Gov. Martin O'Malley wants to tax salons in Maryland

[IronSheik]

Originally Posted by Ezliving_Jim

Dems are killing business in Maryland.

Yeah that's it.

Nothing to do with paying for an unjust war.

Nothing.

[lamptech]

Just imagine how bad it would be if hillary gets her way. At some point we have to stand up and tell the government NO, after all they are supposed to work for us right???

[IronSheik]

"Just imagine how bad it would be if hillary gets her way"

How could it get worse? She'd end funding of an unjust war. That's 10BILLION a month NOT spend on a tire fire.

I'd say that's pretty good savings.

(Ooops still logged in under the sheik.)

	First Merchant Funding

[Ezliving_Jim]

Editorial
Marylanders are already overtaxed, Gov. O’Malley

The Washington DC Examiner Newspaper, The Examiner
2007-09-26 07:00:00.0


WASHINGTON - T o deal with Maryland’s $1.5 billion deficit, Gov. Martin O’Malley wants to increase taxes on just about everything, including personal and corporate income, sales, services, tobacco, gasoline, vehicle titles, you name it.

The $2 billion in new taxes he’s proposed doesn’t cover the $137 million needed to satisfy requirements of the 2002 Thornton education funding law, as the governor promised to do during the 2006 campaign.

The basic flaw in O’Malley’s tax increase proposal is that it assumes Marylanders don’t pay high enough taxes to support our politicians at the level to which they would like to become accustomed. Politicians long ago became accustomed to spending too much. That’s why it isn’t even remotely credible to suggest that a $200 million cut in a $2 billion annual budget is somehow draconian.

But spending cuts are an issue for another day. For now, let’s focus on the impact of O’Malley’s tax hike on Maryland’s economy. The governor needs to look at the map. Steve Entin, president of the Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation, says studies show people and businesses can move elsewhere fairly easily when the tax and regulatory burden gets too heavy where they are.

“You have to worry about chasing people out of your state,” Entin says. That’s what happened, for example, when Massachusetts tried to tax its way out of a similar overspending problem several years ago. Many companies just picked up and moved to New Hampshire, taking their jobs and their tax payments with them. All those new homes being built just across the line in Pennsylvania and the Marylanders buying them suggests it can easily happen here, too.

Maryland already is less business-friendly than its next-door neighbors. The Tax Foundation ranks Maryland 29th in “business climate” — way behind Delaware (ninth), Virginia (13th) and even trailing Pennsylvania (22nd). Marylanders also have the 16th-highest tax burden in the nation. “Tax Freedom Day” — the date on which taxpayers finally get to keep their own earnings — doesn’t come until May 1 in the Old Line State. It will be even later if O’Malley has his way.

Slapping new taxes on accounting and legal firms, car repair and beauty shops, real estate agents and appraisers, or any of the other service and professional businesses that have helped make Maryland the wealthiest state in the nation is a particularly bad idea, according to the National Federation of Independent Business, which warns state legislators that small firms here will be the hardest hit.

So, when are the politicians in Annapolis going to start taking some real hits for a change?

	First Merchant Funding

[Ezliving_Jim]

Please focus your calls on your representatives (Senators and Delegates) in the districts where you live and where your business is located. http://mdelect.net/

Also, contact the Delegates on the Ways and Means Committee. http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/mdmanual/06hse/html/com/07ways.html

Contact Senators on the Budget and Taxation Committee. http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/mdmanual/05sen/html/com/01bud.html

Contact Gov. O'Malley. http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/mdmanual/08conoff/html/01gov.html


Please encourage any Maryland salon owners you know to get involved. Ask them to contact me to receive updates.

[eileen]

Thanks Jim. I do try to watch what goes on in PA, MD and NJ they could influence DE.

[JOHN @ URI]

Already in OHIO for the past 2 years.
We have a 7.5% sales tax in Cuyahoga County where I live.

Almost everyone upped prices. Had too.

This & the minimum wage increase is really killing salons.

**megatanman, you stole my cow bell**

[megatanman]

Originally Posted by JOHN @ URI

Already in OHIO for the past 2 years.
We have a 7.5% sales tax in Cuyahoga County where I live.

Almost everyone upped prices. Had too.

This & the minimum wage increase is really killing salons.

**megatanman, you stole my cow bell**

Yea Ohio really stinks,but i start my employees at $8 so I will be good for 10 more years.

WE NEED MORE COWBELL JOHN!

[eileen]

Depends on who's measuring

By BERNIE BECKER, Capital News Service
Published September 30, 2007
Over the past 10 days, Gov. Martin O'Malley unveiled a sweeping budget plan during a whirlwind tour of the state, with stops from Glyndon to Gaithersburg and Ellicott City back to Annapolis.
With the full package finally out there, the governor says the state can erase its $1.7 billion shortfall even as "the vast majority of Marylanders" pay less in taxes. But House Minority Leader Anthony O'Donnell said the governor is selling snake oil, proposing "a massive tax increase on the citizens of Maryland."
The two sides do agree on one point. Single smokers making over $250,000 per year living in a rental property are really going to take it on the chin - especially if they work out, frequent tanning salons and need a new car.After that, it gets fuzzy.
The governor, for example, predicts that a family of four making $250,000 would get an $85 tax break while a single adult earning $125,000 would only pay $8 more per year.
Republicans question the accuracy of the governor's estimates, noting for example that he predicts someone making $125,000 a year would pay the same in additional sales taxes under his plan - $212 a year - as someone earning $750,000 a year.
There is a "reason the numbers don't make sense and he hasn't given much detail," said Mr. O'Donnell, a Calvert Republican. The governor "has to be vague" because he is perpetuating "a fraud . . . on the citizens of Maryland."
A spokeswoman for the governor said the sales tax figures were taken from Department of Legislative Services projections for a failed House bill last year that would have raised the sales tax by a penny.
But Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert, has a simpler answer for the lack of detail: The bills proposed by Mr. O'Malley "haven't even been drafted yet," Mr. Miller said
Mr. Miller calls the governor's plan "well thought-out and comprehensive," and said Republicans are "taking themselves out of the equation" on this debate by not being more pragmatic.
"They won't even support the increase" on the cigarette tax, he said.
The cigarette tax is just one element of Mr. O'Malley's plan. He wants to double the tax, from $1 to $2 a pack, which would raise $255 million. Two-thirds of that would go to the shortfall and the rest to health care initiatives.
Other pieces of the plan include:
Changing the current flat income tax system to a graduated system that Mr. O'Malley said would result in a tax cut for 95 percent of taxpayers and no change for another 1.3 percent. But the increase on the top 3.7 percent of earners would net $163 million in new revenue.
Raising the sales tax increase from 5 cents to 6 cents per dollar and extending the tax to health clubs, tanning salons and other services, to raise $804 million.
Increasing the vehicle titling tax from 5 percent to 6 percent, letting the state's gas tax rise with construction costs and boosting corporate income tax from 7 percent to 8 percent. Combined, those moves would generate most of the $400 million in new revenue that would be dedicated to state transportation fund and higher education.
Closing loopholes that let corporations avoid paying taxes on real estate transfers and on profits made in Maryland. The plan will net $94 million in new taxes, about $40 million of which would go toward the deficit.
Approving slot machines along the lines of a 2005 House bill that called for 9,500 machines. The governor predicted slots would raise about $27 million in the next year and as much as $550 million by 2012, the bulk of which would be dedicated to education.
Mr. O'Malley's package also includes tax breaks and spending cuts.
He called for doubling the income tax exemption for those 65 and older, from $1,000 to $2,000, and making a $50 sales tax rebate available to offset the increase for lower-income households. His plan would cut the state's portion of the property tax 3 cents per $100 of assessed value.
The governor also has made more than $400 million in spending cuts and saved another $300 million by freezing some portions of the Thornton education plan and phasing in others.
In all, the cuts and new taxes would net approximately $2 billion for the next fiscal year.
But the true impact of the package on Maryland residents will not be known until the General Assembly convenes next, most likely in a special session this fall.
Mr. O'Donnell said that whenever lawmakers meet, they should focus on spending, not on taxes. The state has a spending problem, not a revenue problem, he said.
"This whole thing is very odious," Mr. O'Donnell said.
But Mr. Miller said a full "three-legged stool" of spending cuts, increased revenue and slots are going to be needed to erase the shortfall. And he said the governor's plan has one of the hallmarks of a true compromise.
"There's something there everyone can like," he said. "And there's something there for everyone to dislike."

[Ezliving_Jim]

The Bills to tax tanning in Maryland are introduced.

Senate SB-2 http://mlis.state.md.us/2007s1/billfile/sb0002.htm

House of Delegates HB-2 http://mlis.state.md.us/2007s1/billfile/hb0002.htm