More Democracts and MORE Tax Increases

The Maryland General Assembly will be meeting in a special session in October to try and redraw the political district maps with the intent of drawing out as many Republicans as possible. The redistricting is required as a result of the census. Each district is expected to be nearly the same size. Every 10 years a census is taken to count the peoples, as they say in Essex. The census provides the states with the information about the populations of each area and that data is then used to redraw the map.

If you're older than 35, you'll remember that former Maryland Socialist, I mean Governor, Paris Glendening used the redistricting as an opportunity to Gerrymander the districts to the point where it required a lawsuit to stop his nonsense. The court was then forced to redraw the map for him using fairness and common sense, something that I think he lacked.

This year the Maryland General Assembly will be required to repeat this exercise. Can Maryland Republicans rely on Martin O'Malley and the liberal extremists in Annapolis to be fair and try to represent Maryland's government with about 33% Republicans? Of course not. The lines will be drawn all over the place with the intent of lopping all of the Republicans into one giant district, thus minimizing their impact.

I full expect either Roscoe Bartlet's disctrict in Western Maryland to go as far east as possible, or Andy Harris' district to have have long fingers throughout the Eastern Shore and Western Shore. Can you image the 6th District wrapping down from Western Maryland into hard left-wing intolerant Montgomery County, thus stomping on the political beliefs of the fine bucolic folks in Western Maryland. Or the 1st District being cut in half with a chunk of liberal suburban Prince George's County voting in tandem with moderately conservative farmers? One of the two will happen. And I guarantee it will be followed by a lawsuit.

I fully expect to get absorbed into Elijah Cummings 7th District. If that happens, he will most likely receive an email or letter from my about once a week convincing him to pass common sense conservative legislation protecting the rights of the gun owners, flag waivers, and religious families.

Will Carroll County get a single State Senator? Are we big enough yet? How many State Delegates will we have? It's hard to tell at this point.

All of this redistricting talk is interesting, but nothing compared to the possibility of Democrats calling for additional tax increases at the special session. Bob Ehrlich warned Marylanders that this would happen. Reelect Martin O'Malley and Maryland residents would suffer millions of dollars in tax increases.

To date, we've already experienced real estate tax increases, a 20% increase in the state sales tax, and increases in the alcohol tax, among others. Now there's speculation that the gas tax is next. What's really funny is that the gas tax is intended to replenish the state's transportation fund. And you'll recall that the state transportation fund was raided to pay for expenses that exceeded expected revenues. What do we keep telling the government? 'Stop spending more than you make!'. But if falls on deaf ears.

Do you think we'll see more taxes before the year is out?