Delaying the Inevitable

It looks like the consensus coming out of the meeting between Martin O'Malley and the General Assembly leadership is to kick down the road for a while the whole matter of raising taxes:

O'Malley said revenues and surplus funds from previous years are sufficient to make meeting the state's balanced budget requirement possible this year without changes to the tax code. But he added that the long-term picture is worse, with billions in projected deficits later in his term. At the same time, a state law requiring more public school spending is entering its final stages, and health care costs continue to balloon.

"We've got to make a lot of tough choices," he said.

The restructuring could include increasing the state's current 5 percent sales tax rate; expanding the sales tax to cover services; making the income tax more progressive so that higher-income Marylanders pay higher rates; and increasing the gas tax to pay for more roads and mass transit. Slot machine gambling is also sure to be discussed.

While the Sun and the Gazette both portray the meeting as refreshingly cooperative after four years of Bob Ehrlich, I think there's much more disagreement than is being let on. We're told that Maryland's tax code is long overdue for reform, but the last time one was proposed -- the so-called Linowes plan of 1990 -- it went nowhere. And we had Democrats in both the State House and the Governor's mansion then, just as we do now, with many of the same players (e.g., Mike Miller). Contrary to some Republican caricatures, many Democrats are loathe to raise taxes, particularly if it's done badly -- like, say, an increase in sales but not income taxes. Add to that the permanent fixture of many prominent Democrats in Annapolis, and O'Malley may be right in wanting time to build up political will for reform.

UPDATE: The League's thoughts on the subject are apropos.