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Monday, November 03, 2014

Opinion: Maryland Elected Officials Take Motorists For Granted

When it comes to motorist issues, Maryland is suffering from a serious case of "entitled incumbent syndrome". As motorists sit idle in traffic, there seem to be no concrete proposals for improving the situation.

In the past four years we've seen the legislature pass an 80% increase in the state gas tax, most of which will be phased in after the coming election. And other driving costs, such as vehicle registration fees, have roughly doubled as well. Yet it appears that most of this money is tagged to go towards transit projects, and maintenance of existing roads, with few if any new roads or bridges scheduled to address chronic deficiencies in our road network anywhere in the state.

State Lawmakers diverted a billion dollars from the transportation trust fund to fix budget shortfalls. Now we are told to vote for a "locked box" ballot question (which motorists SHOULD vote for, even though it is an imperfect protection, since we have no better option available to us at this time) in order to save us from similar diversions in the future. But wouldn't it be so much better if we had a legislature committed to keeping it's promises to the driving public in the first place, rather than having a new promise they might still look for some way to break in a pinch?

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2 comments:

DDCrabb said...

The democrats have said they're trying to help the little guy, but their policies are KILLING the poor and middle class people.

Example: a waitress making a few dollars an hour finally saves up enough to buy an old clunker to drive, then gets SLAMMED by the taxes and fees it takes to put it on the road.

Then she gets slammed by the gas taxes.

And the taxes/fees on her cellphone.

And her rent goes up because her landlord is hit with higher property taxes and inspection fees.

THINK ABOUT THIS!

Why do you keep voting for these people? What do you have to show for it? They SAY they want to help you, but do they? Are you better off than you were, or are things still going down the tubes?

If conservatives are able to enact their policies, we can rebuild America, and ALL of us will prosper, not just those who tax you to death to fund policies that DON'T WORK.

Make the right choice. America is almost gone.

Anonymous said...

12:09 it basically comes down to the fact that the democrats are better at selling their lies.