Taxpayer Breaking News, September 2005

TAXPAYER BREAKING NEWS, September, 2005, continued from MTA Home Page

September 29, 2005. Some See an Equestrian Center as a Gift Horse; Some Don't, writes Hamil R. Harris in the Washington Post. TBN wonders if members from both Maryland political parties are politically tone deaf when they tout this "equestrian center"? With a national uproar over unrestrained spending dramatized by highway-bill earmarks, the horse park does not qualify as pork? And what additional business ventures would the Annapolis Political Class like the state government to undertake? Truly Annapolis has lost its way as well as the Congressional leadership.

September 28. MTA joins coalition of taxpayer advocates and others urge President Bush to instruct the Office of Tax Analysis of the Treasury Department to "account for economic growth effects of tax reform alternatives" by adopting "dynamic" and "reality based" measures for tax reform proposals. "The failure to take dynamic effects into consideration is welcomed by the adversaries of reform, because it supports political rather than scientific ends. Static estimates overestimate revenue gains from tax regimes with steeply progressive rates that doubly and trebly tax savings and investment, and they artificially ensure high revenue neutral rates for the most pro-growth reform alternatives. By systematically providing incorrect or inaccurate information to the Panel, such estimates will hamstring the Panel in its efforts to develop reform proposals that truly benefit the American people."

September 28, 2005. Bruce Bartlett warns about pork-barrel Republicans in the National Review. "Unfortunately, President Bush’s reaction to any suggestion that the drug bill even be postponed has been outrage and the promise of a veto. 'I signed the Medicare reform proudly,'he said earlier this year, 'and any attempt to … take away … prescription drug coverage under Medicare will meet my veto.' It would be ironic if the only bill of his presidency he believed he absolutely should not veto became the only one he did veto."

September 26, 2005. The Pence affair leaves GOP leaders as "naked as jaybirds," declares David Keene of the American Conservative Union in The Hill newspaper."Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980 because he believed in people rather than government. While he didn’t always succeed, he fought for eight years in Washington to deliver on his promises to those who elected him. Today’s Republicans ape the Reagan rhetoric, but if their actions mean much they are as different from Reagan as the Republican liberals he vanquished in the early ’80s."

September 26, 2005. GOP in turmoil: Pence and the RSC's heresy was to propose that massive federal outlays resulting from Hurricane Katrina be offset by reduced spending elsewhere, reports Robert Novak in townhall.com. "Pence, Flake and Hensarling met privately with Office of Management and Budget Director Josh Bolten last Thursday and got a warmer reception than they did from their own leadership -- up to a point. The president will not permit a hair to be touched on the head of the expensive new entitlement for prescription drugs."

September 25, 2005. Politicians not giving us much of a choice, Mark Steyn points out in the Sun-Times. "Ambitious presidents seize on extreme events to change the culture, as FDR did, using the Depression to transform the nature of the federal government. In allowing the eco-crazies to get away with prioritizing the world's biggest mosquito herd over Alaskan oil, and the teaching establishment with insisting that there's nothing wrong with the most overfunded public education system in the world that can't be fixed with even more wasted dollars, and the bureaucracy with creating an instantly sclerotic jobs-for-life federalized airport security (that just walked off the job in Houston), the Republicans missed their post-9/11 opportunity."

September 23, 2005. The Republican Study Committee, a "group of over 100 House Republicans organized for the purpose of advancing a conservative social and economic agenda in the House of Representatives," released a set of reformist Federal spending proposals. Maryland Sixth District U. S. Representative Roscoe Bartlett (see release) is a seasoned member of the RSC.

September 23, 2005. Curing the Current Conservative Doldrums: National Review. "The most important ingredient at the moment, however, is presidential leadership. It has been absent for five years on spending. Bush is said to rise to the occasion when confronted with crises. He is about to confront one within his own party on spending. Let the rising begin."

September 21, 2005. In a letter to Rep. Mike Pence, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform expresses "strong support" for Republican Study Committee's offset efforts. "It is also vital that the pro-growth tax policies put into place over the past four years remain in place. Washington chatter has begun to call for repealing the very successful 2003 tax cuts which has led to the creationof more than $10 trillion of new wealth and more than 4 million jobs over the last two years."

Pennsylvania's Young Republicans launch billboard campaign as state legislators vote themselves substantial pay raise, reports David Holman in The American Spectator. "YCOP executive director Ryan Shafik doubts the leadership's loyalty to conservative principles. 'They're Republicans,' Shafik said Wednesday, 'but they're there for contracts and patronage.' A man quite familiar with tension between conservatives and the establishment in Pennsylvania, Pat Toomey, now president of the Club for Growth, told TAS Wednesday that YCOP's message is hardly an unwarranted attack by outsiders. 'It's extremely offensive to the vast majority of taxpayers,' he said. 'I can assure you that a majority of mainstream voters are upset about this pay raise.'"

September 19, 2005. Republicans can claim no "''victory' against bloated federal spending," writes John Berthoud of the National Taxpayers Union in a Washington Times column. "The budget has certainly not been 'pared down' by the Republicans; rather, Republicans have dramatically increased the size of government to an extent not seen since Richard Nixon was in the White House. Republicans have lavished discretionary spending on agencies across the board (not just on defense and homeland security). But perhaps their worst offense is that in pandering to seniors prior to the 2004 election, the GOP Congress enacted a Medicare prescription-drug bill that adds trillions to unfunded liabilities."

September 16, 2005. Blair Lee reports on "bombshells, blunders, and fumbles" in the Gazette. "The company that owns Pimlico and Laurel race tracks lost $95.6 million last year. So it’s downsizing its '‘profit centers' (i.e. cutting Pimlico’s race days from 60 to 18 and Laurel’s from 196 to 112) and selling its 178-acre Bowie Training Center, forcing grooms, jockey’s and horse owners to flee Maryland. Can the Preakness be far behind? Last week’s announcement by Magna Entertainment Corp. guarantees slots will be a major issue in next year’s elections."

September 16, 2005. Baltimore County delegate Patrick McDonough seeks to bar illegals from workers' comp coverage, reports Gary Emerling in the Washington Times. "Mr. McDonough, who said he had 15 bills on immigration rejected in the past three years, sharply criticized Mr. Simmons' involvement in the case. 'We have a legislator who is blatantly flaunting federal law as an attorney and representing a known illegal alien,' he said."

September 14, 2005. Ehrlich to resume fight for property tax rollback, reports John Wagner in the Washington Post. "Faced with a gaping budget hole in 2003, state leaders raised the property tax by nearly 5 cents on each $100 in assessed value. Ehrlich (R), speaking here to a gathering of the Maryland Association of Realtors, said he will determine in coming months how much of that the state can afford to reverse. 'I would hope at least a penny, but I would like to go beyond a penny,' Ehrlich told reporters after his remarks. 'Two, maybe three.'"

Heritage Foundation: "Private entrepreneurial activity and vision, not bureaucratic government, must be the engine to rebuild," write Ed Meese, Stuart Butler, and Kim Holmes in a new report outlining specific policies to speed rebuilding and strengthen future disaster response. "We know from experience what policies work: creating opportunity zones to boost local business; waiving restrictive environmental regulations that hamper rebuilding and impact fuel supplies; encouraging local governments to partner with the private sector; and enacting short-term but deep tax incentives to encourage investors to focus on the area."
-- From Tragedy to Triumph: Principled Solutions for Rebuilding Lives and Communities, by Edwin Meese III, Stuart M. Butler, and Kim R. Holmes, Special Report #05, September 12, 2005.

September 14, 2004. The Wall Street Journal proposes a fiscally constructive way to help restore damage from Hurricane Katrina. "Some public-spirited folks in Bozeman, Montana, have come up with a wonderful idea to help Uncle Sam offset some of the $62 billion federal cost of Hurricane Katrina relief. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports that Montanans from both sides of the political aisle have petitioned the city council to give the feds back a $4 million earmark to pay for a parking garage in the just-passed $286 billion highway bill. As one of these citizens, Jane Shaw, told us: 'We figure New Orleans needs the money right now a lot more than we need extra downtown parking space.'"
. . . . . . . . . . .
"In all there are more than 6,000 of these parochial projects -- or about 14 for every Congressional district -- funded in the highway bill. The pork reduction plan is particularly appropriate as a response to Katrina, because we have learned in recent days that one reason that money was not spent on fortifying the levees in New Orleans was that hundreds of millions of dollars were rerouted to glitzier earmarked projects throughout the state of Louisiana."

September 12, 2005. Grover Norquist of ATR congratulates Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao on suspension of Davis-Bacon Act in rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina. "I would like to suggest that the President amend his executive order to put in place a common-sense trigger to prevent such an untimely occurrence for the people of the Gulf. Davis-Bacon rules should be waived until such time as each governor of the affected states deem that federal assistance is no longer necessary in their state, and say so in writing to the President. This would ensure that the Davis-Bacon waiver remains in effect for as long as is needed to rebuild, and also serves to align the interests of governors more closely with those of taxpayers nationally."

September 10, 2005. Ehrlich decries gas price increases; But hourlong meeting with industry produces little explanation, no plan; State average is third-highest in nation, reports Andrew A. Green in the Baltimore Sun. "The National Taxpayers Union, an Alexandria, Va.-based group with 8,000 members in Maryland, sent a letter to Ehrlich yesterday asking him to back a reduction or suspension of Maryland's 23.5 cent-per-gallon gas tax. Georgia's governor, Sonny Perdue, a Republican, took a similar action last week. 'Given the ongoing price spikes associated with supply disruptions caused by Hurricane Katrina and record-setting gas costs that have been plaguing motorists for much of 2005, now is the time to use surplus state revenues generated in recent years by strong economic growth to cushion the blow,' the group's government affairs manager, Kristina Rasmussen, wrote to Ehrlich."

September 8, 2005. Maryland House seeks plan to aid racing industry without slots, report Andrew A. Green and David Nitkin in the Baltimore Sun. "Canada-based Magna Entertainment Corp. said it would slash the number of racing days at its two Maryland tracks, arguing that by reducing costs it would increase purses and attract better horses and more bettors. Magna for the first time put a dollar figure on what it would take to attract top-quality horses to Maryland: purses of about $303,000 per day, up from the current $194,000."

September 9, 2005. National Taxpayers Union asks Governor Ehrlich for gas tax relief. "Maryland motorists pay one of the most oppressive gas tax rates in the country. According to the Federation of Tax Administrators, the state holds the dubious honor of having the 16th-highest state gas tax in the nation. When a customer pulls up to a gas station in your state, he or she pays 23.5 cents per gallon alone in state gas taxes. Combined with an 18.4 cent per gallon federal gas tax, this means Maryland residents are paying over 41 cents per gallon just for taxes, or the equivalent of $6.29 on a 15-gallon fill-up."

September 9, 2005. President's Bold Action on Davis-Bacon Will Aid the Relief Effort, says Ronald D. Utt, Ph.D., of the Heritage Foundation. WebMemo #836. "On September 8, President George W. Bush exercised the power granted to him in the Davis-Bacon Act and suspended that Act's application to federally funded construction projects in the Gulf Coast areas hit by Hurricane Katrina. With this step, President Bush eliminated the wage premium that Davis-Bacon effectively requires for those hired to work on federal construction projects, reducing the costs of reconstruction. As a result, federal aid to the Gulf States will now yield more benefits to the region's beleaguered residents and hasten the recovery effort."

September 7, 2005. State regulations block gas price competition, explains Jay Handcock in the Baltimore Sun. "In practice, the Sam's Club law [in Maryland] subjects even law-abiding but aggressive gasoline marketers to extra government scrutiny. Since Aug. 1, whistle-blowers have alerted Schaefer's investigators to a dozen stations that suspiciously seemed to offer just a little too much customer value. (The snitches, whom Schaefer's office did not identify, are presumed to be rival gas stations.) Three weeks ago, for example, Sheetz store No. 316 in Joppa was flagged for selling gas at $2.559 a gallon. Yes, I'm feeling the anger, too. Nobody should have gotten away from the pump in mid-August for anything less than $2.7999999, as far as I'm concerned."