Gov. Martin O'Malley called for legislators to pass a sales tax on gasoline, saying on Wednesday that the decision would be unpopular but much needed.
The governor made his comments in Annapolis during his sixth State of the State speech in which he focused on jobs, taxes and what he called tough choices.
"Asking our fellow citizens to do more will not be popular," O'Malley said. "But without anger, fear or meanness, let’s ask one another: how much less education do we think would be good for our children’s future? How much less education do we want? How much less public safety? How many fewer jobs? There are costs, and there are values."
Republicans in the General Assembly criticized O'Malley for policies they said will hurt the same middle class working families the governor said he wants to help.
O'Malley described the state of Maryland as strong in his nearly 33-minute address to legislators gathered in the House of Delegates chamber Wednesday.
But at the same time he touted the achievements of his administration over the last six years, O'Malley said that more needs to be done.
O'Malley briefly touched on the gas tax—the most anticipated portion of his message. The governor said a bill would be filed in the next couple days.
"With a growing population and aging infrastructure, we might soon pay an even steeper price," said O'Malley. "Bridges are not like trees. They do not grow broader and stronger with age."
O'Malley's plan calls for phased-in elimination of the 6 percent sales tax exemption on gasoline.
At current prices, opponents estimate that the change would add 18 cents per gallon to the 23 cents in state gas taxes.
The additional revenue would create "7,500 new jobs building needed roads, bridges, and public transit" in Maryland, said O'Malley.
"Now look, I know that every family is still feeling the hurt of this recession," said O'Malley. "The people I serve are the people you serve. I know this is a very, very difficult ask. But nobody else is going to do this for us except for us."
Seeking to increase transportation funding for construction and repair projects that would create jobs, O'Malley intends to submit a bill repealing the sales tax exemption on a gallon of gasoline—phasing it out by 2 percent each year unless the price of gas spikes.
"It's going to be an extremely tough sell," said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., who has advised O'Malley to meet with delegations and various elected officials if he hopes to see the tax increased at all in these difficult times.
Aware that legislators are wary of governors transferring money from the Transportation Trust Fund in order to balance the budget, O'Malley said he would like to safeguard future investments in the fund.
"My understanding is the governor is very receptive to people wanting to protect those funds," said Donald Fry, a former state senator and president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee. "There will be some sort of legally enforceable way to ensure the money in the transportation fund is used for transportation purposes."
Fry is also a member of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Maryland Transportation Funding, which recommended a state constitutional amendment, or "firewall,"to keep those funds from being used for other purposes.
Senate Minority Leader E.J. Pipkin said the so-called "lock box" was a gimmick.
"There are all kinds of gimmicks to get at people's money," said Pipkin, an upper Eastern Shore Republican. "The gas tax is one of the most impactful taxes and working families would have already paid."
"On one hand (O'Malley) talks jobs and on the other hand he kills jobs with higher taxes," he said.
Pipkin said most of the transportation money has gone to fund transit projects that only three percent of state residents use.
"Before we have a discussion about raising taxes we should examine how government spends the money," said Pipkin.
During his speech, O'Malley told legislators he has taken a balanced approach to managing the state's finances during the recession, including making nearly "$800 million in cuts and spending reductions in the current budget. Including those reductions, cuts in state spending total nearly $7.5 billion since O'Malley took office, the governor said.
Critics said those numbers are misleading.
"He's misguiding the public with those words and words mean a lot," said Del. Sue Aumann, a Baltimore County Republican and member of the House Appropriations Committee. "Our budget every year has gone up $1 billion and we have a perpetual deficit of $1 billion."
"The bank of citizens is running dry," Aumann said.
Capital News Service reporters Dave Nyczepir and Mali Krantz contributed to this story.
Deportation link
http://www.pewhispanic.org/2011/02/01/unauthorized-immigrant-population-brnational-and-state-trends-2010/ The Pew Research Center is a recognized non-partisan research organization. The chart above shows that illegal immigration has flattened over the last several years and not gotten worse. IMO, the reason is simply economic. Most, but obviously not all, immigrate here for simply economic reasons, both legally and illegally. The illegals tend to find the jobs not wanted by our citizens at the wages being offered by business. Those are hospitality, landscaping and construction. The legal immigrants take the highly professional jobs where the compete against less qualified citizens. Which hurts.
Your welcome. Before the financial meltdown, many democrats were saying "The illegals do the jobs we don't want to do". That was true when unemployment was 4.7%. Back then I said "Thats true but eventually, the unemployment rate may go as high as 7%, (Having no idea it would go over 9%). When the uneployment rate goes way up, the illegals will still be here but there will be many Americans who will want to do those jobs. I afraid thats what has happened. The jobs we wouldn't do before, many people would LOVE to do now. IMO
You spout off the stats of how Obama has deported more illegal immigrants than any previous President, but you fail to acknowledge the reasons for that are there are more illegal immigrants being caught and held for deportation by Republican led boarder states and there are thousands more illegal immigrants crossing the border every day than ever before.
Immigration is a constitutinal right established with the federal government, not the states. That is just a fact. I don't spout off anything, I state a simple fact. The agency responsible for deportation is ICE which is a federal agency. Hyperbole and personal attacks don't change facts. Regarding illegals currently crossing the border you state an opinion without facts to support it. You obviously disregard the links I provided. Different question, why do you not show respect to the Governor by calling him by his actual name? You can disagree with hin all day, but rude is rude.
One other thing, I don't care who's feelings I hurt if I think they are intentionally trying to harm or injure our country and the American citizens. Besides, the only rudeness most politicians recognize is when they get kicked out of office by their constituents.
Murder is generally considered a state rights issue, not a federal one, unless they attempt a civil rights issue. I understand what you don't care about, but rule of law is the rule of law.
All the liberal spin in the world cannot avoid the fact that this gas tax hike hurts the very same poor, working, and middle class citizens of Maryland that Democrats portray themselves to be working for but it is blatantly obvious that simply is not the reality. If you want to debate the actual issue feel free to have at it but if you wish to perpetuate the fallacious rhetoric that has nothing to do with the real issue then please just save it for another time.
We are a country built on Laws and Obama is refusing to enforce the federal laws on the Arizona Border. A pefect example are the sanctuary cities and the Catholic schools churches and charities. If the catholics don't pay for and provide birth control, including "The Morning After Pill" they will lose federal funding but the sanctuary cities DON'T lose federal funding. The law is the law but, IMO, its Obama who picks and chooses which laws to enforce, follow and ignore
Have a good day also
I am no Bush fan... far from it. But DO NOT LIE - you would take 10 years ago in a heartbeat. With Ehrlich in power, we had a certain energy in this state. Yes, he still had to contend with Dems, but at leat the power sharing was good. NOW WE HAVE GONE OFF THE DEEP END!