» O’Malley spars with Franchot over gas tax proposal

O’Malley spars with Franchot over gas tax proposal

Posted: 3:54 pm Wed, February 8, 2012
By Associated Press

ANNAPOLIS — Gov. Martin O’Malley fired back Wednesday at Comptroller Peter Franchot for criticism of O’Malley’s gas tax proposal, describing him as “kind of our version of Mitt Romney.”

The comptroller responded with a barbed reference to speculation that O’Malley would run for president in 2016.

The two Democratic officeholders, who’ve frequently clashed, made the remarks after a Board of Public Works meeting when reporters asked questions about Franchot’s criticism of the gas tax proposal on Tuesday.

“He’s kind of our version of Mitt Romney,” said O’Malley, comparing Franchot to the former Massachusetts governor who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination. “I mean, he’s very happy taking opposite sides of every issue and always has throughout his career. I mean, he’s decried legalized gambling and also supported bills for legalized gambling. He’s supported bills to increase the gas tax and now he decries the gas tax.”

Joseph Shapiro, a spokesman for Franchot, said the financial conditions of the state and the nation are very different now than they were more than a dozen years ago when Franchot held different positions on those issues as a member of the House of Delegates representing Montgomery County.

“Peoples’ positions evolve with time,” Shapiro said.

Franchot, who is the state’s tax collector, held a briefing on Tuesday about how the state would implement the proposed sales tax on gasoline. At the briefing, Franchot said applying a 6 percent sales tax on gasoline would be a “shot in the gut” for the middle class and businesses.

When Franchot was asked by reporters for a response, he referred to speculation that the governor may have his sights on a future White House bid.

“I’m sorry if I’m getting in the way of his presidential efforts, but I’m doing my job as comptroller,” Franchot said.

The comptroller added: “It’s hard enough to focus on the bricks and mortar and dollars of the state budget — try to keep our fiscal house in order — without having a, you know, national campaign brought into Maryland.”

O’Malley was mentioned in a recent New York Times news analysis as a possible presidential candidate in 2016. The governor also has been criticized by some lawmakers, who say his chairmanship of the Democratic Governors Association has been a distraction from his duties in Annapolis.

The governor’s proposal to phase in the 6 percent sales tax on gasoline by 2 percentage points a year would raise about $613 million annually when fully implemented. O’Malley, who has been criticized for using dedicated transportation funds to plug general budget holes, is pushing the plan to address a serious backlog in transportation projects in the state.

“We’re all responsible for our own statements and my statement on this is this: that all of these are choices,” O’Malley said. “We don’t need to do this, but we’re going to incur a much bigger cost on every family throughout our state from increased congestion, increased traffic, loss of time, loss of productivity at work, loss of time with families. That’s the price of inaction.”

O’Malley also said lawmakers will have an opportunity to express their own opinions about where they stand on the issue as the legislation is considered.

Franchot said he believes discussion about a gas tax should wait until the state has fully recovered from the recession.

“The gas tax is a combination of two of the most regressive taxes known, sales tax and gas tax,” Franchot said. “It will weaken, not strengthen, the middle class. It will hurt small businesses.”

During the meeting, the Board of Public Works voted 2-1 to approve a $2.4 billion prescription drug contract for state employees with Missouri-based Express Scripts Inc.

O’Malley and Treasurer Nancy Kopp both voted for the contract, saying they believed it has been extensively reviewed. Franchot opposed the deal. He questioned an analysis that found Express Scripts made a better offer than Rockville-based Catalyst Rx, which has the contract.

The Maryland Department of Budget and Management recommended that Express Scripts receive the contract because the state could save as much as $102 million under the company’s proposal.

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Comments

Glen Tschirgi says:

A “punch in the gut to the middle class” ? What about the lower class? O’Malley’s gas tax must be a kick in the groin to anyone below middle class income. What do O’Malley and Franchot think low-income folks use to run their cars? Hot air? If so, the Annapolis politicians could amply supply it. Instead we get this nonsense from O’Malley about “choices.” HE made the choice to steal from the Transportation Trust Fund because HE didn’t have the nerve to either make the budget cuts necessary to balance the budget in 2009 and 2010 or raise taxes even more than he already did. And now he has the nerve to pontificate about “choices” on Transportation! And this is on top of the millions of dollars that Maryland received from the 2009 Stimulus from the Feds. Even with all that extra money, he still had to steal from the Transportation Fund. Someone needs to tell O’Malley to replenish the money in the Fund by cutting some of his pet projects. Times are tough and all of us are cutting back. State government needs to do the same.

Posted on 02/08/12 at 5:28 pm
me johndoe says:

Im self employed so gas isnt an issue. But the cost of gas and childcare already makes it unaffordable for a lot of people to work for a living.

Law enforcement is one of the biggest costs for not only MD but the entire country. The damage that boozers & pillheads do to taxpayer owned property, driving up the cost of medicaide and medicare, and the large amounts of additional law enforcement personel thats required to deal with them is substantial (see CDC, WHO, UN & local law enforcement stats to confirm).

Close down the bars and liqour stores and requiring pharmacies to enter patient information into a central database to track abusers would save tens to hundreds of millions of dollars in the state of MD alone. Cut the cannabis focused SWAT raids on peaceful family homes in half and we’ll save an additional 100 million dollars AND make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.

Or tax the booze and pills and make the users pay for their own upkeep. My kids and older relatives shouldnt have to do without for the sake of protecting a couple of guys with a pill factory or industrial brewery.

Cut the heating and air conditioning in government bldgs. People can wear sweaters. Why should everone else freeze to support public servants?. Get rid of govt. supplied vehicles for govt. employees. Govt employees make more money than the avg. person and can afford to buy their own vehicles. Stop constructing multi-million dollar privacy walls along highways that benefit no one except for the 2 families that live behind them. The alternatives to increasing gas taxes are numerous. Why make an already bad situation even worse?

Posted on 02/08/12 at 5:41 pm
Cindy Walsh says:

Statistics show that across the country government tax receipts at all levels of government have fallen from 40% to now 10% of revenue. This is where the structural deficit in the State of Maryland lies. Decreased revenue from corporations combined with generous tax breaks/credits have caused a serious shortfall in state revenue.

Rather than frame this gas tax debate as being bad for the middle-class, why not make the tax progressive so that the consumers at the bottom would see a 2-3% increase, local retailers progressively higher, with interstate retailers and wholesale gas suppliers making the most in profit paying a 7-8% increase. We need to close the structural budget deficit with more corporate tax collection and this would do that.

Any gas tax proposal for transportation infrastructure must take into consideration that hybrid and electric cars will need to pay their fare share. Given that these cars are the future, now is the time to configure revenue collection including battery and electric.

Posted on 02/08/12 at 6:14 pm
Dunn says:

This bickering and cheap shot stuff should not be tolerated. Divisiveness and demonizing someone for have a different opinion gets us nowhere.

Posted on 02/09/12 at 7:51 am