Last year, politicians in Maryland could not figure out how to balance the state budget. As most good public servants do, they thought, “Instead of making tough choices for the amount of money we have, let’s squeeze the wealthy for more because they don’t really deserve it anyway.”
Presto! A brand new millionaire tax bracket was created with a top rate of 6.25%. And if you happened to be a millionaire with the misfortune of living in Baltimore or Bethesda, they’re going to toss more local income taxes on top of that to bring your rate as high as 9.45%.
The always prescient newspaper, The Baltimore Sun, predicted taxpayers would “grin and bear it.” One year later, the pundits and politicos are saying “Oopsie.” One third of millionaires have disappeared from the Maryland tax roles, some of whom moved out of state or re-designated themselves as residents of more tax friendly states where they might own a second home, like Florida, Delaware, or Virginia.
The end result is the state government in Annapolis has $100 million LESS to play with this year, rather than the $106 million additional booty they were counting on. With the millionaire exodus in full force, the burden of paying for bloated government falls squarely on the middle class.
Redistribution. It fails every time it’s tried.
