Gunpowder Chronicle posted on September 30, 2007 2:33 PM | Rating:
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The Guvnah wants all Marylanders to believe that the state is out of money, and that the only way out of this mess is a 20% increase in the sales tax, increasing the coverage of the sales tax, increasing the tobacco tax, bumping the gas tax (and indexing it to inflation), and implementing slots to make up the shortfall.
It's a lie.
The reality is that the General Assembly has merely budgeted more to spend than the state has projected will be collected for revenue.
That is the truth.
Of course, if you or I were to spend more than our paychecks, what would we do? Well, I am not big into borrowing money, so I would typically cut back on spending. For example, my budget has been tight lately because a) energy costs are way up, b) I work from home and pay for my own internet access and business line, and c) I took a big pay cut a couple of years to work from home-- before I realized the dramatic increase in energy costs would hit me across the board.
What did I do? Did I "tax" my employer more? Did impose a flush tax on friends and family who wanted to use my bathroom? Did I charge my nephew for tractor rides around the farm?
No... I cut spending. I got rid of a cellphone I never used. I cut back on my cigar smoking (okay, not as much as I should, but enough to be affordable). I used fans a lot more this summer instead of air conditioners. I turn lights off religiously (in this, I have become my father!) I schedule the use of my car to maximize my trips, thereby not wasting gas. I rearranged my house to maximize the use of some areas and minimize others (easy to do as a bachelor, I will admit).
That is all the General Assembly needs to do-- but they don't even need to go as far. All they need to do is cut the rate of growth in spending over the next five years, plus implement some form of slots, and they can bring the budget in line.
But to left-wing ratfuckers like the Guvnah, Moe Conway, et al, cutting the rate of growth is identitical to cutting actual dollars. And they don't care if they tell you a lie or not, as long as the unremitting march of the growth of state government can continue. And that is what this is really about.
And they are lying to you to do it.