Tax Proposals

Carroll legislators were dismayed at the governor's annual address Thursday, which one lawmaker called a "cafeteria menu" of tax proposals.The legislators said they were discouraged that Gov. William Donald Schaefer talked sparingly in his State of the State speech aboutreducing government, instead focusing on ways to raise additional revenues to avoid about $700 million in painful cuts."

The gas tax plan unveiled this week by Gov. Martin O'Malley and the General Assembly's top leaders is a complicated proposal that wouldn't represent our first choice in how best to pay for Maryland's transportation needs. But, on balance, it's a better-than-expected solution to a problem that has been nagging the State House for two decades. Better than expected because efforts to increase the gas tax have been practically dead on arrival in Annapolis for years, thanks to high prices at the pump and public hostility toward anything that might raise them further - even as alternatives like vehicle registration and licensing fees hit Marylanders harder than a few pennies on the gallon would.

Business leaders and residents went to Baltimore City Hall yesterday to oppose several tax proposals that Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke says need to be approved in some combination to cover an expected $4.9 million budget shortfall.Two proposals -- a parking levy and an energy levy -- drew the most opposition as nearly 25 business leaders said businesses will fail or move from the city if more taxes are imposed on them."It would be a mistake to, in the heat of a budget crisis, subject [nonprofit organizations]

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller testified Wednesday that Maryland's shortage of funds for transportation projects is a crisis that needs to be addressed now. Appearing before the Senate Budget & Taxation Committee, Miller said his proposed legislation to raise money for transportation was intended as a menu of options for Gov. Martin O'Malley. Among other provisions, Miller's bill would add a 3 percent sales tax to gasoline and allow the counties and Baltimore to add up to 5 cents a gallon to the state's 23.5 cents-a-gallon gas tax to pay for local projects.

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller testified Wednesday that Maryland's shortage of funds for transportation projects is a crisis that needs to be addressed now. Appearing before the Senate Budget & Taxation Committee, Miller said his proposed legislation to raise money for transportation was intended as a menu of options for Gov. Martin O'Malley. Among other provisions, Miller's bill would add a 3 percent sales tax to gasoline and allow the counties and Baltimore to add up to 5 cents a gallon to the state's 23.5 cents-a-gallon gas tax to pay for local projects.

Gov. Martin O'Malley used his State of the State address Wednesday to make his case for his most ambitious legislative agenda since taking office. Now comes the hard job of selling it. In an upbeat, 33-minute speech to both chambers of the General Assembly, the governor issued a spirited call for an aggressive program to invest in jobs and honor the "human dignity" of families, whether the parents are gay or straight. But O'Malley said that generating jobs, improving transportation and cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay would require additional revenue in the form of taxes and fees.

City Council members are negotiating a budget compromise with Mayor Martin O'Malley that would delay his plan to privatize the security and maintenance of city buildings by six months to a year, council members said yesterday. The O'Malley administration is also scheduled to meet today with the Johns Hopkins University, the Maryland Hospital Association and other nonprofit groups about the possibility of dropping a proposed energy tax in exchange for voluntary payments for several years - an agreement the mayor says he is not optimistic about reaching.

AS FEDERAL RESERVE chairman for more than 15 years, Alan Greenspan has proved himself a master of the obtuse utterance -- what he once described as the art of incoherent mumbling. In the course of attempting to guide the nation's economy alongside four presidents and through boom and bust, Mr. Greenspan also has been, by turns, an inflation-fighter, deficit hawk and, most recently, tax-cut booster. Given that political agility -- and suspicions that he's sympathetic to the Republican tax-cut agenda -- his clear-cut challenge this week to the economic theory undergirding President Bush's latest budget and tax proposals was striking.

ANNAPOLIS -- The House Appropriations Committee cut the governor's budget last night about as much as lawmakers could stomach, and then -- hoping a couple tax proposals will ultimately save them -- they cut it some more.Trying to overcome a projected $115 million drop in state revenues for fiscal 1992, the panel offered up about $120 million in program reductions, large, small and in between. They carved out funds for new judges, maintenance of state facilities, parkland acquisition and hundreds of other programs, projects and positions.

Mayor Martin O'Malley's two major tax proposals are expected to come before the City Council for preliminary approval tonight, and the administration hopes to win final passage by next Monday to avoid sending hundreds of layoff letters to city workers the following day. The proposed 20 percent income tax increase and 8 percent energy tax on nonprofit organizations cleared the council's Taxation Committee on Friday, as council members skeptically brushed...

For Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, campaigning in Maryland on Tuesday represented something of a political homecoming. It was nearly 20 years ago that Gingrich, then a Georgia congressman, hatched the outlines of the "Contract with America" during a GOP retreat in Salisbury — a campaign pledge that gave his party control of Congress in 1994 and made him a force in American politics. The former Speaker of the House came to Maryland looking for another political coup: a path to the Republican nomination that by the end of the day seemed increasingly out of reach.

In its editorial on the Senate committee recommendations on the state budget ("A costly breakthrough?" March 13) The Sun recognizes the responsible, balanced approach of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, then asks "whether all this might be accomplished with less sacrifice from taxpayers. " Let's put this in perspective. The committee's tax plan costs the median Maryland household $41 a year - less than a buck a week. Even at the upper reaches of high income taxpayers, it's well under one-fifth of 1 percent of income.

Over the past month, the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline has increased 25 cents in Maryland. As far as anyone can tell, the motorists of this state received no particular benefit from the change in price - aside from a lighter wallet or purse. Gasoline prices may rise higher yet, as they often do in the summer months when demand increases. Or, if the political tensions with Iran and its nuclear program dissipate, prices may actually go down as fear of supply interruptions diminishes.

In spite of the chilly reception his proposed increase in gasolines taxes has received from legislators, Gov. Martin O'Malley is planning to put his personal prestige on the line by testifying in favor of his transportation revenue bill Wednesday afternoon. O'Malley is scheduled to make a pitch for his plan to apply the state's 6 percent sales tax to gasoline to a joint hearing of the House Environmental Matters and Ways & Means committees. The revenue measure, which is separate from the General Assembly's budget deliberations, would direct money to the state's depleted Transportation Trust Fund to help chip away at a backlog of road and transit projects.

If you hold a gathering of more than 50 boats in Maryland waters after June 1, you can expect to pay a "marine gathering permit fee" — the amount yet to be determined — under legislation proposed by the O'Malley administration. Need a certified copy of a marriage certificate? The cost would double from $12 to $24 under an administration proposal. Own a commercial scale with a capacity of more than a ton? The fee for registering it would increase from $75 to $100 under a bill submitted by the state Department of Agriculture.

A whopping budget battle is shaping up in Annapolis, where the leaders of the House of Delegates and Senate floated widely divergent proposals Friday to raise income taxes as part of a plan to close a $1 billion shortfall. The Senate is considering a measure that would raise the income tax for almost every Marylander by a quarter of a percent, effectively rolling back a tax cut made 15 years ago, key senators said. The House is looking at a plan that would hit the top 7 percent to 10 percent of earners with a steep increase but leave everyone else alone, said House SpeakerMichael E. Busch.

Baltimore City Council members are negotiating a budget compromise with Mayor Martin O'Malley that would delay his plan to privatize the security and maintenance of city buildings by six months to a year, council members said yesterday. The O'Malley administration is also scheduled to meet today with the Johns Hopkins University, Maryland Hospital Association and other nonprofit groups about the possibility of dropping a proposed energy tax in exchange for voluntary payments for several years - an agreement the mayor says he is not optimistic about reaching.

After a series of quiet meetings, the mayor and the City Council president tentatively have hammered out a plan that calls for no new taxes to cover Baltimore's expected $4.9 million budget shortfall.But a new tax for city residents remains a possibility. The council's budget committee and President Lawrence A. Bell III are looking to restore some cuts that the mayor wants, specifically in funding for the Department of Recreation and Parks.Bell is keeping details of the tentative plan under wraps until he has talked to all 18 council members.

The Howard County Council is being asked to take a fresh look at an old - and much-debated - tax issue. A bill prefiled at the request of County Executive Ken Ulman seeks to end the two-tiered fire tax and replace it with a single countywide rate. Howard is the only Maryland county to have two tax rates to fund fire service, Ulman said, and most counties don't levy a separate tax for fire and rescue services, funding them through general revenues. The bill will be formally introduced to the County Council at a legislative session March 5, with a public hearing scheduled for March 19. Ulman said he hopes the measure will be adopted quickly so that it can be part of planning for the next fiscal year's budget.

Gov. Martin O'Malleyis pushing legislation that would "effectively double" the Bay Restoration Fee or "flush tax," ("EPA gives mixed grades on Chesapeake Bay cleanup. " Feb. 19). Senate Bill 240 raises the fee from $30 to $60 per year on septic system users. However, metered sewer customers will pay according to their usage; $1.80 for the first 2,000 gallons and $1.25 for every 1,000 gallons thereafter per month. This will result in many Marylanders paying considerably more than double the current $30 fee. Any metered customer using more than 5,000 gallons per month (check your latest bill)