The Maryland House of Delegates launched a $1.2 billion tax, toll and fee increase package today certain to hold the state’s budget hostage, escalating intraparty tensions over how to patch huge, mounting deficit projections not seen since the Great Recession. The multipart proposal, structured to force state senators to haggle, seeks an amendment to the Maryland Constitution that would legalize and tax online poker and other internet gambling. An array of revenue-generating plans includes a new fee on electric vehicles, a higher tax burden for corporations, sales taxes on used car trade-ins, a new 75-cent fee on ride-share trips and higher tolls for out-of-state drivers, among other measures. All together, the package aims to raise $525 million annually for a landmark education program that lawmakers passed without sustainable funding attached, as well as an additional $675 million annually for transportation projects.
The problem at hand: Legislative leaders are searching far and wide for potential revenue generating measures to address the state’s multi-billion dollar budget deficit caused largely in part by the ambitious, and unfunded, Blueprint for Maryland’s Future.
