Annapolis City Council Votes To Raise Taxes
Annapolis City Council Votes To Raise Taxes
Say it is a response to the “GOP Taxscam”
Annapolis (SPP) – The Annapolis City Council voted last night to raise taxes in response to the Republican tax bill that recently passed Congress.
Called the Tax Fairness Act, it imposes a 14% corporate income tax on city businesses. The GOP tax bill reduced corporate taxes from 35% to 21%. Similarly, using a complex formula, an income tax will be assessed on residents depending on how much they saved on their taxes. For example, if a resident saw his Federal taxes decline by 5%, he would owe the difference to the city. However, if a resident owed more to the IRS as a result of the limit on the deductibility of State and local taxes, the resident would not owe the city anything extra.
“It’s about fairness and stopping the GOP Tax scam,” Alderman Marc Rodriguez said when introducing the legislation. “There is too much income inequality out there. I don’t like people getting ahead when there are so many left behind. I like to think of ourselves as crabs, pulling one of our own back down if someone tries to escape. We all have to be in this bushel together”
According to the new law, all the money collected will be directly redistributed to city residents who are unemployed, homeless, or undocumented immigrants, after the city charges a 95% administrative fee. In addition, a 5% city sales tax, on top of the 6% State sales tax, will be added to allow the city to hire auditors to review the income taxes of city residents.
The legislation passed passed 9 to 1 with only Alderman Fred Paone voting against it. Mayor Buckley said he voted for the measure reluctantly, since he claimed it was going to pass regardless. He then publicly mused about the feasibility of moving his restaurants to Arnold.
