Just 25 days after it was introduced, the Maryland Senate enacted the first gas tax hike in 21 years, sending the governor a 10 to 12 cent per gallon increase by 2015. The bill calls for the tax to go even higher -- it will rise automatically in future years. [...more]
A controversial gas tax hike already passed by the House of Delegates was approved by a Senate committee Thursday, moving it one step closer to becoming law. The committee also approved a constitutional amendment requiring three-fifths votes in both houses to use transportation money for other purposes, a so-called lockbox. [...more]
The intensely debated gas tax hike electrified the house floor on Friday moving many delegates to speak who “hadn’t planned on standing up.” The two hour debate, culminated in a hotly disputed vote, ultimately passing 76 votes to 63. HB 1515 raises Maryland’s gas tax by at least 10 cents per gallon or more over the next two years, indexing it to inflation, with aims to fund mass transit projects and highway improvements. [...more]
Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposed gasoline tax hike that was late arriving for this year's General Assembly session is now clearly on a fast track for passage. The House of Delegates gave it preliminary approval Wednesday night -- just five days after its first hearing. The Democrat-dominated House easily beat back Republican attempts to modify the bill, HB1515, indicating more than enough Democrats are on board to pass it as early as Thursday. [...more]
Dozens of people gathered outside the State House Friday to protest a proposed hike on the gas tax. Wielding paper stop signs that said “Stop the Gas Tax,” the group rallied around their spokesman, Nick Loffer, a grassroots director for Americans for Prosperity. “We’re talking about a 60% gas tax hike which, if enacted, will give us the fifth highest gas tax in the country,” said Loffer. [...more]
Responding to Republican assertions at a Tuesday morning news conference that a gas tax hike he proposed is unnecessary, Senate President Mike Miller said, “These people are Neanderthals.” Miller suggested that Republicans were towing the party line even though many of their districts would benefit from the passage of the tax bill. [...more]
A tax-weary legislature has no stomach to raise needed transportation revenues. Everybody agrees that a good transportation network of roads, highways, bridges and mass transit are an essential underpinning of the Maryland economy. But there’s no agreement on how to pay for this transportation system in the 21st century. [...more]
There was something new in Gov. Martin O’Malley’s State of the State address Wednesday, something refreshing, a lot of the same old same old and something very disappointing. [...more]
A lot of the reporters wanted to talk about guns at Tuesday’s roundtable with Gov. Martin O’Malley, and the governor did speak in general terms about the need for more gun control and mental health services. But what O’Malley really wanted to talk about was how his administration measured up to the 15 broad goals that are tracked by the governor’s “delivery unit.” Maryland did show broad progress on most of the goals since O’Malley took office, and some of the targets had already been met . [...more]
Gov. Martin O’Malley’s plan to raise transportation funds with a 6% sales tax on gasoline was hailed both as a way to raise money for needed infrastructure projects as well as a way to kill local jobs in gas stations and trucking companies at hearings in House and Senate committees Wednesday. [...more]
