What’s Up-stream? A “Rain Tax”
Not so
business friendly Maryland has added another reason to leave the state: a “rain
tax” to go along with your gas tax, gun tax, liquor tax, etc. The Maryland
Environmental Protection Agency (MDEPA) has mandated cash from counties to
compensate for nitrogen polluting the Chesapeake Bay.
Specifically, should you be home or business, satellite
imagery will measure your flat surfaces that cover land that would otherwise
filter water as it drains. What qualifies: The roof of your home or office
building, your basketball court, parking lot, and patio will all be measured by
the square foot, and a fee will be required based upon this
amount.
Does
your business or home owner’s association maintain a large parking lot? Car
dealerships?
State
Sen. David Brinkley, as quoted in yesterday’s Frederick News-Post editorial
said:
“Some
companies are already planning moves out of state. We’ve talked a lot about
Maryland’s competition with Virginia, which has a much more favorable business
climate. Taxes like this only chip away at the thinning foundations that keep
them here.”
Fees
collected are said by the General Assembly to be used for mitigating the
negative impact of things that flow off of your flat surfaces and concentrate,
especially nitrogen from fertilizer and phosphates from laundry detergent. This
impacts the oxygen level of our bay, killing fish, and encouraging the growth of
sunlight blocking algae, similarly to our beautiful Carroll Creek in downtown
Frederick.
It is a
study in contrasts that in Maryland, we blame guns themselves for gun-crimes,
but we blame taxpayers for fertilizer-crimes.
Not to
mention that The Maryland General Assembly and your MDEPA assume that your
income increases every year, so that a marginal increase in your total tax
burden would hardly be noticed. They would solve everything by throwing (your)
money at the problems!
Perhaps
they have not yet heard of Barack Obama’s “sequestration!”
A
“doubting me” even suspects that any revenue ultimately collected from a “Rain
Tax” would be diverted to pay off the under-funded – but obligated – pension
funds that are not self-generating, or simply end up in some general slush fund,
like the leakage from the state’s transportation lockbox.
To
restate, the issue at hand is storm water runoff pollution. Surely farming
further from streams, and better rules for Scott’s Turf Builder are justified,
as is some style laundry soap. But why not look to the source of the
problem?
The
source is also upstream in Pennsylvania and New York, up the Susquehanna River
and up into parts of Delaware as well. Marylanders will pay for the convenient
“dumpage” of others. Can we sue them to recover our bay instead of chasing
taxpayers away from the Free State?
At the
Frederick County level, a one penny tax has been drafted by the Board of County
Commissioners to-date, in protest of the “Rain Tax.” It’s like our own little
tea party! Sounds like Blaine Young, doesn’t it?
Of
course, the county can and will be taken to court for not coming up with the
millions required in taxed mandate as discussed above, so a large revolt seems
to be in order; this is now widely being suggested.
Ah, the
joys of defending ones wealth and hard earned income against a government that
assumes you are the cash cow of their farm, as opposed to being the citizen
holding a government accountable.
Time to
head out to my backyard now and measure my sidewalk pavers. While I’m there,
maybe I can find my goose and those golden eggs.
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