From the office of state Senator Nancy Jacobs:
The Taxaholics in Annapolis have pulled it off again. They have voted to increase your taxes today despite protests by myself and other lawmakers who think Maryland should be living within its means and not spending its way to bankruptcy on the backs of working people. The income tax increases snatch an additional 200 million dollars from the pockets of our citizens.
E-mails I received from two constituents really hit the nail on the head. The first taxpayer pleads for taxes not to be raised:
“everyone is stressed out! Nobody has any disposable income to buy things… We are down to the basics. Everyone that I have encountered have continually high credit card bills …”
A business owner writes these cryptic words opposing taxes:
“The governor and legislators of Maryland should be ashamed for even considering such a horrible plan. It is difficult enough at this time to remain competitive in business with the high cost of living in this state. We are pricing ourselves right out of business!!!”
I believe the liberal leaders who forced these taxes through are out of touch with what is going on in the homes of most Marylanders. The Governor is especially clueless. Think about it. He hasn’t had to pay for a gallon of gas since he became Mayor of Baltimore. How could he have any understanding of families struggling with the rising costs of groceries, fuel and college bills? All of us have lost value in our homes and many faced layoffs or cuts in the past few years. I believe this is the worst possible time to raise taxes. Yet only 19 out of 47 of us in the Senate voted against higher income taxes. In the House of Delegates 60 out of 141 voted no.
The argument used by Democrat Leadership for raising taxes is that it only affects a portion of Marylanders; those making over 100 thousand dollars a year or 150 thousand jointly. But I say those are people who might own a small business and eventually hire people if they can expand and create jobs! A couple making 150 thousand could be two teachers with children attending college. This is not about Warren Buffet folks…this is about the middle class.
The long term pain of this tax hike will be felt by all of us. It will give us an even worse reputation for being unfriendly to business. How is it that Virginia can find ways to balance its budget without increasing taxes and without alienating business? It can be done the way every family is doing it at their kitchen table when paying bills. Tighten the belt…don’t overspend…break the spending addiction!
Republicans offered many amendments that would have avoided tax increases and balanced the budget in this special session. But those plans were voted down. Meanwhile, the O’Malley Administration has continued to spend more and more. The budget just approved today is 938 million dollars more than last year’s budget. As our structural deficit grows, do we want to end up like California where that state faces 15 billion dollars in debt?
It’s important for voters to see the pattern of increasing taxes over the last 5 years by those who have a stranglehold on power in Annapolis. Here are just some of them:
The sales tax was raised from 5 cents to 6 cents on the dollar in 2007
The income tax on corporations went up from 1.25 percent to 8 percent in 2007
Income tax rates were raised from 4.75 percent up to 5.5 percent in 2007
A millionaire’s tax was put at 6.25 percent in 2008 for a two year period
MVA titling taxes rose from $23 to $50 in 2007
MVA titling taxes rose from $50 to $100 in 2011
MVA sales taxes went from 5 percent to 6 percent in 2007
Recordation and transfer taxes increased in 2007
Amusement tax added to bingo games in 2007
Doubling of the cigarette tax to $1 a pack in 2007
Alcohol tax rose from 6 to 9 percent in 2011
Tripled the MVA dealer processing fee from $100 to $300 in 2011
Doubled vanity plates fee from $25 to $50 in 2011
Raised hospital assessment rates in 2011
Doubled the flush tax from $30 to $60 in 2012
Doubled the birth certificate fees from $12 to $24 in 2011
Increased tolls in 2011
How can Marylanders fight back? They can remember this at the polls on Election Day and toss the Taxaholics out!
Senator:
Thank you for standing up for principles and for reason. Please continue the “good fight” for freedom from the shackles of taxation. We are taxed now to the point where not only are the plain individuals wanting for necessities, but more and more regressive taxes in the form of allowing lottery, gambling, fees for public services such as birth certificates…
It also appears that if you make more than $150K, the State considers you “rich”…. People with a choice will live in neighboring states, and deprive Maryland not only of their taxes, but their talent. A big loss for the Free State.
If and when our house is sold, we are moving from the “Republic of Maryland” We have lived in Maryland for 27 years and it is time to look for another place.
We too have already sold our home and have one under construction in a neighboring state. Owe’Malley and all of those like him can drive this state into the ground. I have lived here 31 years and will not be coming back.
Go ahead and move out of state because that’s what Nancy is planning on doing. She’s got her retirement homes in Florida. She’s not that interested in helping retirees stay in Maryland.
How’s she going to help retirees? Fiscal conservatives(ya know-the incentive ones) are out numbered. I probably won’t be staying either when I retire and my income becomes “fixed.”
The Democratic leadership of this state has not seen a tax to raise or fee to hike to pay for their bloated habits yet… how is this news? The entire term of Owe’Malley’s governorship has been utter failure at every turn. This man and his ‘leadership’ define the notion of useless, spineless, and inept. If he had any sense of honor or respect to the citizens he is supposed to represent he’d resign immediately acknowledging he is a complete failure for this state. As for the rest of his party that follows like good obedient little sheep to the slaughter – wow, what can one say?
I am a single mother of two. I’m close to making 100k and already owe more taxes than I did last year and seems like I have less in my pocket every year! I will make sure my boss doesnt give me a raise in fear of the next tax bracket; since when is 100k considered wealthy? This administration needs to learn basic math! Cost of living goes up, groceries go up, I can’t afford gas to drive to work and I can’t deduct college loan interest because I make too much money. Where is the incentive to get an education, have a career to support your family and live in Maryland? Maybe I should stay home on welfare, have more babies, get food stamps, default on my mortgage, declare bankruptcy, and go back to school for my Masters…I’m sure the government would give me money to do this!! I’d probably have more money in my pocket to support my family too! It doesn’t pay to work and be a responsible citizen of Maryland!! I’ve lived here all my life but can’t afford it…beginning the house hunting search in Pennsylvania.
Fedup,
Sorry to hear about your situation. Be happy you’re not a teacher. You wouldn’t be making nearly close to 100K and your plight would be met with a chorus of hatred and declarations about how greedy you are. So at least you have some comfort others here will have a sympathetic ear for you. Hope you can make it – wish I could help you.
I have always believed that teachers and police officers should make well over 100K for what they have to do. I can’t imagine putting up with someone else’s children all day and have such scrutiny by parents and supervisors. I know I couldn’t do that job and have the utmost respect for you and every other HCPS teacher. I hear what goes on in schools and is sickens me. Title I schools provide dinner and entertainment to low income families just so they will attend a school function? WTH! Give the teachers a raise who show up everyday to teach our children and willingly use their own money for books and supplies in the classroom! Wait, if you made 100K though, Maryland would tax you and then you couldn’t afford to buy those supplies and books to read to our children.
@Fedup – Waiters and waitresses should make $75K a year because of all they have to put up with.
Exterminators should make $95K for all they crap they have to do.
Farm workers should make $90K a year for the heavy and dirty labor they perform.
Librarians should make $125 a year because the are under-appreciated.
Crossing guards should make $85K for hazardous work duty.
Auto technicians should make $150K a year because the grease that gets under their fingernails.
Fast food workers should at a minimum make $50K a year because they are mistreated.
The government should set all salaries just to be fair.
Paul, your comments are rude and unappreciated. The point FedUp was making is that the public service professionals she mentioned are worth more to her than what they are paid. Cops put their lives on the line everyday and teachers work way harder than their paychecks indicate.
But go right ahead and make a mockery of a sincere compliment and gesture of thanks from one frustrated mom to an equally frustrated teacher. And then wonder why people cop an attitude with you.
Fedup,
Thank you for believing my work is that valuable. In all honesty, I don’t agree. I don’t expect $100K a year. It would be nice and perhaps my car wouldn’t be 10 years-old with 100K+ miles on it… However, I never signed a contract to say I’d earn that much for this work. I signed a contract that said I’d receive step increases for each of the first 15 years of employment in recognition of my years of service and improvement at what I do. We teachers are viewed as greedy because we would like our contract honored.
Your struggle comes from a state government that cannot balance its books without going to its wage earning citizens at every turn.
My point was singularly to illustrate that your plight will gather sympathy – our plight collects ridicule and hatred. From the sounds of it you would be better off quitting that well paying job and become a teacher. Our benefits and income, according to many people on these fora, are much better than what you currently have. If nothing else – you’d avoid paying more in taxes and be able to find a great home right in the neighborhood of your choice here in Harford County.
I sincerely do wish you well.
AnotherHCPSTeacher,
Actually it is YOUR struggle as well that is the result of a government that cannot manage its spending without continually raising taxes. And the most recent example of that is the teacher pension funding shift. I appreciate teachers and I do believe that the contract should be honored. I’m not sure that it was a wise contract that the BOE agreed to but it is nevertheless an agreement that should be honored. Why? Because if citizens can enter into legal agreements with their government only to have the government fulfill or not fulfill their obligations as they choose then we no longer are a society based on law and the one entitiy that we always relied on, our government, to enfore the law now spurns it when it so chooses yet holds us accountable.
If your boss gives you a raise and it puts you into “the next tax bracket”, you do know that ALL your money doesn’t get taxed at the next tax bracket rate, right? Only the money that you make that extends into the next bracket gets taxed at that rate. So your getting a raise wouldn’t mean you would end up with less money than before.
“A couple making 150 thousand could be two teachers with children attending college.”
Yeah, it *could* be, but they’d be making quite a bit more than most of the teachers and school workers I know. More likely they would be administrators, not teachers. But teachers has a nicer political ring to it, huh?
“This is not about Warren Buffet folks…this is about the middle class.”
Disingenous statement. Over 100k/150k is approximately the top 15% of workers in Maryland– so since when is the “middle class” the top 15%???
You say a lot of good things, but then you ram your ghastly politician foot in your mouth with those statements, and it disgusts me.
Clean up your act, Mrs. Jacobs. Or did Collins write this release?
Please leave out the misinformation and rhetoric and I’ll be more likely to appreciate the rest.
Noble, you have a great ability to spin other people’s words. perhaps you should be in politics?
it is not unheard of for 2 teachers to make a combined $150k per year. and i doubt that ‘teacher’ was the chosen profession in the comments for political reasons.
So $150k for a couple filing jointly isn’t middle class? So my wife (an R.N.) and I (an auto technician) are just barely middle class at our income levels? we pulled in between 100 – 150 last year. so if she works a little overtime and i do a few more weekends we are no longer middle class because we’d top that 150 milestone? you are as out of touch as annapolis! I am only 1 example of many, many families hovering dangerously close to that milestone of wealth at 150. perhaps you should do a little thinking before you put your foot in your mouth.
“it is not unheard of for 2 teachers to make a combined $150k per year.”
I didn’t say it was impossible (because I know there are some), just that I hadn’t known any of them yet, and I know a significant number of people in education.
“and i doubt that ‘teacher’ was the chosen profession in the comments for political reasons.”
And that’s naive. They didn’t pick a banker for a reason. And when you put both of these items together, it’s on purpose. There’s a reason the press release says they “could” be two teachers– because yes it’s possible, though not really representative of the reality for most people. Which is the tiny white line of truth in spin.
And I’m sick of it.
“So $150k for a couple filing jointly isn’t middle class? So my wife (an R.N.) and I (an auto technician) are just barely middle class at our income levels? we pulled in between 100 – 150 last year. so if she works a little overtime and i do a few more weekends we are no longer middle class because we’d top that 150 milestone? you are as out of touch as annapolis! I am only 1 example of many, many families hovering dangerously close to that milestone of wealth at 150. perhaps you should do a little thinking before you put your foot in your mouth.”
I did plenty. Look I’m not saying it’s not a challenge to put together a good life with a few kids, a house, and couple cars on $150k, but I think that’s pretty representative of how expensive everything has become and many other various problems with our economy.
Fact is, it’s the top 15% of all workers in the State, in one of the wealthier States in the country, so if a household has $160k and is “middle class”, who are the rest of the **85%**??
Look our situations aren’t all that much different (you better off than me), and we have it (or should) awfully good, and should count our blessings. We are both probably representative of the the “middle class” in many ways, but I’d argue that someone bumping up against $150k is clearly at the top end of whatever we want to call “middle class”, and therefore it’s pretty disingenous to say that it’s a tax on the middle class.
And since we’re talking about it, here are facts to confuse us:
For joint filers, on income of:
?$150,001 to $175,000: to 5 percent from 4.75 percent.
Which is .25% increase, or about $400/year for someone just over $150k, or about $15 less from a bi-weekly paycheck.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/md-passes-income-tax-hike-on-six-figure-earners/2012/05/16/gIQAfPutUU_story_1.html
So, 3 tv’s in the house instead of 4 maybe?
All that aside, do I agree with the tax increase? No, I don’t actually. Do I think we “needed” it? No. We could have left the doomsday budget in place and the world would still spin.
But to go around griping about .25% increase in taxes on the top 15% of earners seems just as unnecesary to me.
You are welcome to your own opinion on that, of course. And to go back to the press release, the major take away is the incremental increase shown at the end which is some of the good parts of it I was referring to. Yet the whole thing is spoiled by these other distortions.
“But to go around griping about .25% increase in taxes on the top 15% of earners seems just as unnecesary to me.”
this is the type of attitude the government hopes for and preys upon. Once the camel gets his nose under the tent–the whole ass will be in soon. look at taxes: once a tax gets put in place it will eventually increase. Ie flush tax by Ehlich, gets increased by Omalley. I used to be able to not be pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt. Well, now it’s a first offense. The more we move aside and give in for the sake of being easing to get along with-the more the gov(both sides!) will take. Fight every tax as much as possible.. I’ll take care of my own children, I don’t need the government to do it.
If O’Malley, Busch and Miller had any honor at all they would resign due to dereliction of duty and return last years salary because of incompetence.They would also pay for the Special Session(s)that have and will take place in the future. The sad part is that these arrogant buffoons will be elected again and in O’ Malley’s case he’ll be elected senator as soon as he talks Babs into stepping down.So folks expect more of the same. Electing the same democrats over and over again and expecting different results is a definition of insanity.
Wow! 100K is now middle class? Guess my little 33K last year is poverty? I too am a single mother, in school to try and increase what I make so that I can take care of my family. I have no insurance because my employer doesn’t offer it, I make too much to qualify for medical assistance, and I can’t afford to buy it outright. I have been in my profession 32 years…and guess what…I make $18 an hour and thought I was doing pretty well. But I guess I should quit my job, stay at home, finish school, live off the state (Lord knows I have paid into the system all these years!). Then I can complain that I dont have a new car, a new house and the most stylish membership to the club.
So Nancy did you propose an alternative budget or did you want the doomsday budget to stay in place? Because that doomsday budget would have kicked seniors off of essential services like food and health care, expanded class sizes in our schools. Maybe you should try to come up with your own ideas before you go about criticizing everyone else.
Its too bad Rick Impallaria didn’t beat you because you deserve to be thrown out. You don’t even deserve to be sent to Congress. All you’ll do is complain complain complain.
C’mon, Steve. Kicked seniors off essential services like food and health care? Really? Do you mean to tell me that the State of Maryland and its leaders in Annapolis (like O’Malley, Busch and Miller) would have allowed that to happen rather than moving money around in the budget and decreasing other line items? If they would do that then doesn’t it kinda make their constant message of “we are for the economically disadvantaged first and foremosat” a big fat lie? Which it is anyway.
Here is the message, Steve. No new taxes and no new fees. No increases to existing taxes and no increases to existing fees. None. Manage the state on current levels of income. Or go. Then perhaps you and I won’t be at the dollar store because we must be there but because we prefer to be there.
If all Nancy does is complain, complain, complain it is because all that MOM does is tax, tax, tax.
Thank you for sticking up for me JtownJeff! I was complimenting teachers and police officers and honestly believe they are the heros in society, nothing else.
I might be comfortable at the moment in my salary but my paystub deductions in taxes make me sick; my take home pay is far from “rich.” I’m off to the dollar store to buy Ramin noodles and Mac-n-cheese so I can stock the pantry in preparation next year’s tax bracket.
This is why people are pulling up stakes in MD and moving to cheaper states south of us. They tax us to death, then tax us when we die! I’d love to go down there and tell them “You are all fired!”.
They can use our money to pay for 5 star hotel rooms, and that’s ok, O’Malley can use tax money to reserve a skybox set for the Baltimore Ravens and that is okay.
And you know what: I AM SICK OF IT!
We are all free to leave, we are also free to find jobs that pay as well as the ones we have here. That’s the part of the equation nobody ever thinks about. Areas with lower costs of living have lower income levels. I moved from New York State to Arizona and experienced no net change in my lifestyle because Arizona was cheaper and so was my job. The same was true about moving here. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Christina,
Don’t be sick of it – change it. Be part of a solution, not simply voicing the problem. Have you considered entering politics? Do you get the feeling that perhaps some of the 40% of eligible voters who do not show up to the polls on election day might just need some good old-fashioned energy ‘behind a cause’ that you could provide? Do they even share you ideas? Nothing ever gets done just talking about it, certainly not just complaining about it.
Christina,
You are sick of it? Too bad. This is the People’s Republic of Maryland. The Honorable Martin O’Malley czar and dictator. Martin hears your pain and says “Too bad for you, Christina.”
From a different Fed Up – the rot in this State is at a point that it is near impossible to fight. It’s a clone of Chicago politics – I’ll take my retirement elsewhere and let the socialists watch their funding dry up as those of us who pay taxes disappear!
Not quite a clone of Chicago, Fed Up. See the difference here is that what is shameful, unethical and even illegal in Chicago is perfectly acceptable here in Maryland.
Nancy,
Thanks for your efforts. It always amuses me that whatever you do or say there is a vocal minority ready to whine and caterwaul because they disagree with your politics. I may not have to apy the extra tax because I have a great adviser who really knows how to legally shelter income from taxes and it is not an amount that is overwhelming to me if I do have to pay it. I have a much more basic objection. I simply dislike all of the arrogance and outright lying to me by our State leaders.
Does O’Malley really think we would vote for him for President. Are you kidding. He’s as bad or worse than his buddy, Pelosi.