Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Maryland's Missing Millionaires

I've posted about this issue more than once. Sadly, nobody in Annapolis reads my blog.

One thing I've learned over the past forty years of adulthood is that real money has legs. Wealth travels frequently, often maintains more than one house, and provides far more life choice flexibility. I know about this through countless associations with others who happen to be wealthy. Although my career was in the public sector where one might expect an open-ended budget, the products and services my agency rendered were often funded through the generosity of wealthy individuals and the non-profit organizations they supported. These people were smart, productive, practical, and probably lucky. They learned how to make money, grow wealth and preserve it legally according to state and federal codes.

The nanny state of Maryland appears to be learning some hard lessons about its millionaire tax payers this year. When I left my home state in 1976, it had a rich, long-standing tradition of low grade political corruption, but it managed to pay its bills. Today, the odor wafting off the corruption is richer, but the state isn't. In fact, Maryland is several billion dollars "in the hole." To make up for spending money the state didn't have, a liberal legislature, at the behest of a liberal governor (O'Malley), passed a special tax on millionaires last year. This example of wealth envy and an attempt to "spread the wealth around" has resulted in unintended consequences for all Maryland taxpayers, especially those who are NOT wealthy.

Read the details here in the original - brief and to the point - Wall Street Journal article. Thanks to Gateway Pundit for the link.

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