A Shot of Fiscal Help
The financial news for Maryland keeps getting worse. The latest estimate of the budget deficit is $450 million. Next year, the figure is expected to exceed $1 billion.</br></br>A study by the Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute found that the state has one of the leanest governments in the nation. Still, the deficit means that the legislature will have to cut the budget and find greater efficiencies in the delivery of services. It also will need to find additional revenue to meet the state's constitutional requirement to balance the budget.</br></br>House Bill 87, which I am sponsoring, would help with additional revenue by doing what Maryland hasn't done in decades -- raise the state excise tax on alcoholic beverage products.</br></br>The last time Maryland increased the tax on hard liquor, gasoline cost 23 cents a gallon, per capita annual income was $2,047 and Dwight D. Eisenhower was in his first term as president. Maryland's population was half what it is now. The year was 1955.</br></br>The last time Maryland increased its tax on beer and wine, gas cost 36 cents, per capita income was $5,291 and President Richard Nixon was in his first term. Four million people lived in Maryland. The year was 1972.