The Maryland Senate is expected to give final approval today to a package of tax hikes that will raise more than $300 million a year. But a little noticed provision will also raise $36 million in new taxes from companies that back mortgages on commercial development and homebuilding. Opponents say it will add to the cost of construction and harm Maryland’s business rankings. [...more]
Sen. Roger Manno has proposed an income tax hike that is the focus of the Senate's budget balancing plan. "At the end of the day, we have to find the right balance between cuts and revenues, and the right types of revenues that resonate well with the folks who pay the bills," said Manno, D-Montgomery, in this video. [...more]
Senate Budget and Taxation Committee Chairman Edward Kasemeyer told a Howard County Chamber of Commerce breakfast Wednesday that he personally favored rolling back Maryland’s corporate income tax by 1/4% a year for several years. This would bring Maryland’s 8.25% corporate tax rate – raised four years ago from 7% – closer to Virginia’s 6% rate. [...more]
State policymakers all agreed that Maryland needs more money for transportation needs. How to get that money was the subject of two meetings in Annapolis on Wednesday. [...more]
Maryland needs to be more business friendly than Virginia to create more jobs and stabilize the state’s economy, a panel of business leaders told the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee Tuesday. The hearing, scheduled to discuss corporate taxes and job creation, zeroed in on how Maryland needs to become a better place to do business than neighboring Virginia, which panelists said is the state’s only real competition in terms of getting businesses and creating jobs. [...more]
The Maryland House of Delegates passed a slightly trimmed version of Gov. Martin O’Malley’s $34 billion budget on a straight party-line vote Thursday evening. About 90 minutes before, the members of the Senate Budget & Taxation Committee passed its own version of the same budget. They agreed to most of the changes made by the House which had been suggested by the Department of Legislative Services, but they disagreed on a few key points. [...more]
The newly appointed commission to review the long-term sustainability of the state pension system will hold its first meeting sometime in the next few weeks. But union officials are already warning of dire consequences should the commission recommend cuts. Maryland currently has about $32 billion combined in several pension funds. That’s less than two thirds [...] [...more]
Some senators are questioning bills narrowly tailored to secure insurance and pension benefits to a small number of constituents with unusual circumstances. The Senate passed measures last week preventing pension allowances from going down and allowing surviving family members to cash in on disability benefits in the case of a person dying before the state is able to process the application. [...more]
Senators are asking the Maryland Transit Administration to go back and look at different options for its three proposed transit lines, two of which are in the early stages of a lengthy quest for federal aid. When it signed off on Gov. Martin O’Malley’s budget proposal last week, the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee called for the MTA to re-examine reccmmendations to use “light rail” alignments on the proposed Red Line in Baltimore and the Purple Line in the Washington Suburbs. [...more]
It was a fitting end to Sunshine Week in Annapolis Friday morning when the chairman of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee threw everybody out of the hearing room with no explanation. Those tossed included staff, lobbyists and our reporter Erich Wagner. Staff members told Wagner it had to do with an individual senator. [...more]
