The computer geniuses also became part of the rush to visit the tax on another group of hapless Marylanders, the 6,000 or so million-dollar earners who could be sacrificed with little collateral damage. Millionaires had been the targets from the beginning last fall, but their representatives in the state Senate scotched a plan to levy a higher tax on their earnings.
This was impressive, of course, but it might not have been enough without the cake connection.
As I said, we are not talking just any cake. We are talking Smith Island cake, the multilayered confection much admired by all. This is a cake with history - and leverage.
One of its admirers, Del. D. Page Elmore, had seemed on his way to (ahem) a sweet political victory, when a snag arose.
The state Senate had given the cake quick approval for the designation of official state dessert. In the House, though, Delegate Elmore's bill was met with disdain. The House Health and Government Operations Committee chairman, Del. Peter A. Hammen of Baltimore, had serious business to confront.
But then came interconnectedness.
Delegate Elmore, a Republican, found himself at the outer reaches of party loyalty: Republicans were opposing repeal of the computer levy perhaps because they knew some other group was likely to take the hit, maybe even millionaires - some of whom are said to be Republicans.
Mr. Elmore was offered an opportunity. If he would vote for repeal of the computer services tax in the House Ways and Means Committee, his bill might pass. House Speaker Michael E. Busch thereupon hand-carried Delegate Elmore's bill to passage, 111-27.
There's been vote trading before in Annapolis, friends, but this one takes the cake.
C. Fraser Smith is senior news analyst for WYPR-FM. His column appears Sundays. His e-mail is fsmith@wypr.org.
