keeps winning elections. It's because Baltimore City and PG County votes for him 90-10 each election. It's not because businesses love him. Maryland's one of the worst states from a taxation perspective to have a corporation from the last figures I saw (2010).
I wasn't even arguing the side points you bring up. I don't agree with these two guys as I noted months ago when this article first came out (necro posting ftw?)
I was just noting that Damion a) is correct and as such b) calling him a dummy is pretty crass when your counterpoints are all circumstantial.
Able Baker
9:40 am on Friday, April 13, 2012
Poor people *do* live in the suburbs, and in rural areas. In fact, rural poverty is probably worse because access to services is much more difficult. That's one of the problems with this us vs. them mentality. I know that suburbanites and people in rural areas think they're shouldering the tax burden for everyone else, but it's just not true. If you're middle income, have kids and contribute to a 401k, you likely pay very little taxes. In terms of actual services used, these people don't consider the massive infrastructure costs that *everyone* bears just to make it possible for suburbanites to get to work.
Bart
10:45 am on Friday, April 13, 2012
They are acting as if the people who live in these outlying suburbs don't ever make it to the "big city". These counties have become the bedrooom communities for the urban areas. Just look at all the new housing developments. these people commute to, and make their income in the more urban areas, yet they spend most of it in their home neighborhoods. These two might just have it backward.