Posted by
Concerned Citizen, Mike Grant on Thursday, March 01, 2007 6:41:20 PM
I found this article from The Baltimore Sun to be very interesting. It also once again proved to me that Maryland is one of the craziest and liberal states in the United States. Senate President Mike Miller unveiled his budget bills today, and I doubt the people of Maryland will be very happy with it. Among other things, Miller is recommending boosting the Maryland Gas Tax up to 50%! Even worse, Governor O'Malley has said that he was "receptive" to the idea. Translation, if you pass it, I'll sign it. Up until this point, I had never head of a gasoline tax (foolish, naive me) and was even more surprised to read that Miller's plan would "tack 12 cents onto the current gas rate of 23.5 cents per gallon." According to The Sun article, this increase would mean that a typical customer would pay between $1.20 and $1.56; this would turn a $2.00 gallon of gas into a $3.20 gallon of gas (at least). Glad to see that I can do rudimentary math, but imagine how much cheaper gas would be if government would just leave it alone! But no they are "protecting" us from evil oil corporations! Quick question, who is protecting us from government?
All this is being done in the name of "balancing the state budget" (i.e. robbing tax payer’s blind) and funding Governor Martin O'Malley's precious mass transit system. (When will Liberals learn that people don't like mass transit?) Now according to The Sun article, Miller said that his bill would bring in "$400 million a year, which would translate into $3 billion in projects over five years because it would allow the state to issue more bonds." Even more interesting, money from the gasoline tax would be funneled into the transportation trust fund, which would have no bearing on the budget. Also, if this money was used for a mass transit system, citizens who live rural areas (without access to mass transit) would be "subsidizing" the mass transit of urban areas. Talk about unfair, and I thought government was for fairness and equality for all? Silly, naive me. Though this law is far from passed, I am not confident that it will get thrown out of session. Looks like that cookie jar just got refilled.
Mike Grant