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.
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.
I almost spit out my drink when I saw this headline, I was laughing so hard.
It's the severity of the tax I completely disagree with.
Might also consider raising fares on mass transportation so that fuel taxes are not paying so much for the "free ride".
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.
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.
So what? Those businesses aren't in rural MD either. Neither are the vast majority of the taxpayers.
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.