Taxes in our State

Currently I am working to keep the OMalley government from reaching into our wallets. I received the following Press Release this morning from Senator Pipkin and want you all to see it.

This is reason number 763 on the "Why I am a fan of Senator EJ Pipkin" list!!!!!

September 20, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SEN. PIPKIN: GAS TAX INDEXING IS "TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION"

Senator E. J. Pipkin (R. Upper Shore 36) tagged efforts to tie the current 23.5 cent a gallon state gas tax to inflationary cost increases "a cruel assault on the wallets of all Marylanders."

He said that linking gas tax increases to the CPI (Consumer Price Index) or other inflationary indicators, called indexing, is a method used by some states – Florida and Maine – to get gas tax increases without any legislation action. "In short," asserted Pipkin, "indexing produces automatic tax increases. As far as I'm concerned such automatic tax increases constitute taxation without representation."

Gas tax indexing has been proposed as a way to raise transportation revenue in the O'Malley Administration's Transportation Funding Overview, a report presented to Senate and House committees that deal with the state budget. The report points out that an advantage of indexing the gas tax is that it ties revenue growth to inflation. As inflation rises, so, too, will the gas tax "without any consideration of consumers' income, which may not rise at all," declared the Eastern Shore lawmaker.

Pipkin said, "My fear is that the leadership in Annapolis, hungry for more transportation revenue, will stop at nothing, including approving automatic gas tax increases, to obtain those dollars."

He pointed out that the gas tax is a regressive tax. "The high income earner pays the same per gallon tax as the average and low-income wage earner. However, a regressive tax always takes a larger proportional bite out of the average person's income. The high income earner barely feels the gas tax bite, while it makes the average income earner struggle to keep up with increasing gas taxes. Marylanders are already pressured by the soaring cost of electricity and gasoline. An automatically rising gas tax adds insult to injury," said Pipkin.

He emphasized, "Indexing will take the brakes off of gas tax increases. Ultimately, indexing will remove the layers of oversight and review, which now govern approval of transportation projects because increased transportation revenue will be assured without the vote of the people's elected representatives."

Senator Pipkin said, "It is the height of irresponsibility for representative government to remove itself from the business of increasing taxes. Taxation without representation, whatever form it takes, must be stopped. Be assured, I will continue to fight gas tax indexing as a form of taxation without representation."