5:00 pm: Tour of the Statehouse

 6:00 pm: Reception

 8:00 pm: Observe the Senate proceedings

  This event is for anyone interested in discussing state issues that are before the Maryland General Assembly this year. You are welcome to attend any or all portions of the evening.

  For further details, please contact Richard Reinhardt at 410-841-3706 or email rreinhardt@senate.state.md.us . Photo identification is required for enternce into the State Buildings. Drinks and hors d’oeuvres will be served from 6:30 until 8:00 pm. No RSVP is required.

The winner from each school:

Olivia Quaranta – Vincent Farm Elementary School

Alyssa Hecht – Kingsville Elementary School

Michelle Shen – Chapel Hill Elementary School

Jabrea Jones – Glenmar Elementary

Sydney Powell – Jacksonville Elementary

Jaddah Lawson – Hawthorne Elementary

The first annual “Senator for a Day” Essay Contest for middle and high school students within my district is now underway. Winners will be announced in early March.

You may have read and heard a lot this week about Governor O’Malley’s State of the State address. From competing statistics and numbers to terms like “new revenues,” “shared sacrifice,” “fair share,” “job creation,” and “balanced approach,” there’s a lot of back-and-forth across the political aisle. I thought I’d take a different approach, by sharing exactly how the Governor’s proposals and actions affect a District 7 resident in your everyday life.

Let’s begin with the alarm clock going off, early in the morning before work. You wake up and head into the bathroom. Before the sun is even rising, you’re getting hit by Gov. O’Malley, who hopes to double the cost of that toilet flush! Your flush tax is now $30; he wants to make it $60.

After getting dressed, you enjoy a quick breakfast and a cup of coffee. One of the things I hear most often in Annapolis from my tax-and-spend colleagues is that their pet proposal will only increase fees for each citizen by “the cost of a cup of coffee.” They make it sound like it’s nothing, just fifty cents here and a dollar-something there. But the reality is, you could probably own a Dunkin’ Donuts if you saved up all of the “cups of coffee” that Maryland taxes cost you!

You head out to your car, and see that you’re close to empty on gas. Again, with your lengthy commute to the best job you can find these days, it seems like you’re always on empty. So, you drive to the nearest gas station to fill up. And if Gov. O’Malley has his way, you will pay an extra 18 cents per gallon.

Yes, while most of us pull U-turns and mind local news stations’ “Pump Patrols” to find the cheapest gas station by a penny or two, Gov. O’Malley wants to tack on the whole six percent state sales tax.

Finally, you’re on your way to work. It’s not even 9 a.m., and Gov. O’Malley is about to dip into your wallet again: it’s time for tolls. His Transportation Authority raised them just a couple of months ago; now,  a District 7 resident who works on the other side of the tunnels or Key Bridge has to pay $6 a day for that commute.  The tolls were just $2 each way before.

So after paying your increased tolls, let’s say it’s finally payday when you arrive at work. When you take a look at your ever-shrinking paycheck, it should be a reminder that Gov. O’Malley wants to reduce your deductions on mortgage interest, personal exemptions, and even charitable contributions so that you pay more state income taxes.

This doesn’t apply just to the super-rich: it applies to households making a combined $100,000 a year. These tax increases hit the middle class: the husbands and wives each making $50,000 a year as nurses, teachers, deputy sheriffs and police officers, librarians, insurance agents, paralegals, mechanics, lab technicians, and the list goes on.

Once you’ve put in a solid morning of hard work, its lunchtime. You hop online to buy your little niece or nephew a birthday present. Thanks to Gov. O’Malley’s online sales tax proposal, you’ll now pay an extra $1.80 sales tax on top of that $30 gift. There goes another cup of coffee.

Now on to lunch. Maybe you pack a meal rather than grabbing a bite out with co-workers, since you’ve already paid an extra $3.80 in toll hikes and online sales tax today, and that’s before counting the extra 18 cents a gallon on your gas fill-up.

While you eat alone at your desk, maybe you decide to play a new game on your phone or download that song your friend told you about.  Yet again you will be hit with another tax, the “app tax.”  This will be applied to all of those applications that we use on our smart phones to help our daily lives- the Governor just can’t seem to stay out of it, can he?

As the day ends, you look forward to a nice evening. You’re meeting friends for dinner after work. You order a beer, or maybe a glass of wine from District 7′s very own Boordy Vineyards. You enjoy a great meal and fun conversation. And when the bill arrives, Gov. O’Malley is there once more with his 9 percent sales tax on alcohol that he just signed into law.

You’re finally back home. As you lay your head down and slowly drift off to sleep, you think to yourself that you’re glad the day is over because you couldn’t handle any more taxing.  But wait, there’s more. You better turn the heat down tonight, because your electric bill will have an additional $24 charge to subsidize the Governor’s offshore wind farm near Ocean City. Sleep tight, Maryland.

From morning to noon to night, you’ve been saddled with increased tax after increased tax.  And it was only six years ago that we saw the largest tax increase in Maryland history signed into law under Gov. O’Malley.

Your Governor claims to support “everyday Marylanders” like you….and in a way, he’s right. He’s been with you through every step of your day.

All of these increases are his own choices in leading our state.  Although I respect him and the job he has to do as Governor, I strongly disagree with the way he is going about it.  I will continue to fight these ideas and push for more fiscally responsible ways of leading our state.

Citations that may be considered for request:

• Recognition of birthdays – 70 years and older
• Recognition of wedding anniversaries – 30 years or more
• Recognition of professional anniversaries – 30 years or more (20 for military, police officers, firefighters)
• Receipts of scholarships – only for scholarships given by members

How does one apply?  Please contact the Office of the Secretary, State House, Annapolis, MD, 21401.  You can also email or call (888) 874-0013.  For questions on your status or general questions on the application process: contact Michael Sellner, Notary Public Officer, by email or by phone, 410-974-5521.

I know I covered this in detail last week, but I wanted to let you know that the budget is still in Conference.  This means that there were differences between what the Senate passed and what the House passed.

Some of the major differences include:

• The Senate’s version provides an additional $22.7 million for education, which was contingent upon the enactment of SB 994, the Alcohol Tax Increase (passed).
• The Senate restored the $444,000 the House cut to the nonpublic school textbook fund.
  
• The Senate restored $6.1 million of the $8.1 million that the House cut from the University of Maryland Office.
  
• The Senate eliminated the $5 million funding for Keeping Maryland Community Colleges Affordable.
• The Senate requires the counties and Baltimore City to reimburse the state for 90% of assessment costs instead of the 50% required by the House.

On Friday, Governor O’Malley submitted a supplemental budget adding additional expenditures of $225.7 million to our already bulging budget.

Keep in mind that all of these programs and expenditures will have to be paid for somehow, and of course, it will come out of every one of our pockets.

We came into session with a deep deficit in desperate need of some tough cuts.  We’re going to come out the same way with came in, only now taxes and spending are both higher.  Oh and the citizens are the ones with the tighter belt.

I wanted to take a few minutes and highlight a few pieces of legislation that might be of interest to you.

Federal Military & Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act Compliance: This legislation has passed both houses and is on its way to the Governor’s desk for final passage.  In order to comply with the federal mandate, the Maryland General Assembly voted to move our presidential primary election to first Tuesday in April.

It would move the gubernatorial primary election to the last Tuesday in June.

Freedom of Speech – Picketing at a Funeral – Distance: I have decided to co-sponsor this bill.  This would increase the distance in which a person can picket a funeral from 100 feet to 500 feet.

Currently, this bill is in the Judicial Proceedings Committee in the Senate.  We’re working hard to get it out and to the floor for a vote.

Alcohol Tax Increase: This legislation has passed the Senate and has been assigned to the Rules Committee in the House.  This bill would increase the sales tax on alcoholic beverages.  This is a incremental tax increase that will go into effect gradually over the next three years.

Most of the revenue from this tax will be directed to the general fund.  However, a small portion will be directed to the Developmental Disabilities Administration.

These bills and others are going to be flying through committee and onto the floor today.  Session officially ends at midnight tonight.  Feel free to listen to floor proceeding whenever we’re in session.

I will share an end of session wrap up towards the end of the week.

I thought I’d share some of them with you.

SB 602: The Bag Tax:  would have required businesses to provide incentives for reusable bags and taxed consumers for using plastic or paper bags.

HB 1288: Distracted Driving: would prohibit drivers from taking their eyes off the road for any read.

SB 116: Gay Marriage: did narrowly pass the Senate but was recommitted to committee in the House where it will stay.

We will likely see these bills again next year…in Annapolis, these types of things always seem to come back from the dead.

Regardless of my efforts, it passed the Senate by a vote of 37-10.  It’s now on its way to the Governor’s desk for his signature.

With all the talk of spending cuts and tough decisions, the budget still increases spending a good 10% more than last year.

Although this budget protects many special interests, it fails to protect one very important group…you, the taxpayers.

Instead of making necessary cuts, the General Assembly opted to raise fees and taxes instead.  Plus, they added several new ones as well. Here is a list of what’s included, a mere preview of what’s to come.

• Vehicle Titling Tax doubled from $50-$100
• Vanity Plate Fee doubled from $25 – $50
• Land Recording Fees doubled from $20-
  $40
• Birth Certificate Fees doubled from $20-$40
• Increase in Hospital Assessments adding 2.5% to rates.
• Increasing Nursing Home Tax from 4.5% to 5.5%
• Parole Supervision Fee doubled from $25 to $50
• New: 2% Premium Tax on the Injured Worker Insurance Fund
• New: Payroll Garnishment Fee for State Employees
• New: Maryland Higher Education Commission Program approval fee

So the budget is balanced, but we’re still not accounting for the deficit.  It’s almost like we’re practicing “credit card government.”  We’ll just charge it and pay it later, right?

Whose money is it again?  Right, it’s yours.

If you have any questions or comments on the budget, please email me directly.