WaPo and Maryland Dems celebrate screwing taxpayers (Updated)

Photo from Washington Post

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking as you look at the photo above of Marty O’Malley celebrating his victory over Maryland taxpayers yesterday. I’ll bet you all can caption it real well, especially after you read this adoring piece from the Washington Post entitled “O’Malley Increases Influence With Wins on Taxes and Slots“;

Gov. Martin O’Malley emerged from a grueling special session of the Maryland General Assembly with big wins on tax and slot machine legislation, praise from lawmakers for his willingness to tackle the state’s most vexing issues — and greatly increased clout in Annapolis.

Less clear, as O’Malley (D) and bleary-eyed legislators celebrated at a bill-signing ceremony yesterday, were the wider political ramifications of pushing through $1.4 billion a year in tax increases during a frantic three-week session called to solve the state’s chronic budget problems.

“How it plays politically is still up in the air,” said Sen. Brian E. Frosh (D-Montgomery). “Will people recognize it as hard choices that had to be made or as government run amok? But by any measure, the governor did an incredible job pulling it together. He was buttonholing people. He was schmoozing people. I don’t know if he was threatening people. At points, it was ugly, but it was certainly an impressive effort overall.”

A grueling session. How grueling is it to tell people bound by law to pay more of their own income? And guess what? The tax increase is to fund NEW spending – not a budget shortfall. the only shortfall is in the Democrats’ agenda to tie votes of non-working Marylanders to their little red wagon.

O’Malley was bound and determined to get a tax hike – he threatened to cut off essential services to communities (fire, police, rescue…) if the legislature wouldn’t fund his unneccessary spending increases. O’Malley has just become Maryland’s Mario Cuomo – the governor that drove Upstate New York into the dumper from which it hasn’t emerged.

UPDATE: I was finally able to get into the Washington Times this morning and Tony Lobianco has even more insane Democrat quotes about the process that took place behind the backs of Maryland taxpayers;

“This is the boldest move, the boldest action of any governor I have served with,” said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., Southern Maryland Democrat.

Bold? It’s bold to threaten to shut down essential services to raise taxes? Bold would be cutting waste and cutting programs, not jacking up taxes to further ensconce Democrats in power in Maryland.

“I’d like to thank all of you who were here for three weeks, which felt like three months, sometimes even three years,” said Mr. O’Malley, who called the session for lawmakers to consider his package of tax increases and his slots proposal to resolve a budget shortfall of between $1.5 billion and 1.7 billion, and for additional state spending.

I’m waiting for them to all recommend each other for a damn Medal of Honor for sneaking up behind taxpayers in the middle of the night and stabbing us in the back like the greedy criminals they’ve become.

So what was in the tax bill?

Mr. O’Malley increased the sales tax from 5 percent to 6 percent, the corporate income tax from 7 percent to 8.25 percent and the tobacco tax by $1. He also reworked Maryland’s personal income-tax structure to increase exemptions for low- and middle-income earners and increase taxes for upper-income earners.

A pack of cigarettes in Maryland is already nearly $5/pack. Jack it up to $6, you fools – most Marylanders only need to drive a few miles in almost any direction and buy them cheaper. Raising the price $10/carton more makes it much more attractive to buy them out of State. How much revenue ya got then, chump? The same with sales tax.

Well, ya’all voted for them. I’ve already started looking for a place in Virginia – maybe West Virginia.

Crossposted at Red Maryland

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