Podcasts: Miller, “I needed to get 24 votes” on the tax hike; Pipkin, “It will cost us jobs”

March 15, 2012 at 8:59 pm

The State Senate passed an increase in the income tax, 26 to 20.

Senate President Mike Miller

Senate President Mike Miller

While only Democrats voted for it,  eight of them sided with Republicans in rejecting the measure, which will increase taxes. In this podcast from Duane Keenan, Senate President Mike Miller explains that progressive Democrats in his caucus demanded a higher tax on high earners.

“I needed to get 24 votes,” Miller says.  Minority Leader E.J. Pipkin says, “It will cost us jobs.”

“It’s class warfare,” says Sen. Bobby Zirkin in a second podcast from Keenan. “It’s the worst instincts of the Democratic Party,” said the Baltimore County Democrat who voted against the tax hike.

This budget package “reduces the structural deficit 70%,” says Sen. Rich Madaleno, D-Montgomery, who supported the increase.


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  • ELAINE WILLIAMS

    Oh no the sky is falling!  “It’s class warfare!”  “It will cost jobs!”  Blah, blah, blah…on and on.  We have a spending problem, we also have a tax problem.  For the love of God they are asking for a .25% for people who earn 1/2 a million dollars a year – do the math! It’s chump change.    For the rest of earning far less than that it’s not.  Have a look around you, the average constituent earns less than $100,000 a year – and in a lot of cases far less than that!    And I have to wonder about the guys who are vehemently opposed to this miniscule hike – I imagine that these high income people (and yes where I come from $500,000 a year is A LOT of money) are also heavy hitters in the campaign finance arena.   Stop all the bellyaching and start doing the business of the poeple.  And if it’s really true that .25% of a tax hike will cost jobs, let’s see the stats.  Do a study on it and don’t hire some outside “consultatnt” who will charge the state an outrageous sum to tell us something that most of alreay know.  This could be done on the local level with a few college math majors and 2 computers.  Why can’t any of you fight this hard about things that really matter? 

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Connie-Stilling/100003563633804 Connie Stilling

       You REALY DON’T HAVE A CLUE GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT,Don’t worry about how much someone has worry why tey are aways wanting more .Where is the stimulis money spent it?????//////AND here they  come again.In the end it will come from working  class.   CLASS WARFARE WE FIGHT FOR THEM…..

      • Joe J.

        I agree with Ms. Williams.  She nailed it on the head.  If the State doesn’t have the money, then our leaders needs to learn how to budget. 

        We have a MOB in Maryland looking after their own conquest and a Gov. O’Malley who will use this as a stepping stone to the White House.  BTW, the MOB stands for MILLER O’MALLEY and BUSCH…………..

  • joe

    Read the fine print to find out that the tax increase on people earning over $500,000 is 5.75% on total income, not just on income over $500,000!

  • john parks

    The budget deficit can be easily and permanently resolves without raising taxes, cutting programs or increasing Maryland’s debt. Although states are prohibited from issuing their own currencies, they can create money. By chartering and owning a state bank, depositing all state and local tax revenue in the bank as reserve capital and following the fractional reserve ratios established by the Federal reserve, the state owned bank lending out $9.00 for every dollar it has on deposit, the profits (interest) would be revenue for the state.

    A state bank would operate as an ordinary bank, offering checking and savings accounts to the citizens in the state, while providing mortgages for home loans, moneys for car loans, business loans, even interest free loans to the government itself.

    A modest home mortgage can serve as an example of the advantage of a state bank. A home owner pays $2,500 in real estate taxes and $7,500 mortgage interest. Currently the government receives only the $2,500 from the real estate tax. If it owned the bank, the state would receive both the real estate tax and an additional $7,500 interest payment. The home owner’s payment would not change.