Tax Money

Let me get this straight: the Senate of the state of Maryland, which is broke, is considering a bill to use my tax money to give a tuition discount to students who are here illegally, while students who are American citizens here legally from Pennsylvania or Virginia will have to pay full price ( "A flawed compromise on illegal immigrant tuition," March 8). And people think it is Charlie Sheen who is acting crazy? Andrew Goldfinger

Well, once again the editorial board at The Sun has jumped back in bed with Vincent DeMarco and his Maryland Citizens Health Initiative in supporting an additional $1 increase on Maryland's tax on cigarettes ("A life-saving tax," Nov. 26). As usual, we get the argument that hundreds of thousands of people die each year from smoking, and if we just raise that tax another dollar per pack, then people will finally kick the habit, etc. And let's not forget how the new higher price will discourage "the children" from smoking in the first place because we all know when they doubled the tax to $2 in 2007 virtually all the teenagers stopped smoking ( at least that's what they told us would happen back then)

For decades in Maryland many things have been done in the name of saving the Chesapeake Bay, but the degree to which tangible progress has been made is something of a disappointment. To be sure, there have been some successes. The mid-1980s ban on catching rockfish in an effort to allow the Chesapeake stock of the state fish to make a recovery has resulted in reasonably healthy stocks of the fish being available for watermen and sport anglers alike these days. Substantially stricter regulation of blue crab harvests seem to have helped avert a rockfish-like population collapse in Maryland's signature table fare.

Two issues that Republicans in Congress claim to care a great deal about are lowering the national deficit and reducing abortions. As a means of achieving these goals, they are intent on eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood and its family planning services provided under the Title X program, which has been helping individuals and families of low to moderate income since 1970. If Republicans are successful in excluding these funds from the final federal budget l, the results would most likely be the opposite of conservative's goals.

A week before Christmas and the first thing I read in the Sunday paper is a story about our county officials' sweetheart deal on their government pensions. One who makes $180,000 a year can collect $111,000 in pension. I am offended by this. Also, a school principal is earning over $100,000 when a policeman who risks his life every day has a starting salary of $37,000 a year. I won't even mention the minimum wage earners and unemployed. Judging by all the fraud taking place in every level of government, our tax money is again being misused.

As a career federal employee who has served alongside the military in Iraq, I stoically but willingly accepted a two-year freeze on cost-of-living increases as part of my contribution to at least slowing the pace of the current spending spree in Washington. With all the finger-pointing that's taken place over the past few weeks, one fact that has emerged is the fact that this President and the Democrats in Congress were willing to shut down the federal establishment and furlough me and hundreds of thousands of other federal workers in order to maintain the steady flow of my tax money to the likes of Planned Parenthood.

Why would the Associated Black Charities want former Mayor Sheila Dixon, a convicted criminal, to speak at their event ("Dixon plans decision on return to politics," March 27)? Ms. Dixon was convicted of stealing gift cards intended for the poor. If I had done this crime, plus violating my probation, I would have been fired and sent to jail, and I certainly would not be receiving an $83,000 (of our tax money) annual pension. I guess it pays to be a politician. It seems that there is a wide disparity between the honest, everyday, taxpaying citizens and politicians!

I am still wondering why we spend taxpayer money on government-run health care, free contraceptives and the like while we lack qualified teachers. The key to independence from government programs is a good education. We have a fresh crop of newly graduated teachers in Maryland with new ideas and techniques that will help our students succeed without government handouts. Yet there are no teaching positions. Baltimore County has 2,000 applicants for 30 positions, and I'm rounding the numbers.

That Aberdeen and Havre de Grace are to receive $170,000 in Community Legacy Program grants from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development seems like a positive development on first glance. A closer look, however, reveals a bit of state government spending that is discretionary, at best, in a time when the state government is moving in the direction of jacking up taxes on gasoline and any number of other things. The City of Aberdeen is to receive $50,000 which is to be used to help pay for improvements to the facades of businesses in the downtown district.

Baltimore police said Sunday morning that they were continuing to investigate several home invasion robbery schemes committed against senior citizens in the city's Greektown and Locust Point areas. Victims have received calls from a person posing as a Baltimore tax collector who alleges that the victims' property taxes have not been paid or are overdue, police said. The caller then says that if the money is not paid immediately, the victims will be evicted from their homes by law enforcement, police said.