“Undemocratic.” That is the label state Sen. Lisa Gladden, majority whip, gives to those who opposed recent tax increases. Her pronouncement at the Greater Baltimore Committee?s 2008 Legislative Forum Monday is so absurd as to be funny — almost. Invoking President John F. Kennedy, she lectured attendees that “we have a responsibility, if not to ourselves, then to the larger community. We have to pay taxes.”
First, she maligns Kennedy by equating his inspirational call to service in his “ask not what your country can do for you” speech with unquestioning acceptance of government authority and greed.
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Gladden is right to say we must pay taxes. But as a lawyer she more than others should understand logic. Opposing certain taxes hardly categorizes someone as anti-democracy. In fact, it is a cornerstone of our way of life — remember the Boston Tea Party? Besides, isn?t the ability to speak truth to power at the heart of what it means to be an American and enshrined in the First Amendment?
And coming from a legislator who supported the taxation of computer service businesses based solely on how much money they would contribute to the treasury, it?s hypocritical. Arbitrary and dictatorial seem fitting labels for her decisions and those of every other legislator who voted to burden computer services businesses with the sales tax for the first time — without first hearing from those they planned to tax — and the rest of the $1.4 billion in tax increases during the special session.
That is especially so as legislators only debated how to raise taxes — not how to cut spending. Telling Marylanders to blindly pay all taxes because it is our duty is the same “greater good” logic Stalin and Hitler used to justify expropriating private property and redistributing it to those they deemed in need — like Communist and Nazi party officials.
Marylanders deserve a robust and open discussion with legislators about the meaning of “common good.” Legislators did not give it to them by excluding the voices of the computer services industry in their tax debates and by avoiding the hard work of cutting the budget. Exercise your constitutional rights by contacting Sen. Gladden at [email protected] or at 410-841-3697. Tell her the only people who are “undemocratic” are those in the General Assembly who seek to silence opposition voices.
