Revenue Pigs

A perfect example of the immorality of taxing authority occurred in Maryland over the weekend. Down in Annapolis the Democratic-dominated legislature was trying to finagle the Democratic Governor's $2 billion tax increase past the voters. For a state with a budget around $30 billion that's quite a nice increase for those pigs.

Anyway, there was a controversial tax on landscaping companies and computer service businesses that was set to be passed. The computer service tax rose the eyebrows of my wife and I since she has one of those evil computer service businesses. Well, someone (i.e. influential and vocal citizens/business leaders) got to the legislators before both of those were passed and they were stricken from the tax bill.

Great then! Whoops, not soooo fast. They quickly replaced those two newly stricken tax sources with a brand new one - a tax on all automobile repairs.

The legislature wised up and figured that old people that depend on landscapers as well as regular people might get a bit steamed about the tax increase and choose to lessen their reliance on those businesses. Over the long-term this might decrease tax revenue as Maryland citizens would scale back their use of these services. And in regards to the computer services tax that puppy would strike right at the heart of one of the most dynamic parts of the economy and surely raise the ire of businesses since those types of services can relocate to Pennsylvania or Delaware.

But the auto repair industry? That's an easy one for the politicians. It's a guaranteed consistent revenue stream. Auto repair shops can't easily relocate to nearby states and unlike computer services or landscaping, auto repair is an absolute necessity for consumers. Most people can mow their lawn and some can shop for computer services out of state. But in the case of one's car you gotta have wheels to make money, get those groceries and take grandma to her doctor appointments. Plus, what do the auto repair shops care? They know that their revenue stream is safe because people gotta have them wheels. Therefore, they don't really have a reason to lobby Annapolis and scare the politcians into moving on to some other industry to extort from.

So in the end, Maryland consumers are stuck and the politicians get to stick the tax bill right up their asses.