Jay, all this talk of cutting taxes is fine and dandy, but ignores the hard part. How do you make up the revenue or where do you cut to reduce spending? It seems no one wants to address these points in an election year. It's certainly not surprising from candidates, but I think commentators don't have as much to lose in floating ideas.

There are some revenue neutral things the state government could do that would immensely help small business and lower the state unemployment rate.

For example:

1. How many people know that you can go to jail for cutting hair without a cosmetology license in this state?
2. Or that you can go to jail for hanging drywall without an MHIC license in this state?
3. The reason there aren't more soft serve ice cream trucks is because there is an entirely different set of regulations that must be met?
4. A small business owner who pays himself W-2 wages must pay unemployment insurance on himself or risk jail time.
5. A small business owner with just one clerical office worker must get worker's comp insurance or risk going to jail.

Conceding there is a public safety benefit to each one of these, proponents of these regulations must also concede that there is a cost, and right now that cost is materializing itself as a stubbornly devastating high unemployment unemployment rate. Regulatory barriers to entry also reduce competition which raises prices for everyone affecting even those who are not small business owners or unemployed.

Cut personal income taxes and extend taxes on services.

I think this feature article from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is interesting in light of your passion for cutting taxes in the middle of an economic recovery when revenues are already badly damaged.

The Zero-Sum Game: States Cannot Stimulate Their Economies by Cutting Taxes

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3100

Enjoy

The CBPP zero-sum game assessment would only be valid if we were already operating at Pareto efficiency, which we are undoubtedly not. It also ignores the output or utility of government jobs essentially ignoring research by Robert Barro showing the Keynesian multiplier in the real world is always less than 1.0 (indicating a loss).

The fact that our income taxes are high is mitigated to some extent by the relatively low property taxes in most jurisdictions, Baltimore City being the exception. You really have to look at the whole tax structure and also consider that you get what you pay for. Our public education system is very good, roads are good, and the higher education system, including the community college system is very good.

Jay -

Maryland's local piggyback income tax is really a substitute for the higher property taxes that residents in our surrounding states pay at the county, township, burough, or special district level.

Marylanders also pay for certain expensive services--public education and libraries--primarily through state taxes, whereas our neighbors pay for these services almost entirely through local taxes.

The Tax Foundation (which is a conservative political advocacy organization that should never be called "nonpartisan") distorts state-by-state comparisons because its methodology is blind to these factors.

Virginians pay lower income tax, but they pay higher real property taxes than Marylanders. Virginia's sales tax rate is lower, but it is applied to a broader range of goods and servies. Virginians also pay annual personal property tax on cars, boats, RVs and toys of the wealthy such as planes.

Every tax complainer in Maryland knows there's no sales tax in Delaware, but all Delaware businesses pay gross receipts tax, whether they are wholesalers or retailers or providers of goods or services. It's a stealth sales tax that has a cumulative effect on the price of goods and services, and of course it's not tax deductible for the consumer.

Pennsylvanians pay for an array of services through township, borough, and special district property taxes that don't show up on comparisons from the conservative Tax Foundation.

Your point about partnerships, s-corporations, and limited liability companies paying income tax is valid, and savvy entrepeneurs consider its impact when structuring new ventures. In a sense, it's like a mini-gross receipts tax, except it's applied to profits rather than gross receipts.

- Steve Lebowitz, Annapolis

Personal Income tax should not be increased, rather taxes on tobacco and marijuana should be increased, these substances create a large income stream for the government, something needs to offset the healthcare costs they contribute.