Why not reduce spending?
Mistah, you funny!
The ease with which Maryland can raise taxes is a function of its being resident to so many government workers who are paid through the (seemingly) unending stream of cash extorted from Americans by the federal government. People on the Eastern Shore and west of the DC metroplex are SOL, but they are consistently outvoted by Maryland’s vast Democrat base of welfare slugs+government employees/retirees.
Other big blue states (e.g. California) don’t have this luxury and will burn down first.
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Amen. That giant sucking sound is the sound of US government tax dollars coming in to DC and being “recirculated” with a significant chunk of the recirculation being paid out to highly paid (and essentially unable to be fired) federal employees living in Maryland and equally large numbers of contractors supporting these federal employees. And you’re right, the folks living on the Eastern shore or to the west of the Washington-Baltimore axis are truly SOL and are always outvoted by the government employees and the “beneficiaries” of government handouts in Baltimore city and Montgomery & Prince Georges counties.
There is hope however. The American taxpayers are beginning to display signs of having enough with this BS. The “Beast” can be starved by continuing to have federal pay levels frozen at current levels. We should all have our representatives in Congress know that that is our strong desire.
I am a government employee and make 37,800 a year. I never considered myself making big bucks in government and that is as a GS-6. Not exactly at the bottom of the totem poll. Government workers don’t make as much as people think. I never understood why people believe that people are rich fat cats if they are part of the federal government. And you know living in Maryland that 37K is like big time poverty. I live in Arnold Maryland which is part of Anne Arundel County and is very expensive. Oh my wife is stay at home with four children so I suppose some may tell her to get off her “lazy butt” and get a job but we chose for her to homeschool and watch our children which is a tough job as every parent knows. To be honest I do bring home another 2200 dollars from my retirement from the military, but still that is not bringing in the big money either.