Governor O’Malley sent this out last night Tell Them the Truth
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We can make Maryland’s tax system fairer for the middle class – by raising taxes on everything. On one hand O’Malley wants to convince you he wants a fair income tax but he wants to pick your pocket on sales taxes.
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We can reform taxes so most Maryland families pay less.
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We need to repeal Ehrlich’s 58% property tax hike. Smoke and mirrors. Glendenning cut property taxes, Ehrlich raised them, O’Malley wants to give you a $.03 cut but raise everything else. He is just being dishonest.
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We should give 95% of Marylanders an income tax reduction which more than makes up for the one penny sales tax for most working families. Sure it does. Please show me the numbers? Now what about chasing people over the line to Delaware and Virginia for big ticket purchases. How much revenue is that going to cost us.
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Why are they not talking about the gas tax increase? More smoke and mirrors? Del. Warren Miller explained the scheme so well in his newsletter to district 9a
Several problems exist here. Let me set the backdrop first. In years past, it was part of the legislative process for the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) to go before the legislature and make their request known and support it with empirical evidence in order to receive tax dollars for projects. Gov. O’Malley’s plan is an end run around this process. If Gov. O’Malley gets his way, the MDOT will no longer be subject to legislative scrutiny, nor will they be obligated to provide evidence to support their need for tax dollars. Gov. O’Malley wants to tie the gas tax to the cost of road construction (an index which grows faster than the CPI) and fund the Transportation Trust Fund. This is undermining a time tested and constitutionally sound process of accountability as well as legislative authority and process and turning it into a welfare system for Transportation Trust Fund without any supervision or accountability.
Tell them: The Obstructionists are wrong
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We must move beyond partisan conflict to find consensus (So we are going to call our opponents obstructionists because we are not partisan).
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We must restore fiscal responsibility and get our fiscal house in order once and for all. (How about recognizing the problem that the General Assembly created – not Glendenning, Ehrlich or O’Malley – over spending and unfunded mandates. They screwed us and now they want us to pay up. They really have no regard for the people’s money.)
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We must protect our investments in education, health care and public safety that are critical to the future of the state we leave our children. (No S&&& Sherlock – go ahead tug at the heart strings. Show me were we are falling short on any of these initiatives and why we need more money.)
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We can accomplish this in a way that not only protects our competitive advantage with surrounding states, but is also fairer to the working people of Maryland. (What? We are more heavily taxed than any of our neighboring states. What the hell does this mean?)
Don’t be Fooled
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The obstructionists (remember they are not PARTISAN) helped hike taxes by over $3 billion on the middle class and hiked spending by 32% for the previous 4-year administration. (So cut them and stop unfunded mandates, and cut spending).
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The obstructionist plan would NOT solve the INHERITED STRUCTURAL DEFICIT. (Neither will yours – it is about unfunded mandates).
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But, the obstructionists would cut hundreds of millions from priorities important to you – FOR EXAMPLE: $300 million from Education – $42 mil from Baltimore, $50 mil from Prince George’s, $22 million from Montgomery, $11.5 mil from Frederick, $5 mil from Calvert, $12 from Harford, and on and on and on… (Your point being that we should not cut spending – you also neglect to point out that they all get funding increases. You only want to depict it as a cut because the increases are not as much as yours).
They really must think people are stupid. They claim to be non-partisan but the entire message is repleat with partisan slander and language. They have one goal and one goal only – massive tax increases to solve a problem the General Assembly created years ago. They don’t want to do the necessary things – like cut spending and bite into the pocket of their liberal/progressive supporters. Why not, those folks will do everything they can to keep the democratic party in powere in Maryland. We will have these problems for as long as they remain in power too.
