Wednesday, April 7 – Delayed Impact

You say taxation, and I say tenacity.

Amendments designed to put Democrats on record about the need for tax increases to maintain current spending levels were offered by House Republicans as we debated the state budget last week.

Announcing his candidacy for Governor yesterday, Bob Ehrlich one upped them. He pledged to undo the one cent increase in the sales tax that we adopted in 2007.

He did not say where he would cut $600 million from the budget to compensate for the lost revenue. He never put forward such reductions as Governor. In fact, the legislature consistently reduced his proposed expenditures over his four-year term.

Martin O’Malley, on the other hand, will talk about leadership in tough times and investing in the state’s future.

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The Finance Committee will have a workgroup on my arbitration bill. The members I’ve talked to understand why the bill is needed. Consumers are far too often stuck with arbitrators who are not impartial.

My educated guess: the bill will be amended and then delayed on the Senate floor by the banking industry. Then the House will have to concur in these changes the last night of the session.

My voter’s rights bill has been amended by the Election Laws subcommittee in the House. No delays likely, but Senate will have to agree to these changes as well.