The Socialist Agenda: Put the Screws to Maryland Taxpayers
The radical agenda that Democrats plan for Maryland is going to hit working families where it hurts
With Wes Moore becoming Governor an engorged Democratic majority, the General Assembly’s socialists are setting a very ambitious agenda.
Here are some of the things the Socialist caucus wants to see:
Legislation to make Maryland’s tax code fairer and more progressive;
Legislation to institute “combined reporting” for large corporations, which essentially treats a parent corporation and its subsidiaries as one entity for state income tax purposes;
Measures to close loopholes in police accountability legislation that passed in 2021 and to strengthen laws that limit the number of juveniles who can be tried as adults in criminal cases;
Bills to increase the availability of affordable housing in the state, including a measure that would make it easier for tenants to sue their landlords;
Measures dealing with income, including a proposal to expedite the state’s adoption of a $15-an-hour minimum wage and a proposal for a guaranteed income for all Maryland residents;
A proposal to bring a “single-payer” health care system to the state;
Measures to ensure that the state’s newly-approved recreational cannabis industry is accessible to home-grown businesses owned by people of color and women;
Political reforms, including public financing for legislative campaigns and special elections to fill vacancies in the General Assembly.
If that looks like a dystopian vision of Maryland’s future, you’re right. It is an encompassing, expensive monster that would further drive residents and businesses out of Maryland. It is the antithesis of the Hogan years of relative fiscal restraint.
None of these ideas are new. They have been bandied about for years. Combined reporting, for example, first surfaced in 2007:
O’Malley initially floated combined reporting in his raft of special session tax increases in 2007. However he jettisoned the plan, and for good reason. A Ernst and & Young analysis of O’Malley’s initial tax plan revealed this about combined reporting:
· The option would result in a decrease of 18.3 jobs per $1 million tax increase in 2012.
· The static income tax increase would decrease Maryland employment by -587 jobs in 2012; job losses will increase to -641 by 2017.
· The tax option would decrease personal income by $37 million in 2012 and $50 million in 2017.
And those are 15-year old numbers. Imagine how bad it would be now/
Affordable housing is an issue neither big party takes seriously.
The $15-hour minimum wage is the reason we have inflation in Maryland in the first place.
Single-payer health care was an issue totally debunked back in the 2018 election when Ben Jealous first ran for Governor.
Legal weed hasn’t even been implemented yet, but they have already moved on to adjusting the minority set-asides instead of just letting the free market handle it.
Publicly funded campaigns? Remember when who was eligible to receive funds created a row in Howard County?
There are only two ideas here that are even remotely palatable:
Special Elections for General Assembly vacancies, something I have long advocated;
Guaranteed Income (which is, after all, a conservative idea proposed by both Milton Friedman and Friederich Hayek) IF AND ONLY IF there is an equal reduction in government handouts.
Many of these ideas are far outside the mainstream, even for the left-wing leadership in the modern Maryland Democratic Party. But some of these are going to pass. Some of these will become law. And, on the whole, Maryland taxpayers are about to be screwed. And thanks to the failing to contest the gubernatorial election this year, there is little Republicans can do to stop it.