Surcharge

More than 130,000 Maryland employers could be hit with a tax surcharge of at least 1 percent in January to bolster the underfunded program that hands out jobless benefits, state officials warned yesterday. Companies would shell out about $90 extra for each employee, generating roughly $176 million next year. But the state legislature could forestall the increase in January if it chooses. The last time the surcharge went into effect was in 1992, in response to a recession, and the additional tax lasted through 1996.

Good morning --Sidney Ponson --Your trip to St. Louis may involve a surcharge for all of your baggage.

If you want to know why Baltimore is in such sad shape, take a look at how the City Council killed the container tax -- even before it had come up with an alternative revenue source. Rather than devising a thoughtful and comprehensive plan to deal with municipal finances, the City Council is preoccupied with half-baked, stop-gap measures. This may be typical election-year jockeying to win the favor of special-interest groups, but it is so brazen it is shameful.Consider this: Late last week, the council hastily concocted a "recycling incentive surcharge" to replace the current tipping fee. Under the proposal, commercial haulers would levy that surcharge on all unrecyclable waste collected from such garbage generators as restaurants, hospitals and high-rise office buildings in the city.

A proposed $10-a-ton surcharge on the disposal fee at landfills and incinerators may not generate enough revenue to offset the beverage container tax, the City Council has learned.The council is looking at the surcharge as a substitute for the beverage tax, which generates $6 million annually. Council members are under pressure from the beverage industry and retailers to terminate the container tax during the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. The council has resisted efforts to repeal the container tax until a substitute revenue source is ready.

WASHINGTON --Higher-income people will have to pay higher Medicare premiums than other beneficiaries next year, as the government takes a small but significant step to help the financially ailing program remain viable over the long term. The surcharge is a major departure from the traditional arrangement under which seniors have generally paid the same premium. It is expected to affect 1 million to 2 million beneficiaries: individuals with incomes exceeding $80,000 and married couples with more than $160,000 of income.

Cleaner air may get more expensive for Potomac Edison customers if the Maryland Public Service Commission approves the utility's latest request for a surcharge to cover anti-pollution equipment.The Hagerstown-based electric power company filed an application last week requesting a 1.41 percent surcharge on all customer bills to pay for compliance with the federal Clean Air Act of 1990, said Cyndi Shoop, a Potomac Edison spokeswoman.If the PSC approves, the average customer who uses 1,000 kilowatts of electricity per month would pay an additional 98 cents, raising his monthly bill from $69.47 to $70.45, she said.

Downtown tenants have no say regarding a surcharge for services imposed on their landlords and passed through to them under their leases ("Offices in city face rise in fees," April 20). But they can vote with their feet and move from downtown or the city altogether. Over the years the city has become less and less attractive as a place to locate or maintain a business due to parking costs, traffic congestion, crime and panhandlers. Numerous businesses have left for the suburbs.

I don't understand why utilities are asking for or would be granted the right to charge ratepayers to fund capital improvements like replacing aging infrastructure ("Utility surcharge bill advances in Senate," Feb. 6). Haven't we ratepayers been paying for these depreciating assets all along over their lifetimes? Isn't it the responsibility of the owners (stockholders, etc.) to provide capital? Why should ratepayers be "taxed" to cover costs that are rightly the responsibility of owners?

I question the need for the legislature to impose a surcharge of $2 per month on all BGE customers to pay for new gas pipelines ("Utility surcharge bill advances in Senate," Feb. 6). The maintenance of natural gas pipelines is the responsibility of the owner of the pipelines. If maintenance is needed, BGE and those who use its natural gas should pay for it, not the customers who only buy electricity from the company. As BGE customers who do not have natural gas supplied to our neighborhood, it seems grossly unfair to charge those of us who are not direct users of the gas flowing through the company's pipelines.

American Telephone & Telegraph Co. has asked the Public Service Commission for permission to raise the surcharge for calling-card calls in Maryland to 80 cents, effective Feb. 1.AT&T currently imposes a 60-cent surcharge for intrastate calls in Maryland. The fee is imposed each time a long-distance call within Maryland is charged to an AT&T calling card.AT&T wants to raise the surcharge in Maryland to put it in line with the state-to-state rate, currently 80 cents, said AT&T spokesman Lowell Connor.