From the Harford County Republican Central Committee:
Letter begins here:
Dear Residents of Maryland:
Governor Martin O’Malley continues to demonstrate the breadth of his big-government mentality during this ongoing legislative session in Annapolis. It is apparent that he is trying to position himself as a liberal leader as he looks ahead at future political office — and he is using the working-class people of Maryland as a stepping stone.
Governor O’Malley introduced a budget that increases spending by more than $1 billion over FY2012, the last fiscal year’s budget. This budget is larger than it has ever been, just like each and every budget from Governor O’Malley for the past six years of his term in office.
This budget proposal includes numerous tax increases including capping income tax deductions for families and homeowners. The budget increases the tax on smokeless tobacco and cigars. The budget extends the 6% sales tax to internet sales as well.
Mandates in this budget will push more than $9 Million to Harford County for pension costs. This will mean either cuts or tax increases in Harford County. We will work with our Republican-led County Council and Executive to make these tough cuts, but it won’t be easy.
The Maryland portion of the Gasoline Fuel Tax is currently 24 cents per gallon. O’Malley has proposed to add the Maryland 6% sales tax to it, adding more than 20 cents per gallon at today’s fuel prices. This tax will bite the wallet of everybody in Maryland, specifically the poorest among us, who are struggling to get to work, get their kids to school, and buy groceries.
Governor O’Malley also intends to increase our electricity rates to by $24 per year to subsidize an off-shore wind farm. This costly proposal has not been proven successful in other states and construction will not start for at least five years, long after O’Malley has left office in Maryland- with us holding the bill.
Remember the 2007 O’Malley Special Session tax increases? The sales tax increase from 5% to 6%, the corporate tax increase, the tax on high earners, and the tech tax? And how about last year’s alcohol tax increase?
So long as we permit the message to be “just a little bit more will be enough,” we will be ruled by big government Democratic politicians in Maryland. Like Ronald Reagan said, “Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.”
Join us in the Republican Party, for a different message. All of our Republican legislators in Annapolis plan to vote against each of these proposals and will send the message that Maryland cannot afford more taxes. Let’s begin a conversation about the role of government in our lives, and start fighting for more freedom and less taxes and regulation.
For information on switching political affiliations or to get involved with the Harford County Republican Party today, please go to our website at HarfordGOP.org.
Respectfully,
Your Harford County Republican Central Committee
Big government/big spending Democrats or Big government/big spending Republicans? What to do? This appears to be a Morton’s Fork. How about none of the above?
I have nicknamed all of the Charmin in the house, O’Malley!
The problem is not only 2 Mikes and a MOM. The problem is the mindset of the voters who put them in office in the first place. We all knew what we were going to get if these critters got back in office and I guess the people of MD got what they wanted. Woe is me!!
I agree. I don’t understand the mindset of the people who put these people in office – the same for Obama. They need to be removed. VOTE REPUBLICAN
I agree with you on the Governor and his passing the buck to the county. But I don’t believe the HRCC will be involved in the budget making process for the county. You have as much input on the process as we county citizens do. You and HDCC are not elected for anything other then supporting your party. Your piece is excellent on getting the word out of what the Governor is about to do to us in Harford County. But to make any inference that Central Committee’s have input to the budgeting process is just overstepping it a bit. Keep up the good work!
As long as the state and Harford County are run for the benefit of politicians then we all will suffer. Harford County needs a clue not another ‘homegrown’ republican candidate. Maryland needs a governor, not a player.
Let it go to referendum and keep the politics out of it.
Here is your problem: the long-running con game of the county’s conservatives, and the wealthy supporters they serve, had finally gone bad. For decades the G.O.P. has won elections by appealing to social and racial divisions, only to turn after each victory to deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy. Want to see karma? Look in the mirror
As the white wife of the only black member of The Harford Coutny Republican Central Committee, I find your comment to be offensive. You see, if people would simply educate themselves, they would quickly realize that democrats are the ones that have always caused and supported your so-called racial divide. Republicans are the ones that passed The 1964 Civil Rights Bill! We now live in 2012 and I simply pray that small minded people realize how many Americans have died for our freedom! Wake up people and please salvage our country!
Dottie Dupree, wife of Frank A. Dupree
not caring about karma. caring about how I’m gonna feed and clothe my kids. Omalley and his judge wife living the life at our expense. this gas tax lie – federal gov’t has paid for our roads and bridges while MD govs have used the trans fund for other stuff. If we let these lying politicians rip us off, just sad.
I don’t understand why Republicans are against pushing the cost of teacher pensions onto the counties that actually hire, decide the pay rate, and benefit from these teachers. It’s interesting that the Republican Central Committee wants to continue to have Harford County Taxpayers funding Montgomery and Howard Counties higher teacher salaries.
Fact Check
Probably because they understand that very large pension funds are better positioned to take advantage of investment opportunities than smaller funds. Larger funds have better capability of diversifying their investments and surviving/recovering from downturns in the market than smaller funds.
It doesn’t change where the pension fund is invested. All the monies are combined. It only changes who funds the required monies from the State to the County.
Fact Check,
So how does Harford County benefit from such a change?
Because Harford County taxpayers are no longer paying for Montgomery County’s teacher pensions through our state taxes. While it is a state mandage to fund pensions, each county decides how much to pay their employees which directly impact how high the teacher pension funding has to be. So if Howard County and Montgomery County are paying thier teachers more than Harford County, our taxpayers are no longer paying that. Republicans (other than our Central Committee apparently) tend to support localized decisions, and local support.
Fact Check – They were originally for it. It is a conservative idea. However, because the other party now is supporting it, they are now playing politics with the idea.
The Republicans err in calling the Democrats who control the major offices in the state “liberal.” They are just another knee-jerk variety of the conservatives Republicans love to hate. The problem that is never addressed by either party is the bloated military spending and the multiple wars that the American people are forced to support, and the lobbyists for the defense industry that Pres. Dwight Eisenhower warned against. Of course O’Malley and the Democrats in Annapolis have to try to find the dollars wherever they can, because the economy needs growth and the infrastructure needs rebuilding, and it hurts. That’s what unfunded wars bring. And as for Ronald Reagan, have you Republicans forgotten that he was a budget buster himself in spite of his fancy rhetoric? The Afghanistan war alone costs $225 million per day and Obama won’t stop it for at least another two years, but where are Romney, Gingrich, Santorum and Gang? They are beating the drums for another costly war against Iran, with the strong help of the Israel lobby, while at the same time urging Obama not to end the Afghanistan war. Does stupidity never end? Republicans, listen to Ron Paul…he makes sense. As a Democrat I can’t vote for him and Obama is a huge disappointment because he is a jackass for the military industrial complex.
Just one simple thing: both Dutch Ruppersberger and Helen Bentley (a D and an R) are against moving the Uss Comfort to Norfolk, even though it would save millions of dollars. Don’t say these things don’t matter. Support the move as an economy measure. Is Maryland always supposed to get federal money but never pay the piper? Wake up, Americans. You voted these people into office.