MBRG Urges Caution on Widening Sales Tax Net

For immediate release:


Contact: Jim Pettit
301.704.1363


Towson, MD - As General Assembly attention turns to fiscal and
budgetary issues, Maryland Business for Responsive Government urges
legislators to carefully consider the consequences of legislation that
extends the 6% sales tax to include new goods and services.


Maryland faces a $1.1 billion budget deficit. With questionable
prospects for hiking the gasoline tax and eliminating some tax
deductions, such as mortgage interest, some lawmakers have expressed
interest in applying the sales tax club to a growing number of
products and services as the revenue-generating tool of the moment.


"Hiking taxes across such a wide swath of our economy is a blunt
instrument that only helps those who want to grow government at the
expense of businesses and jobs," said MBRG President Kimberly M.
Burns.   "A more precise way of balancing the state's budget is to go
through it line-by-line to look for spending reductions, before
raising taxes yet again."


Maryland already faces a high tax burden relative to the vast majority
of other states.  Adding new sales taxes on professional services
raises the cost of doing business – and in certain cases, will put
others out of business.  As with the alcohol tax last year, imposing a
new sales tax introduces complexities at point-of-sale systems and
gives regulators wide latitude in interpreting the laws required to
implement the new levies.


“Tax increases, especially increases in the sales tax and gas tax, are
incredibly regressive.  When one considers the intended practical
effects of imposing the computer services tax in 2007, which was later
repealed, any changes to Maryland’s tax structures need to be done
with surgical precision and not as an 11th hour search for revenues,"
said Burns.   "Costs associated with altering these taxes could impose
more serious hardships on Maryland’s working families.”


ALSO:------------------------------------------------

Baltimore-Area Delegate Frank Endorses Douglas for U.S. Senate

For immediate release
Contact: Jim Pettit
301.704.1363


Bladensburg - MD - U.S. Senate candidate Richard Douglas announced today that Baltimore County Delegate William J. Frank endorsed his primary campaign, which comes on the heels of the District 42 Republican Club endorsement last month. Frank represents district 42 which includes which includes Cockeysville, Loch Raven, Lutherville, Mount Washington, Timonium, and Towson in north central Baltimore.

"People want the next U.S. Senator from Maryland to actually do something in the Senate to solve the problems of hard-working families," said Douglas. "Ben Cardin has held elected office since 1967, adheres rigidly to party orthodoxy at the expense of our nation and state, and his time is up." 

Frank, who is the Chief Deputy Minority Whip in the House of Delegates, serves on the Health and Government Operations Committee and the Maryland's Veteran's Caucus among other assignments.

"Richard Douglas will bring a sense of mission to the U.S. Senate that is sorely lacking at a time when our country needs it most," said Del.Frank.

"This ruderless body doesn't always have to go around in circles.  There's one way to change that, which is to elect people who can navigate the Senate from day one and who will lead.  Douglas is the right candidate at the right time."

Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton has also endorsed Richard Douglas.  Formerly a senior lawyer in the U.S. Senate and Iraq war veteran, Douglas knows the fundamentals of complex Senate legislative procedures to help reverse the ineffectiveness of the U.S. Senate.

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Jim Pettit
Richard Douglas for U.S. Senate
P.O. Box 586
Battlefield Station
Bladensburg, MD 20710
301-653-7796
301-704-1363 cell
www.DouglasforSenate2012.com