Thursday Special Session Roundup

According to the Baltimore Sun, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington based non-partisan, non-profit research group, released a study today showing that Gov. Martin O'Malley's tax plan was much kinder to low-income Marylanders than the version being considered by the state Senate. The Department of Legislative Services agrees:

The governor has tried to sell his plan to the public by saying that for most families, his proposals to reduce the state property tax and make the state income tax more fair would more than make up for his plan to increase the sales tax from 5 percent to 6 percent. But figures from the Department of Legislative Services show that the Senate's amendments erased any benefits middle-income Marylanders might have received.

The department estimated that a family with an income of $75,000 a year would pay $166 more, and a family with an annual income of $150,000 would pay an extra $332.

Gov. O'Malley says he wants to revive the property and income tax cuts eliminated by the Senate which he says would make the plan more fair. Eric Luedtke reports that four senators from Montgomery are mounting an effort to amend the Senate bill to make it more progressive though the post doesn't give details on the proposal or which MoCo senators are supporting it.

Comptroller Peter Franchot continued to redefine his role as tribune for the people rather than bean counter and did not miss an opportunity to blast the Senate. He even took to the Web with an attack on the Senate plan. Comptroller Franchot labeled the Senate plan "a regressive pounding of working families and the working poor." Now that he has gone after the Governor and the Senate, I guess the House of Delegates is up next.

Another Sun article reports that the O'Malley lobbying effort relies more on the philosophy of you catch more politicians with honey than with vinegar. Meanwhile, Republican senators didn't show up the Senate session and then felt hurt when the Democrats made light jokes about their absence. I'm sure we all feel their pain.