OPINION:
The Maryland General Assembly ended its regular 2008 session Monday night with confetti, and Gov. Martin O’Malley, Senate President Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael Busch all congratulated themselves on their accomplishments. But only a half-hearted thank you is in order. Perhaps the most important success was the decision to repeal the 6 percent “tech tax” on computer services companies that lawmakers passed during the fall special session. The tax would still be on the books if it had not been for a superb public-relations campaign launched by high-tech businesses to educate Marylanders about the fact that the tax would drive computer firms out of state.
Unfortunately, during the final hours of the session, lawmakers decided to replace the job-destroying tech tax with a different plan to chase job producers to places like Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania. Lawmakers created a new “millionaires tax,” a higher-income bracket of 6.25 percent. The Maryland Chamber of Commerce (a politically moderate group that is not opposed to all state tax increases) described the harmful effects of the “millionaires tax” this way. It would “make Maryland’s top rate the 4th highest in the country (combined state and local) behind only California’s 10.3 percent, Rhode Island’s 9.9 percent, and Vermont’s 9.5 percent. The new combined [Maryland] rate of 9.45 percent would be significantly noncompetitive with our neighboring states of Virginia (5.75 percent), West Virginia (6.5 percent), Delaware (5.95 percent), the District of Columbia (8.7 percent) and Pennsylvania (3.07 percent gross). We believe that this income tax increase would be counterproductive to Maryland’s economic development.”
On other issues the just-completed session was a mixed bag. Lawmakers approved a number of feel-good regulatory measures proposed by the governor, including legislation that would reduce the state’s energy consumption 15 percent by 2015 and double the amount of “renewable” energy that power companies must provide for sale to customers by 2022. (Whether these mandates are achievable in the real world without substantial job losses is anyone’s guess.) But the General Assembly rejected Mr. O’Malley’s push to slash carbon emissions 25 percent by 2020 after lobbying from manufacturers and the United Steelworkers of America, who made a strong case that the legislation could shutter their industries and throw more Marylanders on the unemployment line. Nanny-state regulations like speed cameras and bans on hand-held cell phones died.
But in other areas, lawmakers failed miserably: They failed to bar violent sexual predators from receiving “good time credits,” which can substantially reduce their prison sentences; and, despite a valiant effort by Senate Minority Leader David Brinkley, the legislature failed to require that driver’s license applicants prove that they are legally in the country.
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