MARYLAND LOVES TAXES - HOW ABOUT A EVERYTHING TAX NOW PROPOSED!!!

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3CATSAILOR

Well-Known Member
This was reported on the Baltimore TV channels:


LOCAL NEWS

Hopefully the Dimocrats know how insane this would be.

Tax proposal would decrease Maryland sales tax, but increase services taxed​



BALTIMORE - A tax proposal introduced in Maryland's House of Delegates would aim to lower the state's sales tax from six percent to five percent. However, the bill is bundled with a series of new taxes on services.

House Bill 1515 expands the state sales tax to 10 categories, across a broad range of services like legal and accounting services, dry cleaning, and even funerals.

"I intended House Bill 1515 as a bit of a conversation starter," bill sponsor David Moon, (D) Montgomery Co., said. "We're left with few other options. We could increase the sales tax rate. That is even more regressive. We could engage in cuts."

Del. Moon cites the state's revenue shortfalls and funding priorities in education as reasons lawmakers need to consider tax changes.

"It is inconsistent from a policy perspective we have decided to charge a sales tax on shampoo, but not spa treatments," Benjamin Orr from Maryland Center on Economic Policy said.
 
3

3CATSAILOR

Well-Known Member
NorthBeachPerso said:
O' Malley tried that when he was Governor. Saner heads in the Legislature (primarily Mike Miller and Michael Busch) stopped it. They're gone and the crazies are in charge.
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I just heard today that some folks in our County government expect at least some part of it to go through.. Dims will likely keep pushing until it does.
 
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NorthBeachPerso

NorthBeachPerso

Honorary SMIB
3CATSAILOR said:
I just heard today that some folks in our County government expect at least some part of it to go through.. Dims will likely keep pushing until it does.
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Most, if not all, will pass. The Governor is actually objecting to some of the increases for business attracting reasons. Whether he'll veto any remains to be seen. They're all bundled into one bill so he'd have to veto the whole package since he doesn't have line item veto.

The school funding is the big one, it has been a big unfunded mandate for twenty years, followed by mass transit funding. Then there's Moore's vow to not have any children in the State in poverty.
 
stgislander

stgislander

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
I don't think MD has never had "lock boxes". Only the General Fund. Once in the General Fund it can be used for anything.

People always talk about Transportation Lock Box. Is it really a thing? Maybe @NorthBeachPerso can clarify.
 
NorthBeachPerso

NorthBeachPerso

Honorary SMIB
stgislander said:
I don't think MD has never had "lock boxes". Only the General Fund. Once in the General Fund it can be used for anything.

People always talk about Transportation Lock Box. Is it really a thing? Maybe @NorthBeachPerso can clarify.
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Yes and no. In theory it is but Governors going back to Shafer, at least, have raided it as well as the State Retirement System funds. Most fund transfers were, in the great scheme of things, miniscule. That is until O' Malley.

He took so much money out of both those funds for other "investments" that both were in danger of crashing. The Retirement System went from being fully funded out as far as actuaries could figure (seventy five years) and considered the best managed in the US to only able to cover 48% of its expenditures.

For the Highway fund he cut state aid to municipalities and Counties for roads and police to almost zero. Which really impacted projects that were funded from those sources that were State mandated.

Hogan tried to replenish those funds every year (we're talking several billion every year) but the Legislature fought him at every step. Usually he got about 2/3 what he asked for.

Both funds are out of the danger zone now, after eight years, but it wouldn't take much to crash them again. There are more safeguards to raiding them now, and municipalities have to verify the use of the road funds because it was discovered that many weren't using them for roads but to balance their budgets and keep the tax rate down, but they still can be tapped by the Governor or Legislature for the General Fund.
 
glhs837

glhs837

Power with Control
Income tax.jpg
 
NorthBeachPerso

NorthBeachPerso

Honorary SMIB
3CATSAILOR said:
That's before the State BOE came up with a "new" Blue Print for Education.
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That's been around since Glendenning, just with a couple different names. One I remember was Bridge to Excellence which morphed into the Kirwan Commission. MSDE didn't directly come up with it, the Bridge to Excellence led by Alvin Thornton started it off. That Commission's members, as were the following ones, were appointed by the sitting Governor, State Senate President, House Majority Leader and some automatic members.

www.wypr.org

Maryland’s 20-year education reform journey from ‘The Bridge to Excellence’ to the Blueprint

Alvin Thornton, former chair of Maryland’s Commission on Education Finance, Equity, and Excellence said the fight for equitable funding started over 20 years ago.
www.wypr.org www.wypr.org


Ever since the first one everyone involved knew there was no funding mechanism, not even slots (more about that in a bit), but successive Governors just kicked the can down the road.

Slots were never a "funding mechanism" for the schools. That was what was implied but what happened that it was "in place of" money. The school systems would get $XX from slots which then allowed the County Councils/Commissioners to remove the local money and use it elsewhere and the State to cut non-slots funded education funding.

 
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