Reckoning
Only now does it seem that Annapolis Democrats are finally beginning to realize the hole they dug for themselves during the Special Session:
A day after Gov. Martin O’Malley said he wants to repeal imposing a sales tax on computer services, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, Jr., D-Calvert, warned that rescinding it could mean education funding cuts.The movement to repeal the “tech tax” is growing in the Senate this past week as public opposition continues at high pitch. The General Assembly passed the tax last fall during the special legislative session, as part of a plan to close the state’s $1.5 billion deficit.
However, Mr. Miller said yesterday there is little need to hike taxes in the last several weeks of the General Assembly session to cover for the estimated $200 million that would be lost if the tech tax is struck down. In fact, the senate president has previously declared no more taxes will be raised during Mr. O’Malley’s term.
The statements illustrate a bigger quandary surfacing in the legislature. During the past three months almost all of the good things that were supposed to have come out of the special session have been threatened.
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Which of course a lot of people on the right, including myself and my compatriots at RedMaryland were warning about before, during and after the Special Session. While a central theme of O’Malleynomics is that you can spend whatever it takes in order to achieve their liberal utopia, it is going to come at the cost of small businesses and at out of the pockets of middle and working class families.
The problem is that the tech tax is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the negative impact that the Special Session tax hikes are going to have on Maryland and are going to have on our economy. While the Administration and the General Assembly realize how bad of a decision it was to pass this one tax, they still refuse to reasonably acknowledge the need to cut spending. Senate President Mike Miller seems to be the only one who understands that, and I am sure that the O’Malley camp already has a new tax proposal in the works to cover the cost of the tech tax repeal.
I think for the first time Maryland Democrats are realizing that they are going to have to face a reckoning in November 2010. They are going to have to answer for the all of the harm they are causing Maryland’s taxpayers…
