O'Malley plan raises billions in excess (Md)

The Washington Times ^ | 10-3-07 | Tom LoBianco

[JZelle]

ANNAPOLIS — Gov. Martin O'Malley's plan to close the state's five-year, $6.9 billion budget shortfall would raise $3.6 billion more than necessary, according to an analysis of figures released by the governor's office.

About $2.5 billion of the additional money would go to new spending and tax cuts, although it is unclear how the additional $1.1 billion would be used.

Mr. O'Malley and his office have not discussed the net effect of their budget plan, but numbers used in The Washington Times analysis are those he has presented in public over the past two weeks.

The administration responded by saying that Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, "put forward a comprehensive, long-term plan to address the structural deficit that reduces spending growth by more than a billion over two years."

O'Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said the plan "makes our tax structure fairer for working families."

[JZelle]

It's just tax money. They'll have the excess spent so fast, there'll be another increase the following year.

[Albion Wilde]

I hope they have factored in all the people who are planning to move out of the state due to the tax increases.

[websterpup]

What happened to the surplus when he went into office.......... Probably just like the previous Democratic Gov. Glendening, his cronies got perks!!!
I pray he lays off the sales tax or MANY MANY residents are going to PA & WV.
Right now it’s so much cheaper to buy gas in PA due to the excessive taxes we have on gasoline.
What else is new, spend, spend, spend that’s all they know how to do.

[Shifty McWhisker]

8 more months and Montana will be home. Our family has been in Maryland since 1670. Indians couldn’t drive us out, Brits couldn’t, the Yankees couldn’t make us leave. We have been in every war this nation has ever fought. Now forced to leave by the parasitic Govt apparatchik that infest the counties around D.C., in league with the teachers and municipal employees unions. May they all have full rations of the socialist hell they have turned one of the most beautiful and abundant lands God ever created

[Albion Wilde]

I am so sorry. I know how you feel. After I moved away from MD years ago, I used to have a recurring dream of walking back, or skateboarding back, from two states away. But it was the Maryland I remembered from long ago, not what it has become now that I’ve moved back here. Scouting new locations now.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Maryland “Freak State” PING!