Tax Receipts

Anne Arundel County is a little poorer than it had hoped to be at this time last year.County budget officer Steven E. Welkos said state income tax revenue for the three-month period ending Dec. 31 was down 1 percent compared to the previous year.At the end of February, when the state distributes the fourth-quarter income tax receipts to local jurisdictions, the county will receive $31.9 million, compared to the $32.3 million received for the same period last year, he said.Welkos said the current $598.

A new post office will open at 4225 Main St. by Saturday, said Postmaster Jack D. Francis, who oversees the town's mail operations.Francis said Tuesday he had hired Joyce O'Donnoghue as the new postal clerk. The office will handle about 1,000 pieces of mail a week.An August criminal investigation into the alleged theft of $615 in postal receipts forced the closing of a one-room post office, also on Main Street. For six months, 200 residents have been without mail services. The closing was believed to be the county's first caused bya theft charge.

As state legislators continue their search for a $1.2 billion package of spending cuts and taxes to wipe out Maryland's budget deficit, the sales tax has emerged as the primary vehicle for coming up with more dollars. Yet raising the sales tax isn't the first choice of the governor and legislative leaders. Instead, they want to remove exemptions and extend the levy to services. This is long overdue.Of the state's major taxes, the levy on sales of goods is the most regressive. The poor pay a much higher percentage of their income in sales taxes than do the rich.

Can you say, "tax base"?Careful, now.These are magic words on the lips of bureaucrats, developers and businessmen who use them as if the door to all sorts of wonders wouldswing open majestically if only we had a greater tax base.Need anew road or school?Chant, "tax base."Sewer plant overflowing?Whisper it reverently: "tax base."Ever see a small group of bright-eyed, sweating men huddled over a tiny pair of rolling white cubes, cursing excitedly and murmuring incantations like "come to papa" and "baby needs a new pair of shoes"?

This is not a column about the 10th anniversary of the National Aquarium. From fish, I know only from herring with maybe a garlic bagel on the side. From the aquarium, I know only from $11.50 tickets."

Unless legislative leaders change their minds, Maryland's road-building and modernization program could be seriously delayed. By turning down a gas-tax increase and higher motor vehicle fees, lawmakers have left officials with no choice but to shut down all new projects except for repair work to preserve the system. Suburban commuters will be most severely impacted.Nowhere will this no-new-projects edict hurt more than in gridlocked Montgomery County. Yet the county's own legislators never lifted a finger to help the administration in its quest to raise motor vehicle fees.

After years of smooth sailing, Maryland's economy has run aground and could lose thousands of jobs in the new year, many of them white-collar positions, economists say.Experts surveyed by The Evening Sun disagree on whether Maryland actually has entered a recession, but they concede that the state is being battered by its biggest economic storm in at least eight years.The extent and duration of any slump are difficult to forecast, the economists say, but there is no doubt that the state's long, smooth run of economic growth and prosperity has been interrupted.

Gov. William Donald Schaefer today proposed a menu of options for solving the state's growing budget shortfall, including massive layoffs of state workers, a new round of spending cuts and a raid on the state's savings account.Schaefer said the plan he favors would put 1,800 employees out of work and cut agency spending by $33.9 million. That plan would require legislative approval for shifting some money from the state's $126 million "rainy day fund" as well as from budgets containing corporate income tax receipts and other state revenues.

New-car sales in Maryland hold some good news and some bad news.Despite the fact that the Middle East crisis has hurt consumer confidence and raised the risk of a national recession, car dealers and statistics keepers say sales are little, if at all, below last fall.That's the good news.The bad news is that sales are keeping up with last fall only because last fall was terrible.Maryland dealers sold 22,806 new cars in September, the last month for which figures are available, down 6.1 percent from the 24,280 sold in September of 1989, said Jim Lang, a spokesman for the state Motor Vehicle Administration.