Posted on 02/18/2012 1:44:27 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
For years, we’ve been hearing from experts across the political spectrum about the need to invest more in our failing transportation infrastructure in Maryland. The D.C. region is at the top of the list of the most-congested cities in America, and Baltimore is not far behind. Almost half of Maryland’s roads and bridges are in poor or mediocre condition, and 55 percent of our urban highways are heavily congested. Maryland’s construction industry and its thousands of workers have been decimated by years of severe cuts in transportation investment. Despite what is clearly a growing need, Maryland’s transportation program is a shadow of its former self. Our failure to invest has cost us tens of thousands of jobs, and the price tag will only go up if we don’t reverse course.
This year, in his State of the State address, Gov. Martin O’Malley called on state legislators to add $613 million in dedicated transportation funding by applying the state’s 6 percent sales tax to gasoline sales at the wholesale level. The governor’s diagnosis is correct: Our economy is slowly choking to death, and we know what medicine to take. The fact that it may not taste good going down is no reason to refuse treatment. Our region’s health suffered for years as we endlessly debated building the Intercounty Connector, a roadway that is now taking cars off the Beltway and giving motorists some relief. We need to take bold action once again.
The gas tax has not been raised in Maryland since 1992 and, because it is not indexed to inflation, it has lost roughly 60 percent of its value. Without a major increase in funds, we simply will not be able to keep pace with basic maintenance needs...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Never mind the fact that O’Malley raided Maryland’s Transportation fund two years ago to pay for his new social programs, and now wants to raise gas taxes to try and put it back.
>>>Maryland’s politics are virtually controlled by three areas: Baltimore City, PG County & Montgomery County (Democratic strongholds). That’s where virtually all the state spending goes and it’s all the government in Annapolis cares about. Only when Bob Ehrlich was Governor (though he was a RINO), did Carroll County really get any glance from Annapolis.<<
And on a differently related subject, I know at least one state - Connecticut - that had a state legislature in which one chamber was apportioned by geography and the other chamber was apportioned by population. That way, the rural areas wouldn’t constantly be on the losing end compared to the cities.
Our black-robed saviors eliminated that kind of state legislature in 1962 with a case called Reynolds vs Sims. It’s interesting to read from the dissenters in the case. Justice Harlan said the court was ignoring the original intent of the framers by imposing its own vision of government on the states; Sen. Everett Dirksen said it would leave states unbalanced, with the four million in Chicago overwhelming and ruling over the one million in 100 counties.
And here you are.
God help us.
Making Marylanders pay the 6% sales tax on Gasoline would raise the current tax 24 cents a gallon (gas at $4.00 a gallon + 6%) on top of the already exhorbitant taxes we pay on gasoline.
I believe some Marylanders would show up in Annapolis with ropes or tar and feathers.
If O’Malley hadn’t stolen the Transportation Funds to help pay for casa De Maryland and his other social projects instead of fixing our roads we would have good roads and plenty of money too.
WE need a good governor, one less in love with Homo’s,illegals, and spending.
I have heard rumors of a new day dawning when a dark horse runs for Governor in 2 years.
“They should just move everyone to the Agenda 21 Concentration Kamps ASAP.”
The trouble with that idea, Paladin2, is that they need massive transit, like semis and oil carriers, to move all the fat welfare mommas and their jumbo bags of chips and two liter bottles of coke to come get us.
Cheers, buddy.
the largest, single employer in central MD is NSA and all the supporting contractors. government is already the biggest industry.....why would more taxes be "better" in maryland? the rest of the state? eastern MD is largely republican and largely ignored. southern MD doesn't exist to useless politicians. all that "maryland" is is baltimore city (welfare basket case), PG and Montgomery counties - government employees who don't want to live in the freefire zone which is DC. this means the political keystones for MD are all dependent on government.....of COURSE they need taxes. god forbid they get real jobs which grows jobs, grows a tax base, etc. (fyi, this is Mr. ZinGirl ranting away here while I read him the article!)
Good post.
Energy is freedom.
Statists hate cheap energy because it allows people to escape the perfectly planned societies they have set up. They need it to be expensive and available only to a few because that facilitates control. Citizen, you must obey new decree # 678A0993, under penalty of losing your monthly heat/light/transportation ration.
The criminal governor blew $700,000,000 from the transportation “trust” fund on “black-hole” projects (no...I’m not being racist). Now, this Freak governor complains there isn’t money in the trust fund. DUH! It is probably in your buddies’ pockets.
Mr. Douglas Duncan, writing for the Washington Post, here discloses which side he has taken regarding a government and the citizens who supposedly authorize that government. He is on the side of government.
Taxes, whether sales tax or gas tax, do not add value to a commodity, they reduce it. Governments already make more money on the sale of a gallon of gas than the people who risk their lives and capital to find the petroleum reserves, extract them, refine them, and deliver them to your corner service station.
For this, the industrialists make about a nickel.
Maryland is already making forty cents, and this greedy governor, whose first action, even before the normal legislative session, was to raise the sales tax, wants to increase his take by another twenty cents.
Thus Maryland would be making sixty cents per gallon, while those doing the work would get a nickel.
For this booty, the state of Maryland does nothing, other than to threaten the lives and property of those attempting to do business in this local version of the Khyber Pass and its highway robbers.
Why do you have such a hate-fest over toll roads?
The owners of such roads want to maximize their profits, so when they see that there isn’t enough capacity to meet demand, they will expand the road... unlike the government.
Plus, they keep the roads in better condition, for the same reason.
And this is what you rally against?
I live in Howard county... but vote in Florida, so I don’t tend to follow the local politics much.
Any idea of how Howard county tends to vote (I’m figuring Democrap, though)?
“Why do you have such a hate-fest over toll roads?
The owners of such roads want to maximize their profits, so when they see that there isn’t enough capacity to meet demand, they will expand the road... unlike the government.”
In that case, let them have their highways, IN THE FREE MARKET. Let them buy the land (not steal it), build the roads, and operate it, WITHOUT MONOPOLY PROTECTION (i.e., non-compete clauses).
But no, it NEVER happens that way. Instead you have AIRHEAD GOVERNORS, like the ones in Indiana and Texas, who sell out their states’ futures in return for some nice dinners and quick cash so they can brag about ‘balanced budgets’ when they run for president.
So when you can point me to FREE MARKET at work, rather than Crony Capitalist dealing, then you’ll find me more receptive. Until then I will not be any more supportive of this crap than I am of deals like Solyndra, because it’s basically the same thing.
And by the way, I’ve driven on many thousands of miles of PUBLICLY OWNED highways that were often much better than your precious toll roads.
Sorry Tol, that’s your call. Didn’t see who posted the article. We just differ here a bit.
For me here in Texas, if they increased the gas tax by 25 cents and still gave away one forth of that to “the schools” (as they have been doing), I’d still far prefer it over our toll road ‘solution’ of Crony Capitalism (certainly in the case of these private toll roads)...and TexDot would still have twice the amount of money to work with.
Total Bullshit the Gas tax pays for everything but it purpose which is to fix the roads!!!
First of all, MD makes 23.5 cents off a gallon of gasoline, while the Fed makes 18.3 or 18.4 cents. Second, there was one regular legisl00tive session before O’Moron got his sales tax increase in a special session in the fall of 2007.
Wouldn’t it be better for Texas to stop all those diversions to DPS, etc. first and have a Constitutional amendment to stop the diversion to the public skrools? I’m sure you can’t be too happy about teachers unions sucking money out of your gas tank.
“Yes and eating dirt isn’t really all that bad for you - we have a SCIENTIC study right here to prove it”
“Wouldn’t it be better for Texas to stop all those diversions to DPS, etc. first and have a Constitutional amendment to stop the diversion to the public skrools? I’m sure you can’t be too happy about teachers unions sucking money out of your gas tank.”
You’re darn right...but that only gets us a nickel. We still need more like 20 cents to get enough budget to start building and expanding freeways. But yes, 5 cents is a start, and so would indexing the tax to the cost of doing the work. But when you have a toll-road driven governor, why bother taking the political heat for all that, just charge like crazy on anything new and claim it’s just for drivers paying the road (when, in truth, they’re paying for that road at least 4 times over...to make up for the lack of a realistic gas tax and other social programs).
Selling pre-built highways to companies isn’t selling out the state’s future. Usually, the company only has it for a fixed duration, during which they’ll improve and expand the road based on profit and traffic (demand). Afterwards, the road reverts to state control (and all the improvements, too).
Secondly, non-competition clauses are d@#n near impossible to enforce, as it would only apply to another company buying another state road that goes to the same places as the first one. And how many states have multiple state highways lying around that are going to the exact same places? Most don’t...
As for lack of bidding for the roads in the first place... that’s the only problem I see on this and could be easily fixed if people would inundate their politicians explaining that there should be open bidding for such projects.
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