Tax Package

Save water. Use oil paint. The difference between day trading and Russian roulette is somewhat better odds of survival in the latter game. The Republicans compromised with the Republicans on the tax package. They may ban fox hunting as cruel and inhumane in Scotland, England and Wales, but fox-hugging British lefties will never muzzle the hounds in Green Spring Valley.

WASHINGTON -- White House officials publicly dismissed Vice President Al Gore's $300 billion tax-cut plan yesterday as merely a document for his presidential campaign and not a serious legislative proposal for consideration in the tax debate on Capitol Hill.The White House strongly indicated that as aides prepare to do battle with Republicans over the size and scope of a tax cut, they have no intention of adding Gore's proposals to the mix."As the vice president will continue to do, he is laying out ideas for where he will want to take the country when he assumes office in 2001," said Joe Lockhart, President Clinton's spokesman.

WASHINGTON -- An effort by conservative Senate Republicans to gut landmark tobacco legislation went down to defeat yesterday, starkly revealing how thin the ranks of the tobacco bill's opposition have become.The bill's opponents, led by Sen. John Ashcroft, a Missouri Republican, did manage to slow the legislation's progress, virtually assuring that the Senate will not pass the legislation until after a weeklong Memorial Day recess. Opponents hope their tactics will allow time for a media blitz by the tobacco industry, business leaders and anti-tax groups to erode support for the measure.

The governor and legislative leaders agreed yesterday on an election year tax-relief package that would speed up the income tax cut passed last year, reduce property taxes for low-income homeowners and extend tax rebates to the working poor.Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. endorsed the proposals after the leaders of the legislature's two tax-writing committees finished work on a package that has been taking shape for several days.The legislation -- which would return about $190 million to taxpayers this year -- is expected to easily win approval before the 90-day General Assembly session ends Monday night.

Bolstered by the news that a developer wants to build a downtown hotel without public money, dozens of people urged the Baltimore City Council yesterday to vote against the mayor's plan to give $25 million in tax breaks to developers of another proposed downtown hotel.It was a last-ditch, pull-out-the-stops effort from opponents of the Wyndham Inner Harbor East hotel, who for months have used any argument available to try to thwart the city's plan to build the 750-room project."If we have so many people willing to come here, why are we willing to give the farm away?"

WASHINGTON -- Thanks to the budget deal that President Clinton will sign today, many people struggling to pay for college or graduate school next year will be getting some help from the federal government through a variety of tax breaks.That should be welcome news to millions of middle-class American families who must work harder, forgo vacations or other types of spending and take out large loans to pay for their own or their children's education.The question is, what impact will the education tax package have, either on those who cannot currently pay for college or for those who scrimp to pay tuition bills as high as $30,000.

WASHINGTON -- With bipartisan enthusiasm, the Senate gave an overwhelming vote of approval yesterday to a $143 billion tax-cut package designed to give relief to families, college students, retirees, businesses and investors.Voting 80-18, the Senate completed its work on the tax-cut portion of the legislation that is designed to balance the budget by 2002 while also providing the first broad-based relief since the Reagan administration.Key features of the bill -- similar to a measure approved Thursday by the House -- include a $500-per-child tax credit, cuts in capital gains and estate taxes, new breaks for retirement savings and tuition tax credits.

WASHINGTON -- When Congress fills in the details of the budget deal struck by President Clinton and Republican leaders, there is likely to be less of everything than its backers expect -- less tax relief, less deficit reduction, less spending for social programs.Clinton and the GOP leadership made so many promises to build bipartisan support for the broad outlines of the agreement, announced Friday in Baltimore, that it may be impossible to redeem them all.Thus, while Congress is expected to easily approve the nonbinding budget resolution endorsing the spending blueprint by Memorial Day, there are likely to be some nasty fights ahead as the various factions who supported the deal try to collect their chits.

Looking warily to the 1998 elections, Democratic leaders in the House of Delegates tried yesterday to generate legislative momentum for tax relief with a new plan to cut the income tax by 10 percent over three years.The tax cut proposal -- designed to bridge broad policy differences within the legislature's majority party -- would be balanced in part by new taxes on many telecommunications services.After intense behind-the-scenes negotiations the past several days, House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. unveiled the omnibus tax bill and convened a special meeting of the 100 Democrats in the House to discuss it and to press for party unity.

A REMARKABLE turnabout has occurred in the campaign for governor. Possibly the most conservative Republican candidate modern Maryland has ever witnessed has become the agent of change while the liberal Democrat has been forced to defend the status quo.That the political process has been stood on its head is not so much because of the nickle-and-dime tax cuts Ellen Sauerbrey is promising. It's more by implication that many Marylanders believe that the state, like the nation, is heading in an unacceptable direction.