A little bit of everything
The House of Delegates passed a $2 billion gas tax hike 78 to 56 Friday afternoon. Or did it pass 76 to 63, as we were told later, after delegates switched their votes?
It was all over but the shouting at 1:42 p.m. when the reading clerk hit the tally button on his touch screen monitor, but there was plenty of shouting by outraged Republicans.
Read moreGov. Martin O’Malley’s proposed gasoline tax hike that was late arriving for this year’s General Assembly session is now clearly on a fast track for passage. The House of Delegates gave it preliminary approval Wednesday night — just five days after its first hearing. The Democrat-dominated House easily beat back Republican attempts to modify the bill, HB1515, indicating more than enough Democrats are on board to pass it as early as Thursday.
Read moreThe lockbox for the Transportation Trust Fund provided in Gov. Martin O’Malley’s proposed gas tax hike is about as secure as the metal cash box at a PTA bake sale. The House Ways & Means Committee approved a gas tax increase with some amendments to O’Malley’s plan on Monday, but apparently without changing the lockbox provision.
Read moreThe House Ways and Means Committee heard four hours of testimony about HB1515, a bill that would boost gas taxes and vehicle registration fees in order to raise revenue for Maryland’s transportation network. If passed, the legislation would provide billions of dollars to maintain Maryland roads, bridges, and public transit and would fund the construction of new rail lines and highways.
Read moreDozens of people gathered outside the State House Friday to protest a proposed hike on the gas tax. Wielding paper stop signs that said “Stop the Gas Tax,” the group rallied around their spokesman, Nick Loffer, a grassroots director for Americans for Prosperity. “We’re talking about a 60% gas tax hike which, if enacted, will give us the fifth highest gas tax in the country,” said Loffer.
Read moreTobacco lobbyists and anti-smoking advocates went head to head in a high-stakes hearing Wednesday on the legislature’s latest proposal to raise the tax on a pack of cigarettes from $2 to $3.The tax rate on cigars would triple from 30% to 95%.
Read moreA local manufacturer of plastic bags in Maryland explains why this legislation to impose a 5-cent tax on plastic shopping bags is poor policy that will serve only to harm consumers, jobs and the environment.
Read moreA state bill proposing to set a $10,000 maximum tax on boat sales sparked a tense debate due to its potential implications on Maryland’s struggling maritime economy and the Waterway Improvement Fund.
Read moreResponding to Republican assertions at a Tuesday morning news conference that a gas tax hike he proposed is unnecessary, Senate President Mike Miller said, “These people are Neanderthals.”
Miller suggested that Republicans were towing the party line even though many of their districts would benefit from the passage of the tax bill.
Read moreDemocratic leaders at the State House have learned not to count on a single Republican vote for any tax increase, including proposals for a gas tax hike being floated again. But GOP legislators plan to explain at a Tuesday news conference why new transportation revenues aren’t needed at all.
The Republican delegates will argue that the transportation trust fund, raised largely through the motor fuel tax, the titling (sales) tax on vehicles, registration and drivers fees, “heavily subsidizes mass transit,” said Del. Susan Krebs, R-Carroll.
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