Maryland Gambling With Our Money
Aug 8, 2012 Commentary, Political
The People’s Republik of Maryland has slot machine gambling authorized in five locations and running at three of those. The state is well behind where it would have been but Democrats played games and now the entire web of obstruction is crumbling around them. So those very Democrats, led by Governor Martin O’Moron, called a special session of the legislature to discuss adding another gambling venue.
A brief history goes like this. Robert Ehrlich was elected governor in 2002 (taking office in 2003) and he worked on getting slots gambling in the state. The Democrats opposed this. Many, including then Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Moron, claimed that gambling was not a responsible way to raise revenue or meet budget needs. They said this knowing full well that the state runs a lottery with countless games designed to bring big money into the coffers.
In any event, Democrats opposed Ehrlich at every turn and gambling did not come to Maryland. He was defeated in 2006 by the aforementioned O’Moron who promptly worked with Democrats to get slots machines in the state. Suddenly, those Democrats who were opposed to gambling as a means to raise revenue were all for the idea because a Democrat wanted it. As an aside, Peter Franchot is the only politician I am aware of who has opposed gaming since the very beginning.
The Democrats had a problem. How on Earth could they convince voters that they did not block progress for four years simply because the Governor was a Republican. To do so would mean they put their political games ahead of the state and its people (they always do but want people to think otherwise). They decided that instead of passing legislation authorizing gaming they would put the matter on the 2008 ballot via referendum. This would allow the people of the state to decide and would take politicians off the hook for the decision that was reached. The referendum was very specific as to where the venues could be placed and how many slots machines would be authorized. The only thing allowed was slots machines. No table games were considered.
The problem with this approach is that the matter, if it passed, would become part of the state Constitution and any changes would have to go through the referendum process. I knew it was moronic to do this (gambling does not belong in the Constitution) and voted against the measure. In reality, I would have voted against it anyway because of the way Democrats played games with Ehrlich.
The measure passed and casinos started being built. They were doing fairly well (but are now not producing as expected) and now the state wants another one. It also wants to consider table games. This was not addressed in the regular session as it should have been so the Governor called for a special session to address this. This violates the reason for special sessions but the rules have never stopped Democrats. This process is going on because the next election is this November and if they do not get the issue on the ballot then they will have to wait two years to get it done. See how stupid it was to do it this way?
There is no urgency for another casino. After strong starts, two of the three already running are not doing as well as they were expected to and an additional one would likely siphon money from the others. Keep in mind, there are still two that need to be built.
There are also shenanigans going on (say it isn’t so). The Democrats are having closed meetings to decide how to handle things. The casino folks want better tax rates and a better deal than the other casinos got. This would certainly cause the other casinos to want a new deal. The Democrats are working on back room deals to leave the tax issue off the table and to get the additional casino on the ballot. They will address the tax issue after the next election (during the next regular session of the legislature).
This is just plain wrong. The Democrats in Maryland led by their inept Governor have increased the taxes on the hard working citizens of this state a number of times. The sales tax, the income tax, taxes on services, taxes on practically everything including the air we breathe have been raised over the last six years to feed their hunger for our money.
Now, after screwing the taxpayers with ever increasing tax hikes the Democrats want to cut a special tax deal with the people who want to run the new casino. The mega wealthy folks in the gaming industry will be given what amounts to a tax cut while the people who live in this state have their taxes increased.
How does that strike you? If you live in Maryland it will likely not surprise you (OK, the leeches who live off government handouts might not know nor would they likely care) because the Democrats screw us all the time.
You know it is underhanded because they are deliberately hiding it until after the election. They know that voters would likely reject any referendum that gave tax breaks to the casinos at a time when their taxes have been raised (and more than once). So the cretins on the left will play nice and try to get it passed. If voters approve it then they will get out the Vaseline and bend us all over.
I recommend that the legislature reject this plan and keep it off the ballot. Since that is not likely to happen (Democrats need their palms greased) I implore all Maryland voters to reject this referendum at the ballot box.
Say no to tax breaks for casino operators.
A word of caution on the referendum. Know what you are voting for. Those weasels have a way of wording it so when you think you are voting no you are really voting yes.
Say no to being raped by the Democrats of Maryland and their sugar daddies in the gaming industry.
Say no to slots gaming expansion in Maryland.
[Disclosure: I have never (nor will I ever) gambled in a casino in Maryland. I take my business to Delaware]
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: casinos, corruption, Democrats, lies, malfeasance, martin o'moron, Maryland, referendum, special session, tax breaks for rich, tax hikes
Maryland Democrats Impose $260 Million Tax Hike
May 17, 2012 Political
I wanted to make it clear with the title that it was Maryland DEMOCRATS who raised taxes. Maryland is a one party rule, liberal state and Republicans have no control over the legislative process. Republicans did NOT vote for the tax hike, only the DEMOCRATS did.
Maryland Democrats voted to lower deductions and raise the tax rate for higher income earners in order to fund out of control spending and cover malfeasance that has become the standard in the state.
Taxes were raised in a special session that was called by Governor Martin O’Malley because his Democrats failed to screw taxpayers during the regular session. O’Malley called a special session a few years ago in order to raise a plethora of taxes that he claimed were needed to fix the budget.
Those tax increases did not pan out as fewer wage earners paid more in taxes and shoppers found ways to avoid the sales tax. In essence, raising taxes failed to solve the problem.
So, in a true demonstration of insanity, the Democrats held another O’Malley special session and raised income taxes on single earners making more than 100k a year and couples earning over 150k a year. Martin is using the Democrat playbook of taxing the “wealthy” in order to redistribute that wealth to the poor. The money will be used to pay for more social programs and for illegal aliens who find Maryland to be an illegal alien friendly state.
I call the governor Martin O’Moron because he is an absolute moron. His Democrats failed to raise taxes and the result was that cuts would automatically take place to the tune of millions of dollars.
Ever the liberal moron, O’Malley could not let this happen because he would not have the money needed to pay off his friends in the unions and the poor who suckle at the teat of government enslaved to an ideology that holds little regard for people except for the value of their vote. Keep voting Democrat and they throw out some scraps.
The problem is that those who work and pay taxes will have to keep paying for the scraps.
O’Malley is working on his national creds because he wants to be the president some day. He is not content bending taxpayers over and taking advantage of them at the state level so he needs to move to the national level where he can stroke his enormous ego at the expense of the nation.
There is no reason to increase taxes in Maryland. It has plenty of wealth because of its proximity to DC and it has a tax base that pays quite a bit. The problem is that the Legislature (read the DEMOCRATS) uses the money for things other than the intended purpose. They raped the transportation fund of millions of dollars for other pet projects or to cover budget shortfalls and now they are looking at increasing other taxes to make up the money they misappropriated.
Many higher wage earners who are fortunate have been able to leave the state and many more will follow because it is unfriendly to those who work and pay taxes.
I know a number of people in the state will ignore this and rationalize that it does not affect them because they don’t make “that kind of money” but it will affect them. Teacher’s pensions were pushed to the local level and that will require tax increases locally (or better yet, budget cuts) to pay for that move. People who own businesses and hire will do less because of their tax burden.
I recommend people shop online, shop in Delaware and Virginia and restructure their income so more of it is not taxable.
The only way to beat the beast is to starve the beast.
O’Malley has his jackbooted foot on our throats and he will continue to crush the life out of us until we fight back and remove the morons from office. It is time for all of us to remove these people from office and put in place those who will work for us as representatives of us. It is time we in Maryland had the Republican form of government guaranteed to us by the US Constitution.
It starts by removing those who are serving themselves and special interests and replacing them with true representatives of the people.
We fought a Revolution over less than this and our Founders would have been shooting by now. We need a peaceful revolution at the ballot box and it is time those enslaved to government realize that very soon the money spigot will be turned off as wage earners move out.
It is also time for the politicians to realize that they are now enemies of the state and are harming the people they are supposed to be working for.
The only special session I want to see from now on is the one that brings those who have done this to us together so they can face charges for their malfeasance.
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: Democrats, liar, malfeasance, martin o'malley, Maryland, misappropriation, tax increase, taxes
In Maryland The Taxes Just Keep On Coming
Jan 8, 2012 Political
The People’s Republic of Maryland is wealthy. It has counties surrounding DC and many of the wealthy folks who do business in DC live in Maryland. The economic impact of job loss has not hurt Maryland as badly as other states for this very reason; a lot of Marylanders are employed by the federal government.
Maryland is also a bastion of liberal lunacy. The State Legislature has a huge Democrat majority and the Congressional delegation is heavily Democrat. At the state level the Democrats continue to push liberal tax and spend policies that hurt the state which has seen its population of millionaires dwindle as these folks leave for states that are more tax friendly.
When Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich was in office (the first Republican in decades) he proposed slots parlors as a way to make money for the state. This was pooh poohed by Democrats as bad policy and not the way to make money. Current Democrat Governor Martin “The Teflon Leprechaun” O’Malley was singing along with the chorus.
When O’Malley defeated Ehrlich the tune changed and suddenly slots was a great idea. The morons in Annapolis placed the issue on the ballot for referendum which stupidly added it to the State Constitution. They were too cowardly to enact it as legislation because they wanted to be able to claim they did not do it when those opposed to slots complained.
Regardless, the measure passed and nearly eight years after Ehrlich proposed slots, they were in Maryland. The state lost slots revenue all that time because of politics.
Now there are two parlors operating (with more to come) and they are bringing in more than 10 million dollars a month (think about all that lost revenue because of politics).
Event though the parlors bring in this revenue the state has still raised taxes. Two years ago there was a special session where taxes were raised across the board. The sales tax went up 20%, the income tax was raised on higher income workers, all kinds of services were taxed or had tax increases and once again the citizens got screwed. Interestingly, people must have found ways to avoid the taxes because revenue decreased or was not what they expected.
The state has a history of misappropriating funds. The Transportation Fund was raped by legislators in order to pay other bills. Transportation projects still needed to be paid for but the money that was dedicated to them was spent on other things like social welfare programs, many of which go to illegal aliens. The state held public meetings about proposed toll increases along Maryland’s many toll roads. Despite overwhelming opposition from the public, the state increased the tolls.
Now the state wants to raise the tax on gasoline by 15 cents a gallon (a 65% increase). The state is proposing to phase in a tax increase on a commodity that the state already heavily taxes. They claim they need to increase funds for the transportation projects and they promise the funds will not be used for anything else. The reality is that they already had the funds and they spent them on something else. They are effectively trying to make us pay twice for the same thing. We paid in and they had the money, they spent it on something else and now they want us to pay in again. It is certainly easier for these clowns to misappropriate money from a needed fund to pay for things the public might not favor and to force us to pay again into the necessary fund then it is to sell increasing our taxes to cover things like more social welfare and tuition and health care for illegal aliens.
The state is also considering raising the already ridiculously high cost of registering vehicles, the flush tax (money to help the Chesapeake Bay that we all pay as part of our water bill), and increases in bus and rail fees (the state has also raised the tax on alcoholic beverages). The state has misappropriated money and spent unwisely and now is looking to gouge its citizens.
Where is all the slots money going? Why do we have increases in taxes and fees (fees are taxes) and why do we continue to have a bloated budget each and every year? It is because Maryland is fiscally irresponsible and instead of actually cutting things that have no place in government it chooses to view more money coming in as an excuse to spend even more. Rather than balance the budget based on its current revenue and by cutting unneeded services the state would rather dig into the pockets of those who work for a living.
They continue to spend, spend, spend and they are reckless in how they manage money. There are tons of dollars spent that keep people in poverty and force the rest of us to fund their lives. We pay for their medical care, their welfare, their food stamps, their government provided cell phones (a right you know) and their very existence so that Democrats can continue to rely on a particular block of voters.
When you rob Peter to pay Paul you can always count on Paul’s support. That is what Democrats in Maryland (and really across the country) do and this is why Maryland keeps electing corrupt morons to run the state.
People are fed up with tax and spend policies. There are necessary costs associated with government and those expenses should be borne by all people represented by that government. The balance of the things government assumes as a responsibility are not in their lane and should be abolished. Smaller government where everyone has, as Joe Biden called it, skin in the game is the most effective way to run things.
How many people have to shop in tax friendly states or buy their gas across the border before the legislature in Maryland realizes that taxing us to death will not solve the problem of fiscal irresponsibility and misappropriation?
It is time for people to fight back. It is time to let politicians in Annapolis know that they back the proposals of the lame duck Governor at their own peril.
We need fiscal responsibility from people who actually know what they are doing. That would exclude those who have lived their lives off the backs of others, like the very politicians in Annapolis.
We have been Taxed Enough Already and it is time for Marylanders to use every legal method to avoid the taxes imposed by the tyrannical government that is imposing its will on the people. Shop in other states, buy gas in other states, buy alcohol in other states and buy your tobacco in other states (though I don’t condone the use it is a legal product) and look to the Internet to buy things and have them delivered.
There are many legal ways to cut the head off the snake.
Time to get a sharp knife and do just that.
Related:
WJZ (CBS) Baltimore
Maryland Slots Revenue
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: annapolis, fiscal irresponsibility, gas tax, legislature, lies, malfeasance, Maryland, misappropriation, O'Malley, slots, transportation fund
You Asked For It Maryland!
Nov 29, 2011 Political
Well people of Maryland, you voted these slugs in office. Watch the video and see how the politicians in Maryland are telling you one thing and doing another. These liars will say we need a certain tax (or fee which is still a tax Marty O’Malley) for a certain reason and then they take the money collected and use it for something else.
Then when the fund for which the money was intended dries up, the politicians scream about needing more taxes to pay for what we ALREADY paid for. This is true of the transportation fund in Maryland. They had a ton of money in there and used it for something else. Mind you, we PAID that money in and it was supposed to pay for transportation projects but they spent it on something else. Then they raised the tolls and other fees and are looking to raise vehicle registration fees, the gas tax and the emission test fees to cover the money that we already paid in but that they misappropriated. We are paying for this twice and there is no guarantee that they will not waste the money again.
Watch this video and see how poorly the politicians in Maryland handle our money. Look how little care they have for OUR money. They just figure they can make you pay more. The state of Maryland is run by Democrats and the Republicans can do absolutely nothing to stop the other side from raping the producers in the state. Watch how one Democrat tells you that they have no problem doing this because they need to prioritize. He even gives us the buzz word, education. We need to fund education and we will take what we need to do that.
Really? About 40% of the lottery money goes to education. A large portion of the casino money goes to education. Maryland spends a great deal of money on education and there is no lack of per pupil spending. The only possible reason they need to send money to education is to pay off the teacher’s union. And when one considers the poor state of our education it would appear that they are throwing our money away. I would also suggest that since Maryland is a sanctuary state and pays a lot of money to illegals as well as welfare queens and other non producers the problem is NOT needing the money for education.
This country was founded, in part, on a revolt against unfair tax policies. What is this state of Maryland going to do when the producers decide that enough is enough? What will King O’Malley and the morons in the legislature do if we all just tell them to get screwed and stop paying taxes? What will they do if we decide NOT to support them? Some have already moved from the state and it is losing a lot in taxes because of it. Many more are shopping via the Internet and out of state to avoid sales taxes much to the dismay of the comptroller…
People will avoid paying taxes (Democrats are good at that) and eventually people are going to get fed up with the taxes on top of taxes that the state of Maryland is imposing.
One day we will take a stand. Perhaps we will organize an Occupy Annapolis movement where we can trash the place and threaten lawmakers. That seems to be the only kind of protest they pay attention to.
And if that does not work, well we shall see…
Comrades of the People’s Republik of Maryland, you asked for this. You slugs who sit on your couches and hold your hands out as well as those of you living off the gubmint voted for these people because they promised you more of someone else’s money. They promised to only tax the rich and that you would be taken care of. Look at the taxes and fees and decide if only the rich will pay those.
You people asked for this and you got exactly what you asked for.
Suckers…
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
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Tags: Democrats, fees, fox 5, lies, malfeasance, Maryland, misappropriation, slugs, taxes, welfare queens
Rob Peter To Pay Paul
Nov 27, 2011 Political
Congress does not know how to manage money. That is a plain simple fact of life that simply cannot be rationalized away no matter how hard one tries (and Congress critters try). They have shown it time and again by spending more than we pay in taxes and then raising taxes to cover their inability to manage money. They continue to raise taxes and spend more until someone comes along and manages to get taxes lowered.
Then revenues increase and what happens? The Congress spends even MORE!
Social Security is another example of their inability to manage money. They extorted money from our paychecks because we are too stupid to save for our own futures. Then they supposedly put that money away to actually pay us when we retire. The problem is, Congress saw trillions of dollars sitting there gathering dust while waiting to be paid to retirees and decided to add it to the general fund and, you guessed it, spend it. The so called Social Security trust fund holds nothing more than nearly three trillion dollars in IOUs that are worthless.
Sure, they are backed by the full faith and credit of the US Government but there is little faith in our government because we borrow 40% of every dollar we spend.
We now have another example of the inability of Congress to manage money. Congress has raided the money that is supposed to pay for Obamacare. Millions of dollars have been taken from the Obamacare funds in order to pay other bills or to spend on one pet project or another.
I think Obamacare will be ruled unconstitutional but if it is not what happens when it comes time to pay for it? What happens to this magical law that is supposed to pay for itself? What happens to that cost curve?
Congress will claim there is not enough money and that taxes need to be raised or services cut or both.
All because Congress cannot properly manage money.
We need radical change in DC and we can start by replacing all those members of Congress who have been there more than one term.
Source:
Washington Times
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]
Tags: lies, malfeasance, obamacare, social security, spending, taxes