Well, it's now July 1st. Usually that doesn't mean much other than July 4th is just 3 days away and if you haven't started planning your Independence Day events yet then you better get on it.
But for Marylanders, July 1st of this year means taxes, taxes and more taxes. The first phase of the higher gas tax takes effect today, which means you'll now be paying approximately 4 cents more for a gallon of gas ultimately on the way up to around 16 cents or more per gallon by the time the full tax takes effect in a couple years. By 2016, it is estimated that the gas tax will be 62.5 cents per gallon, up from around 25 cents per gallon last week. 62.5 cents. If you average 10 gallons per fill-up (But for many it's more than that), that's $6.25 per fill-up. Even if you only stop for gas once every 2 weeks (And many stop much more frequently than that), that's $162.50 out of your pocket every year just on gas taxes. And that's most likely on the low end! For married couples, how many less date nights does that represent? For kids, how many video games will you no longer be able to get? How many fewer Orioles games will you be able to attend? The list of examples goes on and on.
But it gets worse than that. The tax, obviously, applies to everyone stopping for gas in Maryland, including commercial drivers conducting business in the state. That means your bills for services such as plumbing, etc. are going to go up because that cost increase will be passed on to the consumer. Food bills, as if they were not already high enough, are going to go higher still as grocery stores pass the increased fuel costs onto us. These business are not just going to sit there and take losses because the tax is higher. We all lose!
Tolls across the state also increased today. It now costs $6 to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge up from $4 last week. When Gov. Martin O'Malley took office, the toll was $2.50. The same toll also applies on the Nice Memorial Bridge on U.S. 301. Those tolls are one-way only. Tolls on the habor tunnels and the Key Bridge are going from $3 to $4. That toll is collected both ways (A total of $8 per round trip). Tolls on the bridges in the northern part of the state, the JFK Memorial Bridge on I-95 and the Hatem Bridge on U.S. 40, are now going to be $8 (collected northbound only). And all of these tolls are supposed to increase again next year. The Bay Bridge is slated to increase to $8. According the Nancy Jacobs article I have linked to above, Maryland now has $33 in tolls, the same amount as Pennsylvania which has nearly double the number of toll roads, and more than Virginia's $27.10, which includes the Chesapeakle Bay Bridge-Tunnel at $12 per crossing.
Granted, for commuters who use their EZ Passes to drive these bridges and tunnels every day, it doesn't cost quite that much. But EZ Pass rates jumped proportionally across the board as well and of course now it costs you $1.50 per month ($18 per year) just to "rent" the device from the state. Even if you don't use it. It used to be free. As Sean Casey was saying on the Morning Show on WCBM Baltimore Monday morning, don't be surprised if that rate jumps to say, $2 per month in the near future.
And of course we have the much talked about, and widely hated, "rain tax," properly known by the state as the "stormwater management fee." The tax is being levied in Maryland's nine largest counties plus the city of Baltimore and it has thousands of citizens and business owners up in arms. While some counties have elected to fight the tax, Frederick County is charging residents a one cent and Carroll is refusing to levy it on residents, several are just blindly following the law, the result of an unfunded EPA mandate for Maryland to spend $15 billion to fight pollution in the Cheasapeake Bay.
The size and scope of the tax is different in every jurisdiction. In some counties it's a flat tax based on square footage of impervious surfaces on your property. In others residents pay one rate while businesses pay another, much higher rate. Churches and nonprofits are exempt in some counties but not others. In some counties the tax will increase after the 2014 elections. And Howard County hasn't even started enforcing the tax yet as County Executive Ken Ulman (D), now a candidate for Lieutennant Governor, has put the brakes on his brian-child county legislation for "further review" of the matter.
Here's the bottom line: the rain tax unfairly punishes Maryland residents for pollution in the Bay that they aren't even putting there. According to figures obtained by state Del. Pat McDonough (R-Baltimore and Harford), the leader of the new nonpartisan "Stop the Rain Campaign," pollution from stormwater runoff only accounts for 2 percent of the total pollution in the Bay. And even then, I would aruge, most of that pollution comes from the chemicals poured all over our state roads during the winter for snow removal. It doesn't come from private property. As Casey also pointed out on the Morning Show, gasoline, oil, lubricants and other fluids and pollutants fall right off the Bay Bridge and directly into the Bay every single day! Yet the Bay Bridge, as with all state owned properties and structures, is exempt from the tax!
And what of the states north of us along the Susquehanna River? As McDonough points out, the tax doesn't even address any pollution concerns north of the Conowingo Dam. Maryland residents can only do so much, and controlling the actions of other states in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed isn't one of the things they can do.
So what can Maryland residents and business owners do now? In regards to the rain tax, McDonough's new campaign is exploring the possibility of a lawsuit with Judicial Watch. And they would have precedent. Just this past January, federal judge Liam O'Grady found in favor of the state of Virginia and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli when he ruled that "Stormwater runoff is not a pollutant, so the EPA is not authorized to regulate it." That lawsuit was precipitated by the EPA attempting to require Fairfax Conunty to restrict stormwater flow into a county creek as if it were a pollutant. As for the new tolls and taxes, voters on both sides of the aisle must start similar grassroots campaigns to stir up dissisent and outrage. Change Maryland is a brilliant example of such a campaign. Then they must take out this frustration at the polls in November 2014 by voting for someone else! I can't tell you the number of Democrat or Democrat-leaning voters I've talked to who complain about high taxes in this state and then keep voting for O'Malley and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, Speaker of the House of Delegates Michael Busch, Senate President Mike Miller, etc. Those are the very same people who keep raising your taxes!
Jimmy Williams
