Maryland’s Rain Tax

From The Gazzette.net (April 5):

Consider all the ways we’re taxed. When we’re born (birth certificate), when we die (death certificate), when we make money (income tax), when we spend money (sales tax), when we own property (property tax), when we sell property (capital gains tax), when we go to a concert or ball game (amusement tax), when we own a vehicle (license, registration, tolls, gas tax) and special taxes on cell phones, tobacco, alcohol, energy, etc. Then, when we die, they tax our income all over again (death tax). Heck, they even tax our bowel movements (flush tax).

But if you thought they ran out of ways to tax us you badly misjudged our lawmakers’ creativity. Get ready for their newest invention, the rain tax. Here’s what’s going on:

In 2010 the Obama administration’s Environmental Protection Agency ordered Maryland to reduce stormwater runoff into the Chesapeake Bay so that nitrogen levels fall 22 percent and phosphorus falls 15 percent from current amounts. The price tag: $14.8 billion.

And where do we get the $14.8 billion? By taxing so-called “impervious surfaces,” anything that prevents rain water from seeping into the earth (roofs, driveways, patios, sidewalks, etc.) thereby causing stormwater run off. In other words, a rain tax.

And who levies this new rain tax? Witness how taxation, like rain, trickles down through the various pervious levels of government until it reaches the impervious level — me and you.

The EPA ordered Maryland to raise the money (an unfunded mandate), Maryland ordered its 10 largest counties to raise the money (another unfunded mandate) and, now, each of those counties is putting a local rain tax in place by July 1. [read more]

The people of Maryland in certain counties have to pay this stupid/insane tax through their property tax. The article goes on to say that satellite imagery and geographic information systems measure your roof and driveway to determine your “impervious surfaces” so you don’t have to estimate the surface area. Isn’t that nice of the gov’t?

So, the new enemy of Mother Nature is people living houses and apartments. And the bigger the house (yea, I am speaking to you super rich) the bigger the property tax. The renters will see their rent increase because of this law. This is of course another cost to businesses.

This tax makes a good argument for getting rid of the EPA. Talk about abuse of power!