Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Howard County Council Passes Senior Tax Cut

I can't in good conscience support any of them. None of these incumbents will get Fineline's endorsement. (Not that any of them will lose a second of sleep over it.) Some of this tax relief will go to millionaires, while the poorest seniors (those who will really need the relief) will get nothing because they don't own homes. Meanwhile, that revenue loss will have to come from somewhere. County Executive Robey has already said its needed to preserve retirement benefits. I am counting on Jim Robey to be the man I think he is. Mr. Robey veto this bill.

I expected this of the the Republicans, but I am sorely disappointed by the Democrats who voted for this. Its just the type of cynical gimmick that has caused our nation so much harm and gives politics such a bad name.

Am I the only one who thinks that the timing of this stinks?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What would you have our Democrats do a week before the election? Lose over a bill they can improve before the first tax bill in July?

The real reason why we, the Democratic Party, have lost our power is because we don’t endorse our politicians every time there is one issue we disagree with. The GOP almost goes down with the ship. Look at how bad Iraq had to get before Republicans questioned staying the course.

Can’t we support our guys and give them the benefit of the doubt a bit more. If they never fix the tax credit or other problems, then we sock it to them, but how many hundreds of bills have we agreed with?

What happens if we lost the council during the next redistricting—we would never see another Democratic Council—remember Texas? What would happen if we lost the executive, who sets the budget? You think if the Republicans got control after our Dems. Fell on their sword last night, they wouldn’t just undo the vote and give a tax credit—they have all said they would?

I may not like how they all pandered to seniors who vote better than any other age group.

I may not like how they all bent to the pressure of hundreds of people contacting them to support the tax bill, but I could have tried to be one of the hundreds calling to oppose the bill.

I would rather have any one of the three over a GOP controlled government for the next 8 years—if we lose 2006 don’t think we will get it back in 2010.

Sometimes the ends does justify the means. The GOP gets it. When will we.

Steve Fine said...

The point you make is a valid one and one I have considered. But sometime, you have to stand up for what you beleive in. I hate to knock fellow Dems, but when they deserve it, they deserve it. Jusatr think, if some good Reps would have been more volcal about thier concerns about Iraq, their party, our nation and the people of Iraq might have been better off.

Why can't the Dems have just delayed the vote, until after the election? Don't they control the docket?

But this issue has been around for over a year, maybe two years. I never heard any of our Dems stand up and raise the concerns about the bill I have discussed. They could have used it to attack the Reps, since the original bill floated by the Reps would not have had the income limit, the vast majority of the tax relief would have gone to the wealthest citizens. Just another tax cut for the rich.

Now the Dems are in a real fix. If they win, they are going to be forced to decide how to pay for the tax cuts. If they lose, they will have failed to look out for our interests.

And by the way, those who were impressed by the tax cuts are voting Republican anyway, its seen as Chris Merdon's bill, one "that shows that he can get things done by working across party lines." I don't buy that, but thats the way he's spinning it.


When will us Dem's wise up? We could have fought this and won.

Steve Fine said...

By the way anonymous, thanks for an interesting and thoughtful post!