MoCo's Madaleno Persists In Attacking Poultry Industry

State Senator Richard Madaleno (D-Montgomery County) is pressing on with his proposed chicken tax despite Governor O’Malley promising to veto it if it gets to his desk. Even the Soylently green, Delegate Shane Robinson (D-Montgomery County) chickened out on his House version of the bill after O’Malley’s promise, but Madaleno, is proving himself to be the real Montgomery County Democrat by not surrendering while there’s still a chance of telling people outside his district what to do.

Here is how the tax would work. Typically Maryland chicken farmers work under contract to large poultry companies. The poultry companies supply the chickens and the farmers get paid to raise them until they are ready for the market. Madaleno’s chicken tax would force the poultry companies to pay the state five cents for every chicken they supply to a Maryland farmer. Proponents of the tax estimate that it would rake in $15 million annually. Richard Cross reports that the sponsors are calling it a “user fee” instead of a tax.

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