Gov. O'Malley Considers Tax Hikes as General Assembly Opens

By DAVE NYCZEPIR
Capital News Service

ANNAPOLIS - Maryland's 430th General Assembly session convened Wednesday, promising more than a few tough votes in the coming weeks as Gov. Martin O'Malley's agenda may call for raising the state's sales or gas taxes.

Several of Carroll County's representatives weighed in on the tax hike discussion, saying it's a bad idea.

A tax increase would generate the revenue needed to fund many of O'Malley's job creation initiatives and help address the $1 billion budget deficit the legislature faces in its $14 billion operating budget.

O'Malley is toying with the idea of raising the state sales tax by 1 cent to 7 cents, but will consult with General Assembly leaders before deciding, said the governor during an interview with WEAA 88.9 Wednesday morning.

Also on the table is the much talked about 15-cent increase to the gas tax.

"We'll be rolling these proposals out over the next few days," said O'Malley, of the possible revenue-raising alternatives.

While legislators braced for the proposed tax increases, some said they wouldn't be well-received.

"I think it will be a year of cutting," Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. said at the WEAA taping.

Though O'Malley said finding money to renovate roads and fund school construction is essential for job creation, some legislators argue tax hikes are counterproductive.

"These taxes are absurd," Sen. David Brinkley, R-Carroll County, said. "There is no way Maryland taxpayers are in a position to cover another 20 percent increase in the sales tax and in particular on those items where it creates an advantage for Marylanders to shop in other states."

Brinkley is equally dismayed by the idea of a gas tax hike.

"He’s (O'Malley) requesting an increase for the motoring public to pay but primarily to drive some capital projcts on subway systems which don’t directly benefit the people paying the bill," Brinkley said. "On top of that it is totally irresponsible for him to be considering any type of revenue increase for the transportation trust fund as he has continuously raided it for non-transportation projects."

Brinkley said that O'Malley should be considering a regional financing approach to mass transit which would remove those demands from the transportation trust fund pool. That way, he said, the communities that benefit from those systems contribute to those systems.

Delegate Justin Ready, R-Carroll County, agrees that the taxes are a bad idea for Marylanders, suggesting that reducing the sales tax is the direction to go.

“It is really stunning that Governor O'Malley would suggest another regressive tax hike that hits poor and working class families hardest," Ready said in a statement.

During the 2011 Legislative Session Delegate Ready introduced legislation to cut the sales tax rate from six percent to five percent according to a statement.

“This was exactly the same rationale used for passing the largest tax hike in state history in 2007--closing our state’s structural budget deficit. It was over $1 billion then, and it still is today," Ready said.

"The solution is not punishing taxpayers for our mismanagement; the situation is getting serious about really reducing overall spending. The time for making real, tough choices in our budget is now, rather than passing the buck to already over- taxed Marylanders, families and businesses,” Ready concluded.

Westminster Patch local editor Kym Byrnes contributed to this article.