From Harford Campaign for Liberty:
July 22, 2014
7 pm – 9 pm
Knights of Columbus Hall
23 Newport Drive
Forest Hill, MD. 21050
The tax and spenders in Annapolis are at it again! You thought the Rain Tax was bad? Wait until you see what is getting cooked up for 2015. The VMT (vehicle miles traveled). That’s right! In addition to the other 40 taxes including an indexed gas tax, we can now look forward to the Annapolis gang reaching into our pockets every time we take Johnny to the orthodontist or pick up Grandma’s prescription.
Bob Willick from Cecil Campaign for Liberty will provide insight into this looming threat and how we can fight back.
Also on the Agenda:
Scott Delong – Comparison of the American and French Revolutions
Dave Pridgeon – Summary of Harford County/Maryland Primary Elections
Fee admission – cash bar available
Visit http://www.harfordliberty.org for more info.
One assumes that tin foil hats also will be free. The ones that prevent the government from practicing mind control.
Tin foil hat? Don’t be so naive. The VMT may; in fact take a few years, but those few years roll around real quick. You may remember when they first instituted the seat belt law-it was only going to be a second offense, now 15/20 or so years later, LE can pull you over for simply not wearing your seat belt. Speed and redlight camera practices eliminate the 6th amendment which says we have the right to confront the witness–there is no witness-human anyway. Once our camel(ie govt) gets his nose under the tent; time and time again, it is proven the whole body comes in. Here’s a link from a somewhat credible news source about the future VMT:
http://www.wbaltv.com/politics/vehicle-miles-traveled-tax-proposed/26446130#!bhFDrB
It is ok to be cynical about our government and officials, it’s what keeps us asking questions, which in turn, helps keep them in check.
Speaking of naïve, even if all of the money that has been raided from the transportation fund is replaced, we will still be facing a long-term deficit when it comes to transportation funds available and cost of maintenance / new construction. Will this be part of the conversation or is the plan to pretend that we have more than enough money for our infrastructure needs?
My thoughts are to turn I-95 back into a toll road and to have that money, by statute, dedicated to road repair. That at least is a viable option, rather than just hand-wringing over potential changes to the fuel tax.
That is all well and good to turn 95 into a toll road. The problem remains that when our state politicians need money for non-transportation projects-they will “Borrow” that transportation toll money. They we will be in the exact situation we are in currently.
Just as an aside: the BHT served 25.5 million vehicles in 2011, multiply that by 4 bucks(on average). That’s over 100 million just to maintain the HBT and corresponding road-supposedly. But then again that is not earmarked for tunnel maintenance-it just gets dumped into the big Maryland pile of politician money bucket. Otherwise known as the general fund.
This is not a problem beyond solving. Instead of worrying about a hypothetical change in the fuel tax, we should be petitioning the Harford County delegation to make it a priority to enact the necessary legislative changes to prevent any part of the government from “borrowing” from the transportation fund. That should easily get all the Republicans in the County behind it. Now, the real challenge is to see if they have the negotiating skill to get bipartisan support for it.
The harbor tolls do more than tunnel maintenance. It also goes to fund highway expansion and upkeep, like the current I-95 expansion. Again, if we can get the Harford delegation to focus, they should be able to bring up the idea of earmarking the money legislatively.
We already have a phased in fuel tax which goes out until 2016. Have they already stolen money they don’t even have yet? Or, are they just admitting that they are going to steal it. It is going to get so bad that they will want another 250 million for another website that will never get built. I guess these comments are racist too.
Mr. Keith Gabel,
Sir, I-95 is a toll road. Maintenance, operation and construction are funded by the Maryland Transportation Authority. Maryland Transportation Authority is not budgeted by the State. It operates on tolls from roads and bridges, fees from parking lots, and profit from rest stops. An exception is the Inter County Connector which did receive State funding. All of the simultaneous construction projects have strained the MTA budget, depleted its surplus and caused tolls to rise.
Mr. BrianC,
Sir, the Transportation Trust Fund is not an element of the MTA. It is more aligned with the State Department of Transportation, which is a budgeted activity. Funding does come from gasoline tax. The Governor and State Assembly seem to have mixed the funding and are using the Transportation Trust Fund for other purposes.
Perhaps we should all work to get the Governor and State Assembly to use funding for its intended purpose, and not for their misadventures. Recall that when the state employees were required to increase their contribution to their pension funds, the increase was used to cover a general fund deficit, not improve the pension fund.
THNX
John P. Mallamo
An excellent post. I was actually referring to restoring the tolls that used to exist at Route 24 and the other exits from I-95, which are not longer there.
Otherwise, thank you for shedding some light onto the situation.
Any we all know what horrible disasters have occurred in the wake of the seatbelt and the child restraint laws, Next think you know the GOVERNMENT will enact laws prohibiting us from cleaning our shotguns or working on crossword puzzles while we drive
I guess you have a problem with Free Will. How about how many children we can have and which religion is “proper”.
I’ll pay for my own, why do you insist I have to pay for yours
Miles traveled?! How do they propose to track this, give everyone LoJack?
A GPS will be the only way to differentiate miles driven in Maryland vs outside of the state. Hooray for big brother!
Or, your mileage just gets recorded every time you have emissions testing and pay for all of the miles you’ve driven, regardless of where.
Let’s put Tony Brown in so he can lead us down this road to more taxes. One can only hope he governs as well as he did for obamacare. Lets see, the dems already tax the air, the water, the rain, the dirt under your feet, your beer and your food, so why not tax your miles driven ( oh but they already do, it’s called the gas tax). Not sure if this is true but I heard Brown wants to require every Marylander to carry a GPS 24/7 so he can tax your miles walked.
Brown, along with Gansler and Mizeur, came out againt this measure so this will not go into effect.
Loyal,
They will be against it before they are for it. I mean, we have long since passed the no shame level in state politics. How many times have the democrat leaders promised never to raid the highway fund? There will always be a special circumstance – besides, who in the state will hold these people accountable? Maryland is already a mini banana republic.
Leave it to the nutty TP and CL folks to make something out of nothing. Can’t you guys go to the south and protest mejicanos coming over or attend the next kkk rally?
Not so something or other,
Looky! Looky! Golly and shazam!
Right here. Right now our own maximum zoom-dweeby of moral outrage – our own Edgar Winter in the Wu-Tang Clan… I give you Not-so-fast-Jacko (Ta Da!) the Race-baiter.
Tell us, as a person so refined at finding race in everything, how did you sharpen your skills to become such a master baiter?
How about they move in with you? Better make sure your Obamacare is working if such a thing is possible.
Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Politicians said they were against it! That’s a good one. Just wait and see. They’ll be against it until after they’re elected.
They are all against everything during the election both sides, then when the smoke clears they support it. We have had 8 years of Owemalley and Brown who never met a tax they didn’t like. If a private corporation takes money to use for other things I think they call that embezzlement? In politics it is called business as usual. I am just glad Craig is not in the running anymore.
You are all missing the best part of the meeting, I personally can’t wait to hear the Comparison of the American and French Revolutions.
See you all there.