With a $1.7 billion tax increase moving toward completion in Annapolis, Montgomery County’s top elected official is concerned enough to cancel a planned economic development trip to India in order to stay home and try to soften the blow from a bill that would increase income taxes for many of his constituents.
A spokesman said that County Executive Ike Leggett will be doing “face-to-face” lobbying in the state capital today, not in India.
Montgomery taxpayers would generate 80 percent of the increase in income tax revenue under Gov. Martin O’Malley’s plan. Leggett has said he supports making income taxes more progressive and favors the governor’s overall tax plan, but questions the extent to which the governor wants to raise top-tier taxes.
The governor proposed reducing the income tax rate from 4.75 percent to 4 percent for most residents, but households with incomes of more than $150,000 would see their rate increase to 6 percent, and those making more than $500,000 would pay 6.5 percent. A Senate version of the plan offers some relief for upper-income residents, and O’Malley’s bill may also be revised in the House of Delegates.
Some higher-income county residents, like Daniel Zubairi of Bethesda, say all the versions being discussed would be too much for him.
“I don’t want to disclose my income, but it would definitely impact me,” Zubairi, 31, said. “I think this is the United States, and there should not be economic discrimination based on individuals being successful through job creation and entrepreneurship.”
Zubairi is the managing director of locally based computer security company Sydantech.
“I think it will be sufficient enough for me to move my business to another state; we have a small office in Nevada which is a no-income-tax state,” Zubairi said.
Many upper-income county residents, though, can live with the increase. Tufail Ahmad, 70, a semiretired owner of a shipping company who lives in Potomac, says he would be taxed at the highest rate under either plan, but he’s fine with that.
“We are in a very comfortable position,” Ahmad said. “We have four grandchildren going to school in Montgomery County, and we are willing to pay an extra couple of thousand in taxes if necessary, because that helps fund our grandchildren’s education.”
David Bossie, a Montgomery County resident who is president of a grassroots conservative group called Citizens United, said he’s not surprised about the split opinion of area residents. Bossie’s group has bought ad time on all major Baltimore-area TV networks and in select Washington cable markets to decry the tax increases.
