Thursday, August 02, 2007
They spend; you pay
For the record, I think we pay more than enough in taxes here in Maryland but apparently I’m in the minority: Poll results back higher Md. taxes
“A majority of Marylanders want state leaders to raise enough new tax revenue to fix the state's budget shortfall and increase spending on education, health care and other priorities, a coalition of labor unions, environmental advocates and liberal groups said yesterday.”
Yep – turns out “that 74 percent supported enacting more tax increases than would be necessary to fix the deficit so the state can also "protect education funding, seniors and the most vulnerable in society."
…and I’m sure that asking the question like that had nothing to do with the results. Of course, as in so much of life, the devil is in the details and the people were quite specific about exactly what taxes should be increased. Short version: Not theirs.
“Raising the sales tax by a penny was opposed by 55 percent, and increasing the gasoline tax by 12 cents a gallon to pay for roads and mass transit was opposed by 79 percent of those surveyed.
“Gov. Martin O'Malley has said repeatedly in recent weeks that he believes Marylanders would prefer to pay more taxes than to see the kind of spending reductions that would be necessary to close the budget gap by cuts alone.”
Perhaps “…would prefer OTHERS to pay more taxes…” would be more accurate??
But that's a mere quibble - despite my apparent heartlessness, it is good to see that I am otherwise surrounded by good and caring people who want nothing more than to see their generous instincts paid for by other people.
UPDATE: Not sure how I missed this but newest MBAer Maryland Politics already posted a similar spin a few days ago: Marylanders for Higher Taxes?
“A majority of Marylanders want state leaders to raise enough new tax revenue to fix the state's budget shortfall and increase spending on education, health care and other priorities, a coalition of labor unions, environmental advocates and liberal groups said yesterday.”
Yep – turns out “that 74 percent supported enacting more tax increases than would be necessary to fix the deficit so the state can also "protect education funding, seniors and the most vulnerable in society."
…and I’m sure that asking the question like that had nothing to do with the results. Of course, as in so much of life, the devil is in the details and the people were quite specific about exactly what taxes should be increased. Short version: Not theirs.
“Raising the sales tax by a penny was opposed by 55 percent, and increasing the gasoline tax by 12 cents a gallon to pay for roads and mass transit was opposed by 79 percent of those surveyed.
“Gov. Martin O'Malley has said repeatedly in recent weeks that he believes Marylanders would prefer to pay more taxes than to see the kind of spending reductions that would be necessary to close the budget gap by cuts alone.”
Perhaps “…would prefer OTHERS to pay more taxes…” would be more accurate??
But that's a mere quibble - despite my apparent heartlessness, it is good to see that I am otherwise surrounded by good and caring people who want nothing more than to see their generous instincts paid for by other people.
UPDATE: Not sure how I missed this but newest MBAer Maryland Politics already posted a similar spin a few days ago: Marylanders for Higher Taxes?
