A Message From Senator Andy Harris

Friends,

I want to take a minute and put back on my "State Senator" hat instead of my "congressional candidate" hat and discuss the O'Malley Tax Plan.

The O'Malley Tax Plan is a prescription for more government and more taxes. Ronald Reagan once outlined a strategic vision for big government bureaucrats like Martin O'Malley: "If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it." Maryland's families and Maryland's small business owners are on the move and as the saying goes, so O'Malley wants to tax them.

Governor O'Malley's liberal reliance on tax-and-spend policies has led to a litany of new and increased "revenue measures:" income tax, corporate tax, corporate transfer tax, tobacco tax, sales tax, and new service sales taxes. The sad truth is we do not even collect all of the sales tax owed to the state now, and yet O'Malley wants to increase the rate.

Phony relief is promised for Maryland's middle class, but the numbers just don't add up. The truth is O'Malley wants to increase the Sales Tax by 20%, wants to tax health club members, and to increase the gas tax. The truth is working families in Maryland are going to suffer, but somehow O'Malley tries to spin $2 billion in new tax revenue as a "tax-cut" for working families.

Mr. O'Malley's poetic spin may be delightful to the ear, but it burns a whole in our pocketbooks. On the one hand I hear Gov. O'Malley laud a cigarette tax as promoting healthy living and on the other hand I hear him promise an expansion of the sales tax to gym memberships. This just proves the cigarette tax is not about improving health in Maryland; it is about increasing the money O'Malley has at his disposal to spend.

I'm tired of the hollow promises, on tax cuts that are really tax hikes, on lowering utility rates that went up. It is time for Governor O'Malley to step to the plate to address Maryland's spending disorder through prudent and judicious spending reductions, elimination of frivolous waste, and taking a cold hard look at the state's operations-like he pledged would happen on his first day.

Let your elected officials know that you OPPOSE ALL NEW TAXES.

Thanks,

Andy