O’Malley signs hundreds of bills that will tint Maryland a deeper shade of blue

At least we can hope.

Maryland increased taxes on millionaires several years ago to raise more revenue. What happened? About a third of the the state's millionaires just left and Maryland actually lost money. This is one of those things that sounds good on paper, but in reality doesn't work.

The nice thing about being upper middle class or rich, is that you can get up and move whenever you don't like something.

Giving millionaires tax breaks isn't working either in New Jersey.

A fair tax system across the nation would end tax flight. So would all those millionaires exhibiting some of the patriotism they use to get others' kids to fight wars that protect their corporate interests around the globe.

and considering it is an opinion piece not a news item, and considering the timing of the drop in "millionaire" tax returns (i.e. after the near collapse of the economy, ergo income), this does not serve to confirm that the great state of Maryland lost 1/3 of millionaire residents to tax flight.

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-12-04/business/bs-bz-hancock-maryland-millionaires-20111203_1_income-tax-millionaire-surcharge-million-dollar-incomes

Something's making Maryland millionaires leave

December 04, 2011|Jay Hancock



Read more at the link.
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-12-04/business/bs-bz-hancock-maryland-millionaires-20111203_1_income-tax-millionaire-surcharge-million-dollar-incomes

More likely, those who were earning a million likely felt the collapse of the stock market in 2008 as well as had other setbacks. They ceased to be million-dollar earners. A study was done (warning, the following link is a pdf):

http://www.itepnet.org/pdf/MD_Millionaires.pdf

I don't think so. Besides, a lot of the people hit by the income tax increases live in Montgomery County and they are saving more in property taxes because of the drop in property values than the increased income tax is going to cost them.

There is a reason why these wealthy people live in Mont County Maryland. It is called services. Yeah, wealthy people can move to wherever they want, and they move to places where they get the services they want.

when we decided to move back to the DC area, it was going to be Maryland, period. We live in Potomac now, and you hit the nail on the head. We pay less than a thousand a year more in state and local taxes in Maryland than we would have had we moved back to VA - this is more than offset by the less time we spend in traffic. Add to that the open space and well maintained infrastructure - it's a bargain.

Not any more. They failed to implement any sort of reasonable controls on development sprawl and make sure that development paid for needed infrastructure and now they are playing catch up. To be fair it is not all Northern VA's fault. A big part of the problem lies in Richmond with very conservative regressive government, particularly the legislature.

pardon my ignorance.

There is a series of boxes - democrticunderground recommend, Facebook, twitter, etc.

Du rec indicates that you recommend a topic & hope it goes to the Greatest Page for more exposure.

Perhaps the one sane political reality in my life at this moment is all of the great things happening in the blue state of Maryland. This state seems like a different planet than the arena I hear most of the right-wing coveting.

By contrast, one of the saddest realities in my life at this moment is all of the tragic things happening in Tennessee, from whence I came.

Sam

We have the highest median household income of any state in the US and are the fifth most diverse. We have the lowest poverty rate in the US. I think we're the best educated, or close to it. We have that beautiful bastion of weirdness called Baltimore. If you count DC, we have two Major League Baseball teams, two NFL teams, four Minor League baseball teams and jousting.....

We have crime and punishment. We have seafood. We have good roads. We protect the rest of the nation from Delaware.

We also have an active Ku Klux Klan chapter......

I live in Montgomery County which has almost a Million residents, we have fairly high taxes, but we get a lot for what we pay - our "achievement gap" in the county schools is the lowest for a large district in the US. Our County Police are required to have a four year degree and their pay can hit six figures fairly rapidly. You can't spit without hitting a Park or other open space. We've set aside a third of the country for Agricultural use. The median household income is about $90K. So, the tax increase is hitting Montgomery a little harder.

I lived for awhile in Westchester County, NY - the taxes (state and local) were much much higher and you got much less in return for those taxes.

I live in a liberal's paradise, yet, there are houses of worship all over the place, low divorce rates and low teenage pregnancy rates.


On Edit: You know, Reagan and the incredible expansion and privatization of the Federal Government he started is responsible for a good bit of this very liberal state's wealth - ironic, eh?

he was rendered pretty (not completely though) impotent.......

We used to have reasonable Republicans in Maryland - remember?

he would've been our version of Scott Walker, imo.

I think Bobby Haircut mostly wanted to be Governor again for the perks and even bigger lobbying bucks once he got out.

as a pretext to push through "emergency" austerity measures. He may not have been as successful as Walker et al. in pushing that agenda forward here, but I think he would've tried.

Either way, though, it's a good thing O'Malley beat him.

I like it here.......went to Magruder High.

We might be the same person!

You aren't hiding something from me, are you?

And now I'm in Florida, but that's another story.....

I really like my governor.

I really hope we see this guy make a run in 2016. He does have a presidential charisma about him.

I'm originally from Maryland but have since moved to Florida (for the weather). But damn it, I would have loved to take the Maryland government with me down here to replace this dysfunctional leadership we have right now. Especially our current governor, who apparently is a resident of the House of the Undying:





(Yes, yet another fictional fantasy character to which you can compare Rick Scott....)