Raising Taxes

The town council has proposed a $1 million budget that would cover the full cost of four resident troopers without a tax increase.Because the council prepared the budget while the legislature was in session and state money for the resident trooper program was in doubt, "we went with the worst-case scenario," Councilman Marcum N. Nance said.The council budgeted $240,000 to cover the cost of salaries, vehicles and gas for the troopers, Mayor Gerald R. Johnson said. Last year, the town paid $180,000 for the protection and the state paid the remaining 25 percent, he said.

The Carroll commissioners approved only a few tweaks to their proposed 2004 budget yesterday during the final scheduled work session on the spending plan, which still could be scrambled by impending state cuts. The most significant change approved yesterday would add $3 million to the county's agricultural land-preservation program to offset a lack of state funding for preservation. The commissioners said they were satisfied overall with the budget, which includes $245 million in operating money and $62 million in capital expenses.

Noting the prospect of future budget deficits and a need to beef up salaries for teachers and police, Harford County Executive James M. Harkins is to propose today a $258 million spending plan that comes with a tax increase for county residents. Harkins' operating budget includes a plan to increase the county's piggyback tax rate from 50 percent to 60 percent -- which would cost an unmarried taxpayer with a gross income of $25,000 about $90 more a year. "It's not something I want to be doing," said Harkins, a first-term Republican.

Struggling to solve Maryland's growing fiscal problems, several key lawmakers are saying it's time to consider raising taxes.Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. said the legislature will wait to see if Gov. William Donald Schaefer proposes any tax changes during the coming session."

Anne Arundel County Executive John G. Gary accused his opponent this week of being evasive with voters by refusing to say what services she would cut to meet her promises of increasing funding for education without raising taxes.Democrat Janet S. Owens yesterday said that she would start by looking at possible cuts in what she describes as Gary's bloated administration.She said those trims might include slashing the county executive's meal and travel budgets, reducing the number of county cars driven by top county administrators, a hiring freeze for bureaucrats and eliminating jobs in the community services department, which is run by Gary's wife, Ruthann.

They were sufficiently warned. This would not be the kind of meeting where audience members lobbed softball questions at their elected officials. No canned responses would be given. This was no time for election-year speeches and promise-making. When it was time for the question-and-answer segment of the Carroll County Council of PTAs' first town meeting last night, parents held their commissioners' and legislators' feet to the fire. The audience questioned them on a recently passed bill that requires all-day kindergarten, which would cost Carroll taxpayers about $4.2 million.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush can balance the budget within five years, or he can get Congress to extend his tax cuts beyond their scheduled expiration, the Congressional Budget Office reported yesterday - but probably not both. Bush has said otherwise, committing himself in Tuesday's State of the Union address, as he did earlier this month, to providing Congress on Feb. 5 with spending and tax proposals for fiscal year 2008 that would put the budget on a path toward balance by 2012. "We must balance the federal budget," Bush said Tuesday night.

Raising taxes would only hurt state economy It's no surprise that The Sun suggests raising taxes in order to cover the budget shortfall. But why can't we start by cutting unnecessary government waste ("Structured solution," editorial, Nov. 2)? Why shouldn't Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. request a top-to-bottom review of all state agencies to determine what waste can be eliminated before introducing new taxes? And don't tell me that there is no government waste, because as any Sun reader knows, the state just got finished building luxurious $400,000 townhomes for public housing residents in Annapolis ("Annapolis housing development to open doors to residents today," Nov. 3)

As Baltimore County Executive Roger Hayden's new tax overhaul committee begins discussions, county taxpayers can be forgiven if they get a feeling of deja vu.Last year at this time, the man Hayden defeated, Dennis F. Rasmussen, was making tax reform an issue. Like Hayden now, he criticized the property tax as unfair, regressive and overdue for replacement.But Rasmussen also wanted more tax revenues. He made the mistake in 1990 of asking a skittish General Assembly for higher income taxes in an election year, with voters already angry about sharp property assessment increases.

THE EARLY SPRING that appears imminent means the budget wrangling that upsets city government three months of every year is just around the corner. Last March, budget analysts were predicting revenue shortfalls. A month later, the mayor floated an energy tax idea. Then a piggyback income-tax increase seemed likely. In the end, the City Council accepted a budget that cut spending instead of raising taxes. But the Pratt library and recreation and parks took hard hits.This budget season promises to be much different.