Metro’s basic problem: Ignoring its customers
Re: “Metro board members missed more than meetings,” Aug. 5
Metro’s ignoring its own rules and not taking corrective actions — even when it knew safety problems existed — is criminal. Metro board members not bothering to show up for meetings is just crazy. But that’s not all.
At 5:30 one morning as I drove into the Glenmont Metro station parking garage, I encountered two Metro workers who parked a white van right in the middle of the road not 10 feet away from an empty parking space. When I told them they should move the van because everyone had to go around it, they just laughed at me and walked on.
And that’s the basic problem with Metro. From the top to the bottom, Metro ignores the people who keep it in business. I would pay the higher fares if Metro employees cared, but they don’t!
Charlie Scruggs
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O’Malley is not fooling anybody
Re: “Montgomery would get bulk of AP exam funding,” July 13
Gov. Martin O’Malley’s foolish attempt to “grab” Montgomery County voters won’t work in this disastrous economic climate in which cuts are being made at every level of state government, notwithstanding his plan to throw away $3 million to cover Advanced Placement and PSAT test fees, including $1 million for Montgomery County.
Why is one of the nation’s wealthiest counties getting one-third of these funds, more than Prince George’s County, which is not as wealthy and has more minority students? We all know that Montgomery is going to be an election battleground this fall, and that this is nothing more than a ploy to “buy” votes.
My taxes already pay for local school funding and state universities. If a Montgomery student wants to go to college, his or her family should cough up the money for these fees, which is what I did when I took the AP tests. Tax money is better spent on teachers, road and bridge construction, and keeping employees from being furloughed.
Sorry, Governor, but your plan doesn’t benefit most Maryland residents, which is why former Gov. Bob Erhlich will win in November.
Richard J. Landon
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Taxes will go up for everybody, not just the rich
The Tax Foundation has a chart comparing varying income groups that will be affected by the expiring Bush tax cuts.
The biggest winners were those making between $25,000 and $35,000 because of the new 10 percent bracket and the doubled child credit; their ratio of tax share to income was cut in half. But the 10 percent bracket will disappear and move up to 15 percent for all incomes below $34,550. How’s that “hope and change” working for you now?
The child tax credit, which was doubled from $500 to $1,000, will expire Dec. 31, 2010, and tougher eligibility standards will go into effect unless Congress acts. So much for the Obama regime’s promise to only “tax the rich.”
The Bush tax cuts reduced the maximum tax rate on long-term capital gains and qualified dividends to 15 percent, with lower-income filers exempt. The sunset provisions would move the capital gains rate back to a maximum of 20 percent, and qualified dividends would resume being taxed as high as 39.6 percent. They also eliminated the so-called “marriage penalty” and gave a wedded couple filing jointly a standard deduction twice that of a single filer. Say “bye-bye” to this also.
Mike Finley
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