O’Malley’s land of taxes
So, when Robert Erlich left office as the governor of Maryland in 2007 he turned over a budgetary surplus to incoming governor, Marty O’Malley. Within six months, O’Malley had spent the surplus (mostly on salaries for folks who had helped him get in office) and raised taxes on working Marylanders. And it’s been a spree ever since. I could stand it for three years and I beat feet across the West Virginia State line. The only thing worth going to Maryland for was because gas was cheaper there than West Virginia – well, until O’Malley jacked up the gas tax. Now that they’ve also passed their gun ban, I can’t even go to the range in Maryland anymore.
But, looking for more revenue, the hungry beast, O’Malley is going after homeowners and taxing them for the amount of rain that falls on their property. From Breitbart;
The tax, mandated by the EPA and enforced locally, will be calculated “through satellite surveillance of your property,” the statement claims.
Bongino blasts “out of touch political aristocrats in Maryland will do anything to diminish your economic liberty and starve your wallet while padding theirs.”
According to the conservative organization Change Maryland, the rain tax will cost Marylanders about $300 million annually.
So, someone tell me why they reelected this spastic libtard?
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“So, someone tell me why they reelected this spastic libtard?”
They elected him because most people in the East part of Maryland (the population centers) are spastic libtards.
@1.”They elected him because most people in the East part of Maryland (the population centers) are spastic libtards.” I would add, ‘Who are either on the public dole or are just well-heeled enough to afford their Prius AND O’Malley’s taxes.’
When Ehrlich was governor, he tried to establish gambling in MD to fill gaps in the budget. But, the dems fought him tooth and nail saying it was evil, etc. In reality, they fought it because they had not thought of it. As soon as o’malley got in power, the dems came up with a wonderful idea of their own to raise money – gambling. But, their approach was so piecemeal that it will never produce the revenues Ehrlich envisioned.
Oh, Maryland. In the 1960’s, it was a nice place to visit. You could ride cross-country over fences for miles and nobody minded. Hunt races in the fall, horseshows, steeplechases and 3-day events in the spring and summer, and very pretty countryside.
So now it’s a mess, huh? Why am I not surprised? It’s called progress! (And I use that term loosely, too.)
I saw in a separate article that the “rain tax” will be calculated based on the square footage of the homeowner’s roof, concrete/wooden deck, garage roof and driveway.
But the state and its roads (which are considered “impervious surfaces”) are exempt from the tax.
So, bring up the widely accepted term “microclimate” into the mix/conversation, and have the libtard who thinks this is a good idea, tell you exactly HOW he/she/heshe/it is going to calculate the exact amount of rain that fell exactly on your roof to be able to exactly tax it. If this whole retarded mess passes, I can see it costing more then it’s worth, with questions, appeals, general stupidity and ineptitude.
And besides tying that concept into pretzel knots, doesn’t His Libtardness Teh Gov, realize that any rain that falls on rooftops, eventually falls OFF those same rooftops, and returns to the soil and hence to the ground water/aquifer where it’s supposed to be, anyway. (I’m ignoring water caught in rain barrels, which is none of anyone’s business to begin with)
@4. Back then, Maryland’s political power brokers were conservatives and Republican. Then came that one-man, one-vote decision of the Supreme Court in 1962 and, in the years that followed, power shifted from Maryland’s eastern and western shores to, ultimately, Baltimore and the D.C. burbs. One funny sidenote to that occurred in 2010 when O’Malley signed into law a change to how population is to be counted. Until then, you were counted where you lived. Problem: Thousands of former city residents were in prison in rural counties! Solution: Count inmates where they used to live, before they went to prison! Problem sol-Ved, as Inpector Clousseau would say.
A better question might be, “Why does anyone stay in Maryland?” Glad my family left in 1959 when I was but nine years old.
Maryland has always been a bit of an asylum. I went to school there and got out as quickly as I could after graduation.
It just keeps getting worse and worse.
Oh, well. The sane people will leave, and the inmates will destroy the asylum and turn it into a fetid shithole. *shrug*
What boggles my mind here is that the EPA regulation that they invoke is most likely referring to the requirement to make new construction “runoff neutral,” which means creating detention ponds, ditches, etc to attenuate the increased runoff that comes from creating impervious surfaces like roads or roofing. This is done and paid for BY THE DEVELOPER when the area is built, so yeah, they’re pretty much charging twice for the same thing.
Unless, of course, Maryland has some sort of weird thing where the state government builds and maintains all stormwater infrastructure, though I’ve never seen that done, like, ever…
Old Trooper: actually, Annapolis and the eastern shore parts of MD are rather conservative. It’s primarily the Baltimore/DC corridor/DC metro/Frederick areas that are filled with libidiots. And I’m not real sure about the Frederick area.
Nicki @9 – unfortunately, the inmates having destroyed their own state will then move on to other states and start the process over again. In other words, what californians did to Oregon and Washington and are doing to Colorado, Montana, parts of Texas, etc.
And what Massholes/NYers are doing to pretty much all of New England.
Marylanders are now moving to Northern Virginia and shitting all over that place, too.
@ NH … Yo … we are not all like that!
It is the down state crowd!
Oh shit, hope the lawmakers in North Carolina don’t get wind of this. These good old boys down here are always looking for new and exciting ways to screw the taxpayers out of their money.
@14 – You’re right, Jonn. I live in NoVA and will likely move more south next year. The nonsense is starting to encroach in Fairfax, parts of Loudon and Farquier counties. Prince William and Stafford not so much from what I can tell.
Since when does the EPA have the power of taxation???
Chief–they don’t–or at least, they didn’t until Obumbles took over and the government now rules by fiat and dictate rather than law.
I live in NoVA, and what Jonn says is fact. We have Maryland transplants here that have turned Northern Virginia into a mini-Maryland. They keep electing Moran year after year, and his support is getting stronger, despite huge, obvious, well-publicized instances of corruption. Also Connolly and other douchenuggets.
Please, someone just build a huge fence and keep all the Marylanders in Maryland!
We’ve had the “rain tax” for a number of years here in Colorado. But it’s somewhat more justified because water rights here are extremely complex and yes, even the rain is already spoken for once it falls. It’s illegal to have a rain barrel or store rain water in any way. But those reasons clearly don’t apply to Maryland.
We’re still in a multi-year drought and are now back to severe watering restrictions. We can only water our yards and gardens twice a week and they are instituting “special drought pricing” to make it hurt even more. They fail to take into consideration that we don’t track inside water use separately from outside water use so those with families are unduly punished while people like my neighbor – one person in a huge house – can use all the water they want to without hitting the price limits.
I’m probably going to pass on planting my flower pots and barrels this year. I can water them every day, but the price isn’t worth it, even though they pump oxygen into the atmosphere, clean the air, and support wildlife.
At least we’ll be down one person since my daughter will be at AF BMT. I think the rest of us will be taking more showers at the Y.
I believe this is the very definition of TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. This is no different than the Stamp Tax which was one of the key events that pushed the country into Revolution against the first Crown that tried to control it.
ya gotta figure that anyplace which constantly re-elected Barbara Mikulski would elect a vicious retarded brain-damaged ultra-liberal rabid bitch. But, like Mr. Twain said, I repeat myself.
These 4sswipes just don’t understand that folks will leave and take their incomes elsewhere…look at Massachusetts and Connecticut…Mass just lost a house seat…because we are driving people away. The net migration in Mass is a negative number, so while the population did increase slightly it was only the parasites that have increased in number. The folks with the intellect and drive to find work elsewhere are leaving in droves, and heading south and west….I may yet join my friend in Cary NC and get out of the PRM…
“One night they put a price on the sunset
And that got the whole world shaking
They rose from the grave both the weak and the brave
’cause history was there for the makin’
And the winos surrounded the condos forming a frail human fence
And they shouted out loud to the roar of the crowd
“same old story, more dollars than sense”
>Jimmy Buffett~ Prince of Tides<