MTA Testimony: Active Duty Military Deserve a Tax Break
February 6, 2001

MTA
Maryland Taxpayers Association, Inc.
 STATEMENT ON H.B. 22
by
Kenneth R. Timmerman
President, Maryland Taxpayers Association, Inc.
Before the House Ways & Means Committee
February 6, 2001
3:00 P.M.

My name is Kenneth R. Timmerman, and I am the President of the Maryland Taxpayers Association, Inc.

My predecessor William J. Skinner appeared before you last year for the same purpose. He presented you with data showing that military pay continues to lag behind personal income growth by well over 7%, despite two recent pay increases by Congress. This was one of MTA's Toip Ten Tax positions last year, and remains so today.

I am sure all of you are familiar with the scandalous situation of having active duty military on food stamps. Pentagon spokesman Major Tim Blair told me today that 5,100 active duty military personnel still receive food stamps today. That is just a small decrease from the 6,300 who were on food stamps in 1998.

But I have not come before you to make an economic argument. I have come instead to urge you to do the right thing on moral grounds.

We owe a special honor and consideration to our active duty military personnel. These are the men and women who are doing much more than drawing a paycheck from the federal government: they have been charged with the sacred duty of defending our nation from foreign foes, and ultimately, in defending America's way of life.

Most of these men and women go into the military knowing they could be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice for their country. They take that vow because they believe in America, and in providing for our Common Defense. The very least we can do is show that we believe in them.

Many of them enter the military knowing they could get much better salaries in the private sector, so already they have made a personal financial sacrifice to defend you and me. And as any of you who have served, or who have relatives who have served knows, active duty military service puts a tremendous strain on families: from the disruption that foreign deployments can cause to the agony of uncertainty during combat.

Over the past eight years we have moved toward an underpaid, under appreciated force that was constantly told to do more with less. The Army has failed to meet its recruitment goals for several years in a row, in part because of low pay. Elsewhere, experienced pilots and mid-level officers are leaving in record numbers to seek better opportunities and greater stability.

HB 22 is your opportunity to send a strong signal to our men and women in uniform that you believe in them and you support them, and that they are doing something that is honorable and important and right.

The men and women who will benefit from HB 22 all earn less than $15,000 per year. Is it right and just to demand that a person who has chosen to serve their country should pay income tax to Maryland on a salary of $15,000?

Under President Bush's tax cut proposals, these men and women will pay no federal income tax, because they fall beneath the income cut-off. But if they live in Maryland, they will be punished by the state because they are poor and because they are defending our nation. This is plain wrong.

Under federal law, an individual residing overseas can shelter $80,000 of income from taxes. But under Maryland law, active duty military men and women sent overseas on temporary deployment or combat duty cannot.

MTA believes in fiscal responsibility and efficient government. We believe that individuals know best how to spend their own money, not government. As a rule, MTA does not favor targeted tax cuts that reward certain behavior or groups.

But our active duty military are not a "group" like any other: without them, there would be no government programs. There would be no schools, or health care or roads. Without our defenders, there would be no Republic. We as citizens owe them a special debt of gratitude befitting their sacrifice. HB 22 is the least we can do.