OPINION - Repealing Sales Tax Is First Priority For New Administration

For Release: April 10, 2010
Contact: Bryan Shuy - (240) 475-6616

By Minority Whip Nancy Jacobs (R-District 34)

In the coming weeks, Maryland's voters will be subjected to campaign advertising touting Governor Martin O'Malley as standing up for "working families." Unfortunately, the truth is that O'Malley's actions over the last four years have been harmful to the middle-class and working poor in our state.

Many of Maryland's working families and small businesses are already struggling to stay afloat. Instead of punishing them, we need to take proactive steps to decrease the regressive attack by state government on working families and their financial distress. Moreover, state leaders must promote economic development and foster job growth instead of overtaxing our small business community.

Instead of standing up to support working families and small business, O'Malley urged legislators to pass a 20% increase in the sales tax in 2007. The sales and use tax is the most regressive tax on Maryland's books. It disproportionately harms the working poor and small business.

For example, by the end of this calendar year, a Maryland family earning $70,000 a year or more will have paid an additional $3,174 in sales and use taxes to the state under the O'Malley sales tax increase (data provided by Department of Legislative Services). According to a 2007 Ernst & Young quantitative economic and statistical study, the sales tax increase was expected to cost Maryland job losses of 8,334 jobs by 2012 and 9,274 jobs by 2017. Thus O'Malley's actions compounded the pain and record-high state unemployment numbers of the ongoing recession.

Repealing the sales tax increase is one of the key state issues raised by Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., during the announcement of his candidacy for Governor. I believe that rescinding Gov. O'Malley's 2007 sales tax hike is crucial to opening the door to economic recovery in Maryland. In fact, this year I introduced legislation to rescind the 20% increase to the sales tax because of the fact that it cost Maryland families thousands of dollars and cost our state thousands of jobs.

In his campaign announcement, Ehrlich also challenged the legislature and state leaders to double public charter schools in Maryland. This session, I proposed laws to help public charter schools thrive and gain access to critical capital funding. Maryland's pathetic lack of support for charter schools is one reason why the state ranks so poorly for the federal "Race to the Top" competitive education funding program created by President Barack Obama.

In education debates, I often hear O'Malley and Democrat legislators crow about Maryland's number one ranking for public schools but they never address Maryland's last place ranking for charter schools. The success of our charter schools in poor inner-city neighborhoods is not something that O'Malley and state legislators should abandon, especially given the amazing track record of success many of these charter schools have shown.

The prevalent view is that charter schools represent a threat to the public education status quo in areas with failing schools. Tragically, O'Malley and Democrat legislators are afraid to stand up for working families and to help the most-needy children succeed when their interests conflict with demands from the teachers unions.

As a powerful special interest group, the teachers union provides lucrative campaign contributions and extensive election support including endorsements, direct mail, grassroots organizing and hundreds of precinct workers on Election Day. During the 2010 legislative session, O'Malley missed an opportunity. He gave up on public charter schools and the less fortunate youth they serve because of the political expediency of his re-election campaign.

I believe that Maryland's voters will agree with Bob Ehrlich that reducing the tax burden on working Marylanders and small businesses, getting Maryland's fiscal house in order, redoubling our commitment to charter school and repealing the regressive sales tax should be the top priorities of state government.

It pains me to say that in many ways I believe Annapolis is broken and that the ruling one-party monopoly spends more time catering to special interests than to the interests of our state's citizens and taxpayers. I'm excited to see a serious discussion of this imbalance of power in Maryland as we move forward this campaign year.

In my heart, I know that Bob Ehrlich is the right man to fix Annapolis and put Maryland back on the path to prosperity and opportunity for all.