TAXPAYER BREAKING NEWS, July 2007,
continued from MTA Home Page

July 31, 2007. Tax Hike Scorecard; A reader's guide to Congressional revenue grasping, from OpinionJournal.com. "With a new Democratic majority, the agenda on Capitol Hill has shifted abruptly this year, and no more so than on taxes. For a decade the focus in Congress was which taxes to cut. Now everywhere you look someone running the Congress, or running for President, is proposing to raise taxes on some industry or group of Americans." [click here for guide]

July 31, 2007. Court says charters entitled to equal funding, reports the Center for Education Reform Newswire. "This just in from Maryland's highest court: charter schools are entitled to receive per-pupil funds from districts equal to what districts spend on their own public school students. The 7-2 decision was the result of an appeal of the Maryland State Board of Education's May 2005 decision, which ordered districts to follow the law's 'commensurate' funding language, by dividing the amount of money in a district equally over the total public school student body and paying those per-pupil allotments - minus 2 percent for administration - out to charter schools for each pupil they educate. That's the right and fair way to do it, said every court that subsequently heard the appeal, which districts had filed to try to get out of the State Board's directive to support charter schools equally. The resulting funding for Baltimore city charter schools will be close to $10,000 per pupil, up almost a few thousand dollars from their current district-set formula."

July 31, 2007. GOP resolution rejects amnesty for illegals, reports Ralph Z. Hallow in the Washington Times. "It is rare for committee members to defy the RNC's leadership and a sitting president of their own party. But the immigration resolution is merely 'common sense,' said Maryland Republican Chairman James Pelura.' Americans have made it clear that they want the borders secured, respect for the rule of law, and absolutely no amnesty,' Mr. Pelura said. 'We can do better. We must do better.'

July 29, 2007. Five-Year Forecast: Get Ready, Set . . . Sit; Drivers Face Crush Of Major Projects, writes Eric M. Weiss in the Washington Post. "Commuters will soon endure the Washington region's most extensive transportation construction boom since Metro was built a generation ago, as state and local governments rush to make more than $10 billion in road and rail improvements. A half-dozen mega-projects and innumerable smaller ones promise to create traffic jams on nearly all of the region's major commuter routes as well as on neighborhood streets. After the delays and detours disappear, however, leaders say commuters will be rewarded with several congestion busters, including an east-west route across the Maryland suburbs, more lanes on the Capital Beltway in Virginia and a new Metrorail line through Tysons Corner."

July 20, 2007. State gets a 'D' on financial disclosure, reports Andrew A. Green in the Baltimore Sun. "The only state to get an 'A' was Washington, which scored a 94.5. Four states -- Michigan, Idaho, Utah and Vermont -- require no disclosure from their governors and scored '0,' worse than an 'F.' Maryland ranked 27th among the 50 states surveyed in the amount of financial reporting required. Maryland's one distinction among the 46 states with disclosure laws is that it is the only one in which a citizen is required to appear in person to the state ethics commission to get a copy of the report. Twenty-two states, including Pennsylvania and Delaware, make the forms available on the Internet."

July 19, 2007. Americans for Prosperity Coalition Representing Millions of Grassroots Citizens --including MTA -- Urges Congress to Reject Capital Gains Tax Hikes. "A coalition of 36 citizen groups representing millions of grassroots activists, investors, and retirees today sent an open letter to the U.S. Senate and House, urging lawmakers to reject a hike in the 15 percent tax rate on capital gains for individuals or for partnerships, which would ultimately take a tax bite out of Americans’ retirement savings."

JJuly 9, 2007. Board likely to OK land deal with state, writes Tom LoBianco in the Washington Times. "Two weeks ago, Sen. Andrew P. Harris, a Baltimore County Republican, asked for an investigation into Department of Natural Resources Secretary John R. Griffin's role in the deal before he began working for the administration." [Click here for Senator Harris' letter.]

uly 4, 2007. Md. State Board Approves County's Sex-Ed Curriculum, reports Daniel de Vise in the Washington Post. "The new lessons are heavy on definitions and worksheet exercises about harassment and tolerance. A passage from the grade eight lesson, for example, dismisses as myth the idea 'that a person is homosexual because he or she is not yet interested in the opposite gender.' More candid grade 10 lessons describe gay, lesbian and transgender people 'celebrat[ing] their self-discovery' and have been the main source of controversy."

July 3, 2007. A tax-free Fourth of July would fit with founders, writes MTA Board Member Edward L. Hudgins in the Examiner. "Many cities already suspend sales taxes for a few days a year on items such as clothing and school supplies, usually to garner the favor of overtaxed parents struggling to raise kids and to give mom and pop an incentive to frequent over taxed downtown enterprises struggling to make profits. So wouldn’t it be appropriate for all of us who struggle every day to be allowed to keep our money on that day on which we celebrate our freedom?"

July 3, 2007. Comptroller Seeks Delay in Land Buy; Franchot Questions the Price Tag On State's Purchase of 271 Acres, reports Lisa Rein in the Washington Post. "Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot yesterday asked Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration to delay final purchase of 271 acres of undeveloped land in Queen Anne's County, asking whether the state was vastly overpaying for the property."

July 3, 2007. Council Wants Residents to Vote on Phone Tax Increase in 2008 reports Rosalind S. Helderman in the Washington Post. "Meanwhile, Judy Robinson, an activist who fought for the charter amendment when it was adopted in 1996, called the council's initial support for a referendum 'courageous.' 'I would congratulate the County Council on simply doing what people asked them to do, and that was follow the law,' she said. "

July 2, 2007. Parties fighting for pet projects; GOP lawmakers are leading way toward transparent spending, reports Matthew Hay Brown in the Baltimore Sun. "Democrats took control of Congress with promises to shine a brighter light on the workings of government, including the time-honored practice of planting pet projects deep inside spending bills. But among Marylanders, it is the Republicans who are taking the lead in removing the cloak of secrecy. For the first time in his 14 years in Washington, Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett of Western Maryland announced the proposals he'll try to get funded. Fellow Republican Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest produced a list when asked. But the rest of Maryland's delegation in Congress, all Democrats, are keeping quiet until their requests become public."

July 1, 2007. State Police Implement New Resrtrictions on Handgun Purchases, reports www.myguns.com. "Depending on how extensive a bureaucratic game MSP wants to play, the ‘one week' waiting period could become a thing of the past. Few medical records are consolidated in one place for electronic access; an investigator asked to exercise discretion on some applicant's mental health could take months researching paperwork. Moreover, MSP's track record in exercising discretion is poor. They already take it upon themselves to judge 'need' for carry permits. Now they may take it upon themselves to judge mental health, going far beyond the bright line standard in law."