Here on the home front my dismay has been escalating. But, as always, our dear Gov provides ironic relief (that's like comic relief, but only in Maryland.) About a month ago he announced that he was cutting off Medicaid support for the children of legal immigrants who had not been here for five years. Budgetary considerations, you know. He did this with his typical streak of cold hearted effectiveness. It has already had a major impact on at least on child in my practice.
And then? And then? And then? Along came .. (no, I can't keep descending into this flashback to the 50's).
"Ehrlich cites big surplus, hints of tax cuts"So, you see, on week one we have no money for poor kids and on week four we are going to give all those poor millionaires a tax cut with our surplus. Ehrlich logic. (of course he is running for re-election)
Annapolis (AP) - Gov. Rober Ehrlich, citing a state budge surplus he said now exceeds $1 billion, raised the possibility Tuesday of using some of that money next year to reduce taxes.
Just so everyone is on the same page, the reason for a surplus is very simple. The state property tax is a cash cow because everyone and their brother (actually, a lot of fools) are driving the real estate market through the ceiling. Serves them right that their million dollar shack is taxed at a million dollar rate. What did they expect? (Its borrowed money anyway, borrowed from the Chinese. You don't think we're going to pay them back, do you? Little yellow guys.)
They expected, TA DA, OUR DEAR GOV....
2 comments:
Just so everyone is on the same page, the reason for a surplus is very simple. The state property tax is a cash cow because everyone and their brother (actually, a lot of fools) are driving the real estate market through the ceiling.
That would be true, except that, um, it's not. The State property tax (as opposed to county property taxes) is used solely to pay debt service, as required by the State Constitution. The billion dollar general fund surplus is a result of the budget that passed last session with a $700 million plus balance, along with better than expected revenue performance.
I am so ashamed of pediatricians in my country.
anonymous,
Thank you for your comment. I can't ascertain what you are thinking because you don't give me a blog to read your thoughts. However, You say that the property tax isn't a source of the budget surplus. Here is citation that says the opposite: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-ed.le.25jujul25,1,2833080.story?coll=bal-pe-opinion:
"On the revenue side, closing the Delaware tax loophole, which was a legislative initiative, and increasing the state property tax, which was the governor's initiative , both contributed significantly to increased revenues.."
I am not sure why you are ashamed of pediatricians. It is my privilege to hold the political views, most of which pertain to children, and it is my duty to fight for children. So, if you are ashamed of someone that does that, I guess I'm a little puzzled.
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