TAXPAYER BREAKING NEWS, April 2006,
continued from MTA Home Page

May 6, 2006. Special session on BGE unlikely, reports S.A. Miller in the Washington Times. "The soaring energy rates have resulted, in part, from a 1999 deregulation deal approved by the legislature and Gov. Parris N. Glendening, a Democrat. The deal capped BGE rates below market-level prices for six years while the wholesale cost of electricity rose."

May 5, 2006. National Taxpayers Union urges Governor Ehrlich to cut the gas tax. "According to the Federation of Tax Administrators, the state holds the dubious honor of having the 18th-highest state gas tax in the country. When a customer pulls up to a gas station in Maryland, he or she pays 23.5 cents per gallon alone in state gas taxes. Combined with an 18.4 cent per gallon federal gas tax, this means Maryland residents are paying nearly 42 cents per gallon just for taxes, or the equivalent of $6.29 on a 15-gallon fill-up."

May 5, 2006. The Supply-Side Cure to the Energy Crisis: Liberals and regulations caused it . . . conservatives and the free market can fix it, writes Peter Ferrara in the National Review. "...we now hear liberals screaming loudly about oil-company profits. But according to the Tax Foundation, the government takes about three-times as much in taxes from what you pay at the pump than the oil companies take in profits. Federal, state, and local gas taxes alone total about 46 cents per gallon, on average. Corporate income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, and other taxes tack on much more."

FIRST MTA LEADERSHIP DINNER: Taxpayer advocates drew nearly 140 souls from the Maryland center-right for An April 17 coalition event featuring distinguished economist and columnist Walter Williams. The gathering at Ellicott City's Turf Valley Resort included Ambassador (now Assistant Secretary of State) Ellen Sauerbrey, ATR head Grover Norquist and NTU chief John Berthoud. Participants honored the work of Maryland center-right grass-roots activists. MTA's Leadership Events will bring together, on a larger scale, the men and women of Maryland’s grass-roots, from across the Free State, with some of the best national thinkers and practitioners. MTA plans a post-election Leadership Event this fall.

May 2, 2006. MTA joins policy groups urging Senate to act on eminent domain abuse--as the House of Representatives did last November when it overwhelmingly passed HR 4128. "This legislation seeks to curb eminent domain abuse by withholding federal economic development funds from states and localities that engage in these practices for a period of two years."

May 3, 2006. George W. Milhous Bush? Is Dubya the new Nixon, asks Jonah Goldberg in the National Review. "But explanations of Bush have often gone too far in the other direction. Critics think all you need to do to prove he's a Reaganite is point to his tax cuts. Yammerers like Kevin Phillips point to Bush's sincere Christianity and the rise of Christian conservatives to demonstrate he's a 'theocon.' It's worth remembering that Bush was always loyal to his father, who came out of the Nixon wing of the party and whose only term looks more than a little similar to his son's second term."

April 25, 2006. Jack Stauder on Fighting Bureaucrats, Radicals and Liberal Judges on America's Frontier--review of a new book by William Perry Pendley. "Government high-handedness and misdoing are at the core of many of the legal situations. The book highlights a great variety of cases, some of them mind-boggling -- one asks, how could this happen in America?"

April 25, 2006. Illegal Aliens' Threatened May Day Boycott Means Trouble for Bush, writes Phyllis Schlafly in Townhall.com. "An employment service in Mobile, Alabama recently received an 'urgent request'to fill 270 job openings from contractors who were hired to rebuild and clear areas of Alabama devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The agency immediately sent 70 laborers and construction workers to three job sites. After two weeks on the job, the men were fired by employers who told them 'the Mexicans had arrived' and were willing to work for lower wages. The Americans had been promised $10 an hour, but the employers preferred Mexicans who would work for less."

April 25, 2006. Paul Mirengoff defines price gouging. "Price Gouging is defined to be any profit made by a company in an industry that is defined to be a Suspect Industry--any company that is engaged in any energy activity, or any company or industry that is designated by any elected official of the Democratic Party to be a Suspect Industry by any public statement."

April 21, 2006. Ehrlich reaches deal on energy, reports S.A. Miller in the Washington Times.

April 20, 2006. Maryland trims tax rate on property, reports S.A. Miller in the Washington Times. "Mr. Ehrlich's conservative base sharply criticized the 2003 property-tax increase, and the rate cut appeared to do little to blunt that criticism. Dee Hodges, president of Maryland Taxpayers Association, a nonpartisan group advocating responsible tax policies, called the 2-cent reduction a 'weak-kneed effort. It's a dumb political move in an election year,' she said. 'They had plenty of excess money. ... If they dropped [the tax rate] by 5 cents, I'd feel a lot better.'"

April 20, 2005. Pepco Plan May Ease Bite, For Now; Phased-In Hikes Would Increase Payments Later, report Matthew Mosk and John Wagner in the Washington Post. "If ratified by state regulators, the agreement would let customers, if they choose, stomach the full 38.5 percent increase starting in June, adding $468 a year to the average household bill. Or they can opt to have their rates rise gradually. Those on the deferred plan will have to pay back the difference down the road, meaning they'll be getting even higher bills than those who took their lumps up front."

April 19, 2006. Less than fully conservative: Bruce Bartlett reviews Fred Barnes' book on President Bush, Rebel-in-Chief. "In his conclusion, Mr. Barnes compares Mr. Bush to Ronald Reagan on a three-point scale, with Reagan getting a full point on taxes, foreign policy and social values. Mr. Barnes gives Mr. Bush a full point only on values, with just half a point each for taxes and foreign policy. That makes Mr. Bush two-thirds of a real conservative, which sounds about right to me."

April 14, 2006. Why can't we fix the tax code, asks Daniel J. Mitchell of the Hertitage Foundation. "Unfortunately, there are several reasons why taxpayers shouldn’t expect politicians to fix America’s corrupt tax system. The first is that politicians of both parties are hopelessly addicted to big government. Democrats actually think it’s a virtue to make America more like France by spending taxpayer money like drunken sailors. Republicans pretend they prefer smaller government, but the past five years show that their compulsion to spend other people’s money rivals the need of a drug addict to get another fix."

April 11, 2006. The Heritage Foundation's Edmund F. Haislmaier reports on the significance of Massachusetts health reform. "In reality, the legislation is designed to restructure and (partially) deregulate Massachusetts’s small-group and non-group health insurance markets and to convert subsidies now paid to hospitals for treating the uninsured into subsidies for the low-income uninsured to buy health insurance. The objectives are expanded coverage, greater consumer choice and satisfaction, value-focused competition among insurers and providers, and ultimately a reduced burden on the state’s taxpayers. The key to the Massachusetts plan is a new way of organizing the marketplace to enable consumers to compare and purchase health insurance plans."

April 7, 2006. Red light cameras produce money for county and vendor, reports Megan McIlroy in the Examiner. "'It’s a revenue device operating under the guise of a law enforcement program,' said Richard Falknor, executive vice president of the Maryland Taxpayer’s Association. Falknor said it 'corruptsthe law enforcement process and turn it into a revenue process'.”

April 6, 2006. Survey finds broad support for reform reports Chet Dembeck in the Examiner. "The results of the survey came as no surprise to Richard Falknor, executive vice president of the Maryland Taxpayers Association. 'The time it takes to fill out and complex tax forms is a tax unto itself,' said Falknor. He added that the estate tax — sometimes called the death tax — is particularly onerous to the majority of Americans. 'The death tax hurts the families of many small minority businesses more than it does the wealthy,' he said."

April 4, 2005. MTA joins letter against H.R. 513 and S 1053, which would force 527 goups to become PACs, reports National Review Online."Legislation that forces 527 groups to become PACs will severely hamper the ability of average citizens to join together and speak out about issues both during and beyond election seasons. Millions of Americans belong to groups whose speech will be suppressed by this bill." TBN comments: The next objective of the anti-freedom-of-political-speech forces may well be to restrict political speech for 501(c)4 organizations, such as MTA.