The above image is taken from Governor Martin O'Malley's budget presentation with green being for singles and blue for marrieds with two kids (click on the blue arrow above the photo of the Gov with a mike in his hand to see the whole thing for yourself). As you can see, the people who will be paying more taxes are people at the upper end of the income scale.
Of course, this chart does not show the full impact of all of the revenue measures, including higher tobacco taxes and slots. Both tend to capture money from people at the lower end of the income scale. For some reason, smoking is correlated with income and wealthy people prefer other forms of gambling besides slots. On the other hand, one can argue that they are voluntary taxes in that no one has to pay them (and one can respond that poorer people will). Moreover, the corporate income tax increase is progressive as is the closing of corporate loopholes.
Monday, November 05, 2007
Is O'Malley's Plan Progressive?
Posted by David Lublin at 12:14 PM
Labels: budget, O'Malley, special session