Maryland Leaders Likely to Act to Raise Minimum Wage This Week

Annapolis Patch ^ | 11/18/2013 | Deb Belt, editor

[JustSurrounded]

Leaders say that if a bill to boost Maryland's minimum wage had been under consideration earlier, Tanger Outlet might have located its mall outside Prince George's County.

The regional effort by Maryland and District officials to raise the minimum wage enters a critical phase this week in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, reports the Washington Post, with complications that include allowing some municipalities to opt out of the wage increase.

Last month, lawmakers from three localities announced a collaborative effort to lift the minimum wage to at least $11.50 an hour by 2016, the Post said.

Earlier this month the Post reported that Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley launched an online petition drive to raise the state’s minimum wage. His office is working on a bill to introduce next year, but the governor has not said how much he would increase the current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

In Prince George’s County, the bill is on the County Council agenda for Tuesday, the last scheduled legislative session of 2013, the newspaper said. County Executive Rushern L. Baker III has said establishing a county minimum wage could hurt a locality that has struggled to attract top retailers.

That trend will be reversed at least in part Friday when Tanger Outlets at National Harbor opens. County officials said that, had the minimum wage bill been pending when Tanger was deciding where to locate, the company might have chosen a site outside of Prince George’s.

[JustSurrounded]

Sigh. Bravo, Maryland. The beat goes on ... our tolls go up, our gas tax is tied to inflation, rain tax. Read in another article at the website that O'Malley may be positioning himself for 2016 White House run.

[Red Badger]

Rain tax?..................

[JustSurrounded]

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/04/10/Maryland-governor-taxes-rain

Okay, so it’s officially “storm water management fee”.

[Paladin2]

They should raise it to $50/hr.

[Venturer]

Easy to guess who lives in the three municipalities that want the minimum wage increased.

As for Tanger Outlets, they should have known better than to go to PG County to begin with.

[Above My Pay Grade]

>>>Maryland Leaders Likely to Act to Raise Unemployment This Week<<<

Fixed it.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Brace yourselves, we are gonna see a lot of this over the next year or so.

[2harddrive]

Raise the min wage to WHAT? If such gimmicks really work, why not raise the min wage to $1,000/hour and make EVERYBODY rich?

[BfloGuy]

At some point, our grandchildren will accept unquestioningly the fact that when they go into a fast-food restaurant, they will select their choice on a screen, swipe their card, and a burger, a bun, and a package of lettuce will drop out of chutes into a bag a machine has put into position.

If they can afford to eat out at all.

[hosepipe]

[Uncle Miltie]

Because not enough young black men are unemployed yet.

[nascarnation]

only 11.50? don’t our people deserve better?

[JustSurrounded]

I wish we'd get rid of it. Between food stamps and housing assistance and tax credits, we have a system in place to bring households up to a certain income level, regardless of the arbitrary minimum wage. Seems to me all that raising a minimum wage does is shrink opportunities for the entry level part-timer.

I have yet to hear a politician who wants to raise the minimum wage claim that with the new wage, there will be no need for other subsidies. And if that's not the purpose of the minimum wage, what's the point of it? Other than to buy votes?

[ConservativeInPA]

They should raise it to $50/hr.

Why not $60 or $70/hr?

[Eagles6]

Western Maryland needs to secede.

[SoFloFreeper]

When does Maryland unemployment rate hit 8%? 9%? Last I looked, it was at 7%.

[Paladin2]

Killer:

[Paladin2]

I think $50 is a nice round number and would prove the point.

[GeronL]

Why $11.50, why not $100?

[maddog55]

They charge septic tank owners like myself to save the bay...

‘Flush tax’ in Maryland to double in July
By Jason Babcock,May 09, 2012

Beginning on July 1, the tax on flushing a toilet in Maryland will double, generating millions of dollars more to help restore the Chesapeake Bay.

The Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fee, known as the flush tax, will increase from $30 per year to $60. The Maryland General Assembly passed the increase.

The fee is used to upgrade the state’s 67 major sewer treatment plants that discharge into tidal waters, upgrade failing septic systems and fund cover crops for fields — all to improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

In St. Mary’s County, the flush tax is applied to the property tax bills of homeowners using septic systems. A $2.50 fee is added to the monthly bills for customers of the St. Mary’s Metropolitan Commission, which operates public water and sewer systems.

The flush tax will go to $5 per month on MetCom bills. MetCom customers are also scheduled to have increases in their monthly bills beyond the flush tax increase — about $4.50 more per month for residential customers, to cover the rising costs of maintaining the systems.