This week, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley has proposed a series of taxA tax is a mandatory payment or charge collected by local, state, and national governments from individuals or businesses to cover the costs of general government services, goods, and activities. increases.
The tax increase is targeted at the 440,000 Maryland residents who filed state income tax returns last year declaring six-figure salaries or more.
The plan would halve the $2,400 personal exemption both for individuals making $100,000 to $125,000 annually, and for families making $150,000 to $175,000.
Above those amounts, the governor’s plan would eliminate the baseline exemptions entirely. Personal deductions for those earners would also be capped.
Mr. O’Malley suggested increasing the tax from 6 percent to 7 percent as an alternative to a 15-cent increase in the gas taxA gas tax is commonly used to describe the variety of taxes levied on gasoline at both the federal and state levels, to provide funds for highway repair and maintenance, as well as for other government infrastructure projects. These taxes are levied in a few ways, including per-gallon excise taxes, excise taxes imposed on wholesalers, and general sales taxes that apply to the purchase of gasoline. that has been widely discussed by legislators but poorly received by many residents.
Tax on cigars and smokeless tobacco is 15 percent of wholesale, which was comparable to the 36 cents per pack cigarette tax in 1999.
The governor’s proposal would make it 66 percent of wholesale, which would make it comparable to the present $2 per pack cigarette tax.
And the “flush” tax:
The governor has said he wants lawmakers to at least double the $30 annual “flush tax” on septic systems, as well as the monthly $2.50 fee on municipal sewer bills.
When O’Malley came into office in 2007, he attacked the recent budgetary spending spree. The budget that year stood at $29.2 billion. Rather than scale it back, however, he pushed through a tax increase package (four new top income tax brackets on high-income earners and an increase in sales taxA sales tax is levied on retail sales of goods and services and, ideally, should apply to all final consumption with few exemptions. Many governments exempt goods like groceries; base broadening, such as including groceries, could keep rates lower. A sales tax should exempt business-to-business transactions which, when taxed, cause tax pyramiding. from 5% to 6%). He let the very top tax bracketA tax bracket is the range of incomes taxed at given rates, which typically differ depending on filing status. In a progressive individual or corporate income tax system, rates rise as income increases. There are seven federal individual income tax brackets; the federal corporate income tax system is flat. expire at the end of 2010 but is now obviously back asking for more. O’Malley’s proposed 2013 budget is $36 billion-about a 13% increase in two years.
More on state tax policy here.
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