No car tax!
Three words, eight letters and Jim Gilmore is now Virginia’s Governor-Elect.
You need to be a Virginian or know one to appreciate the hatred directed towards this so-called personal property tax. At least the State recently moved the due date from December to October so it wouldn’t appear as the Old Dominion’s perverse Christmas present to itself.
So what does this have to do with all you wonderful Marylanders? Fasten your seat belts because the tax bug is going to hit your gubernatorial race next year.
That means you could expect another round of the casino and slot machine debate. What better way to raise money? But you’ve gotta to play to win.
For some strange reason people don’t like paying taxes. Sure, they understand that these assessments are a necessary evil, but they’d rather have a root canal any day.
Oliver Wendell Holmes may have said “Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society” but civility’s been taxed to the max. People want relief or at least want to think they’re getting it.
Maryland, Virginia and many other states have figured out well how to disguise these hated fees. Lotteries! What an answer.
Folks realize that the money goes to government coffers but it doesn’t quite feel the same as a bonafide tax. It’s truly a voluntary system. And unlike other taxes, you can get a refund worth millions if lady luck shines warmly on you.
Maryland has now raised a generation of legalized gamblers. Ever since its inception in 1973, the lottery money machine has been churning and turning a profit. Over $14 billion in gross sales and over $5 billion in net revenue to the state bank account.
But how far will Free Staters go? Parris Glendening says no farther. No casinos. No slots. No way.
Somehow the Governor’s gaming Maginot line and protestations hint of the expression about being just a little pregnant. After all, with numbers, lotto, keno, and more the Maryland Lottery offers seven variations of a theme.
And a good theme it is. Thanks to an information sheet supplied by the Governor’s office, over one billion dollars were pulled into the treasury in fiscal year 1997 alone for a ‘net’ profit of $361 million. Not a bad gamble, er, I mean, game.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not enamored with slots and casinos either. They seem to breed a certain class of entrepreneur that most communities could do without.
I’m sure that Governor Glendening will stick to his guns and resist expanding State gaming. Whether he’ll succeed is another matter. Money is addictive, especially to our friendly tax-and-spend legislators of any political stripe.
And when the State says that the ‘per capita play...is averaging $4.30 per week,’ that’s significant. If one-third of the population plays the lottery, that’s nearly $13 every week for every player, or $670 a year, which is even more than the average hefty, one-shot cost of that wretched car tax. Don’t lotteries work wonders?
So beware. As the 1998 gubernatorial campaign unfolds, both parties will scramble feverishly for a simple Jim Gilmore-like slogan. Whoever first crafts the best here’s-more-money-in-your-pocketbook soundbite wins.
You can bet on it.
++++
Fred W. Apelquist, III, M.Ed.
Aprroximately 530 words.
(c) 1997