Posted on 03/14/2012 4:45:44 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
ANNAPOLIS — Gov. Martin O'Malley will go before House and Senate committees Wednesday and ask them to raise the state’s gas tax, but he might get drowned out by the talk from constituents back in lawmakers’ home districts.
Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, has clung to the proposal in recent weeks even as skepticism of the plan has mounted in the face of rising gas prices and persistent objections from the public.
The governor says the tax increase is a necessary investment in the state’s congested, too-long-ignored road and transit infrastructure.
But with gas prices climbing toward $4 a gallon, leading Democratic lawmakers now say the unpopular proposal has been all but torpedoed by high prices and that legislators should come back and revisit it at a more appropriate time.
“As long as the gas is rising, I don’t see any appetite for a gas-tax increase,” Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., Prince George’s Democrat, said Tuesday. “It might not pass this year but people need roads, they need bridges, they need mass transit and it’s got to happen.
Numerous states are looking to boost funding for roads and transit but most have shied away from increasing their gas tax due to outcry from residents. Last year, several states including Maryland abandoned proposals while Georgia and North Carolina instituted automatic increases that would tie the tax rate to inflation.
This year, Maryland, Iowa and Michigan are considering gas-tax proposals.
Mr. O'Malley’s plan would phase in a 6-percent sales tax on gas bought at the wholesale level by installing a 2-percent tax next year with additional 2-percentage-point increases in the following two years.
The state currently has a 23.5-cents-a-gallon excise tax on gas, which has gone unchanged since 1992 when prices were barely over $1 a gallon.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Tone-deaf doesn’t even begin to describe it.
unbelievable.
Owe’Malley for President!...NOT!
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
O’Malley is as out of touch and as clueless as the Obama administration. In Bethesda on Old Georgetown Road, gas is already $4.79 a gallon, well above the national average.
Maryland FReepers, my heart goes out to you. That is quite a crew running things up there in the (oh-so-ironically titled) Free State.
The only “hike” in this equation, should be his own....
This one would be fun to watch.
In 2006 to 2008 Marylanders were screaming about high gas prices, but with Obama as POTUS and his lackey O Malley wanting to raise gas taxes I bet they(most) will be very quiet about it as they go up this time,
O’ Malley is a damned fool.
Soon we will see how many other Maryland Senators and House members are damned fools.
Maryland does not have high taxes compared to the rest of the states.
But to try to add to them at THIS TIME show an utter lack of connection to reality.
A Democrat raising taxes, how unusual.
But it’s for the CHILDREN!!!
Whenever i see that thug on tv, my stomach turns.
He is everything wrong w this country, as is that ghetto monster obama
The damn fools are Maryland voters who put Democrats into office.
When Owe-malley became governer, his first act was to raise the state sales tax.
To hell with Owe-malley and all of them in Annapolis.
The Nazi Party did the same thing to the youth of Germany leading up to and during the second world war.
They took youth organizations and basicly turned them into breeding factories to supply the German Army with the troops it would need.
How much longer will it take for 0 to get his way?He’s getting close.Taking away parental rights.
Somehow this got tacked onto the wrong post.It should have been placed on the one prior to this.DISREGARD.
Boy that last person driving a car in Maryland is going to pay a hell of price for a gallon of gas. But at least there won’t be anyone else on the road.
The Pennsylvania and West Virginia Gasoline Retailers Associations wholeheartedly support this measure...
http://www.commonsensejunction.com/notes/gas-tax-rate.html
Adding .20 a gallon as the article suggests would make Maryland the 5th highest in the nation according to the chart above.
I feel for you marylanders!
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