Tax Burden

Members of an ailing marina industry last night urged the County Council for some economic relief in the form of a proposed 50 percent cut in the slip tax.Representatives of more than 50 commercial marinas in the county attended the hearing on the bill that would reduce the slip tax -- which is assessed as part of each docking or storage fee charged by a marina -- from 10 percent to 5 percent.A typical slip rents for about $2,000 a year, said Mitch Nathanson, a marina owner and member of a committee of county officials and marina owners appointed by County Executive Robert R. Neall that recommended reducing the slip tax.Steuart Chaney, owner of Herrington Harbor marina, noted that when the slip tax was first adopted 21 years ago all of his slips were filled and there was a long waiting list of new customers.

ANNAPOLIS WOULD be smart to explore annexation opportunities. With the state capital struggling to expand its tax base, it should welcome neighbors looking for a city address. These neighbors, after all, are prosperous because of their proximity to Annapolis. Annapolis Mayor Dean L. Johnson is right to begin annexation discussions with the owner of the Parole Plaza shopping center, which, when refurbished, is to have a Wal-Mart as its anchor. Reeling in a retail center would generate a significant amount of tax revenue for the city.

WHAT! Another big tax bill taking shape on Capitol Hill? How could they? Why should they? How dare they?Dare they will -- in 1992. Election-year politics are likely to churn up federal tax-cut proposals of every ilk next year, from schemes to cut capital gains taxes and unfairly put more money in the pockets of rich investors to those that would benefit the less well off but bore a gaping new hole into federal revenues.If we are going to go through this again -- and it seems likely -- at least it should be done right.

The recent House oversight hearing showed, among other things, that notwithstanding White House assertions to the contrary for almost two weeks, there was no public demonstration whatsoever outside the Benghazi Consulate on the night of the Sept. 11 attack and that within 24 hours of the attack, it was recognized by some in the White House to have been a terrorist inspired and executed attack ("Testimony: Calls for aid were denied," Oct. 11). It was also revealed at the hearing that the U.S. State Department denied repeated requests to improve the security of our diplomatic stations in Libya.

President Bush's read-my-lips, no-new-taxes pledge served well enough to get him elected but was quickly discarded when it became necessary to do so once he was in office. There were new taxes -- for everyone, that is, except, well, George Bush.Money magazine has just revealed that Bush, by skillfully traversing the arcane labyrinth of federal, state and local tax laws in the United States, has managed to escape paying state levies almost entirely -- at a time when virtually every state is compelled to raise taxes to meet the social starvation resulting from a decade of the Reagan-Bush 1981 federal tax cuts.

TO HEAR Ellen Sauerbrey tell it, Marylanders are swarming to Southern Pennsylvania in search of lower taxes.It's true that the area around Shrewsbury, just off Interstate 83, has come to be known as "Little Baltimore" because of the large population of refugee Marylanders. They're Maryland's boat people.But anyone considering reserving a moving van had better stop and take another look at the tax burden of our neighbors to the north.Maryland often gets the bum rap of being known as a high-tax, anti-business state.

Story on council vote increased confusion The Sun's headline and article about our recent city council meeting were inaccurate and only increase confusion about the council's vote ("Council rejects plan to limit tax increases," Nov. 26). As reported, the council voted down Ordinance O-29-02. However, this ordinance would not have limited tax increases, as the headline stated. Nor would it have "kept tax increases to 4 percent a year," as the article stated. I and a majority of the council voted against the bill because it would have forced renters, small-business owners and other taxpayers to shoulder a disproportionate share of the tax burden.

Taxpayers in Anne Arundel County have the lowest local tax bills in the region, followed closely by those in Howard, Carroll and Baltimore counties, according to a rare comparison prompted by Maryland's new "Truth in Taxation" law. The state law, which went into effect this month and simplifies property assessments by using 100 percent of value instead of 40 percent, dramatically dropped local property tax rates - without changing the amount people owe....

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton challenged Republican critics of his deficit reduction plan yesterday to put up or shut up as the administration intensified its drive to push his economic program through the Senate this week.For the second day in a row, Mr. Clinton and his top lieutenants sought to demonstrate that there is no realistic alternative to the president's proposal, countering Republican claims that the $516 billion plan relies too much on higher taxes and phony savings."It's easy to criticize this plan, maybe just because I've put forward a plan," the president said in an address by satellite to a gathering in New York of big city mayors.

Taxpayers in Anne Arundel County have the lowest local tax bills in the region, followed closely by those in Howard, Carroll and Baltimore counties, according to a rare comparison prompted by Maryland's new "Truth in Taxation" law. The state law, which went into effect this month and simplifies property assessments by using 100 percent of value instead of 40 percent, dramatically dropped local property tax rates - without changing the amount people owe....