TAXPAYER BREAKING NEWS, March 2004, continued from Home Page . . .

March 31, 2005. The Wall Street Journal reports on pension fund blackmail. "Meantime, the pension juggernaut is growing. Terence O'Sullivan, president of the Laborers Union, has argued that unions should consolidate their assets under one umbrella, in a kind of giant financial AFL-CIO. The idea would be to produce new profit centers for unions from credit card, mortgage and pension fund management, but more important to create an investment body large enough to dictate political terms to any company in America."

March 30, 2005. Senate passes Ehrlich budget reports Robert Redding Jr. in the Washington Times."Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., Prince George's County Democrat, yesterday said lawmakers could not justify cutting pay increases for state workers and reducing the property tax."

March 29, 2005. MTA writes to Maryland Taxpayer Protection Pledge Signers: "Regrettably, last Thursday nine pledge signers voted to allow Carroll County to impose a hotel rental tax.They are delegates Arnick, Boschert, Boutin, Eckardt, Gilleland, Parrot, Shank, Stocksdale, and Walkup. These delegates forgot their pledge to the people of Maryland to oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes."

Maryland Student Spending Rises March 25, 2005. Per-Pupil Spending Rose in Maryland Schools in 2003, Census Bureau Says, reports Megan McIlroy of Capital News Service. "Falknor said the state's schools need massive reform to ensure the money invested in them is spent wisely. One way to ensure that is through the use of school vouchers and public charter schools, he said. 'From our perspective, the situation in Maryland is difficult, and putting more money into the system before you restructure it is just like flooding an engine that won't start,' he said." Richard Falknor of the Maryland Taxpayers Association says a rise in per-pupil spending doesn't assure better student performance. (Photo courtesy of the Maryland Taxpayers Association). Maryland is the 13th highest per-pupil spender, but watchdog groups wonder if funds are being spent wisely or directly on students.

March 25, 2005. Everyone in Washington has now used this week's Social Security and Medicare Trustees' report to justify his or her political program, reports the Wall Street Journal. "But what's up with Republicans? Some of them may fear that if this secret gets out to enough voters, they'll have to stop using that excess revenue to make the budget deficit look smaller than it is. But if they believe in smaller government, they should consider this $2.2 trillion revelation to be truth-in-advertising that shows just how spendthrift Washington is. Letting individuals keep and invest this excess payroll tax money, which they've earned, is the nub of the entire Social Security debate."

March 21, 2005. MTA joins the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation, and more than 40 of the country's largest and most influential free-market groups, to urge Treasury Secretary John Snow to "permanently withdraw a proposed Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulation (Reg 133254-02) that would force U.S. banks to report deposit interest paid to nonresident aliens."

March 16, 2004. New Jersey lawmakers passed a bill this week that would ban all state contract work from being performed outside the country, reports the Wall Street Journal. "And all for a measure that is bound to end up costing more local jobs than it protects. If the state contractor's costs rise because it has to dismiss its low-cost overseas workforce, it will either have to drop the state contract, accept lower profits, or lay off other workers. As an alternative, a state contractor who can't use workers in India would still be able to outsource jobs to workers in a more business-friendly state like Texas. Can someone explain why New Jersey taxpayers should feel so much better about paying more to hire workers in El Paso as opposed to paying less to hire them in Bangalore?"

March 15, 2005. MTA board member Spear Lancaster testifies against SB 561. "MTA strongly urges the Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee to reject SB 561 and any parallel efforts to insulate the larger charter county governments from voter petitions unwelcome to the government class.Efforts to enable the substantial raising of the10,000-signature requirement in the larger charter jurisdictions, Montgomery, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, and Prince Georges counties, and Baltimore City, weaken a major safeguard of their citizens against special and highly organized tax-consuming interests." More . . .

March 15, 2005. Marvin Weinman, president of the Montgomery County Taxpayers League, testifies against SB 651, which would increase the number of citizen signatures needed for a petition for referendum in large counties. "SB 561 and HB 648 is an effort by the Montgomery County state delegation to pass legislation that would change the petition for referendum signature requirement from 10,000 to 5% of the registered voters. For Montgomery County the requirement would increase the signature requirement to 25,859, which will effectively deny the county citizens the right to petition except for significantly funded special interest groups. Of the 20 Delegate co-sponsors 17 were from Montgomery County along with 4 of the 5 Senate co-sponsors. There could also be significant impact for Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Prince George's Counties as well as Baltimore City. It's significant that only 1 Delegate and 1 Senator from these jurisdictions were bill co-sponsors." More . . .

March 9, 2005. Alternative Minimum Income tax is an enemy of jobs, says MTA President Dee Hodges. "This measure [HB 1135] would burden the Maryland economy with over a half-billion dollars in new taxes from fiscal years 2007 through 2010. The 2004 General Assembly approved of $2.3 billion (totaled over five fiscal years) in new taxes, and taxes disguised as 'fees.' In our view, most of this was a bipartisan failure."

March 8, 2005. MTA President Dee Hodges urges the Ways and Means Committee to restore the deduction for qualified tuition and related expenses (HB 987). " The possible net effect on revenue is very small compared to the overall value to Maryland of having more highly educated workers in the twenty-first century."

March 7, 2005. Read My Lips, the Sequel?-- asks Stephen Moore in the Weekly Standard. "Worse yet, by talking of higher taxes in exchange for Social Security reform, the White House is only reinforcing the concern among House Republicans in tough districts that this debate could become a Republican version of HillaryCare, with its subsequent decimation of Democrats in the 1994 midterm elections. Tinkering with Social Security is a tough enough vote for Republicans, let alone doing so while raising taxes at the same time. A quick glance at George W. Bush's governing style during his first term reveals that whenever he reaches out to congressional Democrats, the result has been legislation that maims taxpayers and divides the Republican party down the middle."

March 1, 2005. Ehrlich Earns "C" Grade for Fiscal Policy in Think Tank's Report Card, reports I-Wei J. Chang, Capital News Service. Cato's Steve Slivinski "said Ehrlich's grade suffered because he is ultimately responsible for tax-raising and spending bills from the Democrat-controlled legislature, although he was credited in the report for vetoing a bill to tax health maintenance organizations. Ehrlich has spent too much time focusing on slots legislation to boost state revenues, Slivinski said. But he said approving slots will not necessarily bring up his grade, especially if the money were used to increase government spending on certain programs. Richard Falknor, executive vice president of the Maryland Taxpayers Association, said Cato's premise was right but that the authors were 'generous' in saying state "spending has remained tame.' 'The ranking is reasonable but they missed some things in Maryland,' Falknor said. He pointed out that the authors 'didn't pick up on Thornton,' the multiyear public school reform plan that is expected to cost more than $1 billion.'"

March 1, 2005. MTA urges repeal of State ballistic fingerprinting--supports SB424. "The ballistic fingerprinting program under consideration today - now widely recognized as a public policy failure - only represents the worst of inefficient government with unwarranted burdens on all citizens. Millions of tax dollars were spent on a system that has yet to solve a single crime, not only in Maryland but in all states where it has been implemented."

February 28, 2005. Slot machine vote could open door to rest of state, writes Tamara Lush in the St. Petersburg Times. "But Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, who opposes expanded gambling, doubts the education benefits will be that great and worries about a 'snowball effect' in the rest of the state.'Florida stands at the cusp,' Bush wrote in a recent letter to the Christian Coalition. 'As a state we have limited gambling in our communities. The true costs are significant and real: long-term decay of our traditional industries and the social fabric of our communities.'"

February 28, 2005. The Wall Street Journal reports on a Rocky Mountain revenue grab. "Not that we think Tabor needs tinkering; the dread ratchet effect is its most important feature and one of the reasons that states like California, Maine, Kansas and Ohio are considering their own version of Tabor. By forcing lawmakers to put the brakes on spending, even after a downturn in the economy, Tabor gives government an incentive to take on self-correcting tasks that aren't in its nature. Selling off excess assets and reforming procedures for procurement and competitive contracting aren't high on a state's list of priorities unless there's a fiscal squeeze. Tabor helps state governments find these efficiencies. Bill Owens used to know that."