"Six to Zero in Eight"

As a part Susan Gaztañaga's platform and plan for change in Maryland she is proposing an incremental sales tax reduction from 6% to 0% in 8 Years.  This be an incredible boost to the Maryland Economy and give Maryland businesses an edge when competing against states that lower sales tax rates.  This will be especially beneficial to businesses on the Eastern Shore who constantly compete with Delaware for business. 

Libertarian Quote of the Day

"The most destructive thing governments do is divide people against each other, all in competition over the reins of the state."

Anthony Gregory

Madaleno to pitch Internet sales tax for online companies

Plan could mean $7.5 million a year for state

by Marcus Moore | Staff Writer

A Montgomery County state senator plans to reintroduce a bill in the next legislative session to collect taxes from certain online companies, much to the dismay of some business advocates who say the plan won't solve the state's money woes.

Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Dist. 18) of Kensington first introduced the legislation in the final days of the 2008 session, but the bill did not make it out of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee — a key panel in Annapolis.

Madaleno said last week that he will refile the bill, which would allow Comptroller Peter V.R. Franchot to collect sales taxes from Maryland affiliates of Amazon and similar online retailers in the state.

The move could generate $7.5 million annually for the state and help plug a multimillion-dollar budget gap next year, Madaleno said.  Read The Rest of the Article

ADVICE GODDESS AMY ALKON ON BEATING SOME MANNERS INTO IMPOLITE SOCIETY

No Recovery Until America Invests Again

by Robert Higgs

While most Americans are familiar with the broad ups and downs of the economy and the job market – the stuff of daily headlines – the deeper story of the continuing recession can be found buried in the statistical appendix to the 2010 report of the president's Council of Economic Advisers.

That story: a devastating decline in investment spending.

The government's data reveal that, contrary to popular belief, consumer spending held up fairly well during the recession, falling less than 2% from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the second quarter of '09.

Most of this decline was erased during the third and fourth quarters of 2009, so by the final quarter of last year real private consumption spending was less than 1% below its previous quarterly peak.

Read More @ Lew Rockwell

  

Final 'Reform' Push: Twisting Arms

by Michael D. Tanner 

President Obama's attempts to ram health- care reform through an increasingly reluctant Congress are starting to resemble a really eventful episode of "The Sopranos."

Whether or not you believe former Rep. Eric Massa's bizarre accusations of locker-room confrontations and conspiracies to drive him from office, there is no doubt that the Obama administration and its congressional allies are willing to use every trick in the book to get this bill passed.

They've already bought votes with pork and special deals -- the "Louisiana purchase" ($300 million to bolster that state's Medicaid program, which swayed Sen. Mary Landrieu); the "Cornhusker kickback" ($100 million to Medicaid there, sweetening the pot for Sen. Ben Nelson), and Florida's "Gator Aid" (a Medicare deal potentially worth $5 billion, a hefty price for Sen. Bill Nelson's vote). Plus the millions for Connecticut hospitals, Montana asbestos abatement and so on.

Nor were the Obamans willing to let a little thing like election laws stand in the way. They rewrote Massachusetts law to allow for an appointed senator to hold office for several months, hoping to get the bill through before the special election that Scott Brown ultimately won. Their plans spoiled, they even considered holding up Brown's seating to let the appointed senator continue to vote on health care -- until public outrage forced them to back down.

Read More @ Cato

MdLP 2010 State Convention - A Huge Success

The MdLP experienced a great State Convention in 2010.  Here are some of the highlights.

Were treated with listening to Wes Benedict, the Libertarian Party's Executive Director, who offered some his advice and experiences from when he was the Chair of the Texas LP. 

Paul Jacob, a Liberty Warrior in the trenches for decades, gave us his 10 Commandments, these will be included in a separate post with links to his website.

We had a speaker about a possible Constitution Convention in the State of Maryland, with a question on the ballot in November.  Here is a link to the website.  Until he "comes out officially" we will keep him nameless.

There is no change on the Executive Board as the Central Committee elected the following individuals:

• Chair: Robert S. Johnston III
• Vice-Chair: Dave Sten
• Treasurer: Michael Linder
• Secretary: Robert E. Glaser
• Media: Muir Boda
• At-Large: Lorenzo Gaztañaga
• At-Large: Justin Kinsey

Two individuals were nominated for Maryland House of Delegates:

Arvin Vohra for District 15 

          Jerry McKinley for District 42.

 Two awards were handed out at the Convention.

Samuel P. Chase Award:  Joe Miller

Defender of Liberty Award: Gary Hoover

Our featured speaker for the evening Radley Balko is a Senior Editor at Reason Magazine.  He provided us  with a positive outlook on the Liberty Movement and some great advances on that front.  He also gave some great quotes from his research like this:

"Support for legalizing Marijuana is higher than the support for the Republican or Democratic Parties."

On behalf of those that attended, we wish to thank MdLP Chair Bob Johnston for putting together another great convention.

Sunday Truth

"The welfare state reduces a citizen to a client, subordinates them to a bureaucrat, and subjects them to rules that are anti-work, anti-family, anti-opportunity and anti-property … Humans forced to suffer under such anti-human rules naturally develop pathologies. The evening news is the natural result of the welfare state."

– Unknown

Libertarian Quote of the Day

"The proper and limited use of government is to invoke a common justice and keep the peace – and that is all."

– Leonard Read

Early Voting Centers In Maryland by County

Here is the link for Early Voting in Maryland by County.  We will post this again nearer the Election and by then there may be more places available.

Behind the Curtain: Assessing the Case for National Curriculum Standards

 by Neal McCluskey

The argument for national curriculum standards sounds simple: set high standards, make all schools meet them, and watch American students achieve at high levels. It is straightforward and compelling, and it is driving a sea change in American education policy.

Unfortunately, setting high standards and getting American students to hit them is extremely difficult. Politically powerful interest groups must be overcome. Crippling conflicts between different religious, ethnic, and ideological factions must be avoided. And a culture that is generally averse to an intense focus on academics must be transformed. These challenges help to explain why the research on national standards is both very limited and inconclusive.

But what if the research were to clearly show that having national standards leads to superior performance on international tests? Still, there would not be compelling evidence that national standards produce optimal outcomes; economic growth, as well as personal fulfillment, could very well require an education focused on much more than just high test scores.

It appears that the route to successful education goes in the opposite direction of national standards; it goes toward universal school choice. Only a free market can produce the mix of high standards, accountability, and flexibility that is essential to achieving optimal educational outcomes.

www.cato.org

 Behind the Curtain: Assessing the Case for National Curriculum Standards, Cato Policy Analysis No. 661

They Spend WHAT? The Real Cost of Public Schools

 by Adam B. Schaeffer

Although public schools are usually the biggest item in state and local budgets, spending figures provided by public school officials and reported in the media often leave out major costs of education and thus understate what is actually spent.

To document the phenomenon, this paper reviews district budgets and state records for the nation's five largest metro areas and the District of Columbia. It reveals that, on average, per-pupil spending in these areas is 44 percent higher than officially reported. 

Read the Report Below for Enlightenment.

They Spend WHAT? The Real Cost of Public Schools, Cato Policy Analysis No. 662

Susan Gaztananga & Doug McNeil Are Officially On The Ballot!

Susan Gaztananga & Doug McNeil are officially on the ballot as Governor and Lt. Governor for the general election.  Congratulations and now the real work begins!

Here is the link to open up the PDF with a list of State Candidates for the 2010 Gubernatorial Elections.

Justin Kinsey in 5B for House of Delegates is on it as well as Dr. Richard Davis and Lorenzo Gaztanaga for Congress.

Your View: City zoning enforcement is becoming oppressive

When Jim Ireton announced his candidacy for the office of mayor for the city of Salisbury, he quoted the following section of our Declaration of Independence:

"When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the Earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them."

However, recent actions by Mayor Ireton have me reflecting on this particular stanza from that same great document:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

In good faith, Karen Marshall purchased a home that included a one-bedroom apartment above the garage which, from everything she understood, was OK for her to rent out to help pay for her mortgage. The American dream -- exercising her liberty and pursuing happiness -- has all been crushed by an overzealous mayor and Zoning Board, wishing to make an example of somebody.

Imagine our forefathers' reaction to such a situation. It would range from disgust to contempt or embarrassment that our elected officials have made a mockery of our history, founding documents and the blood shed over the centuries to prevent this very situation -- an oppressive government.

I, for one, would rather err on the side of liberty than oppression.

Muir W. Boda
Salisbury
Boda is a member of the executive board of the Maryland Libertarian Party. --Editor

Libertarian Quote of the Day

"A nation that expects the government to prevent churches from burning, to control the price of bread or gasoline, to secure every job, and to find some villain for every dramatic accident risks an even larger loss of life and liberty."

– William A. Niskanen, For a Less Responsive Government, 

Cato Policy Report

Libertarian Quote of the Day

"The greater the number of laws and enactments, the more thieves and robbers there will be."

– Lao Tsu

Libertarian Quote of the Day

"I am convinced that we can do to guns what we've done to drugs: create a multi-billion dollar underground market over which we have absolutely no control."

– George L. Roman

Road to Ruin

Federal highway taxes should be spent on interstate highways, not urban transit.

Robert Poole

America's highway system is not delivering the high-quality transportation a competitive economy needs. Congestion gridlocks our urban expressways, costing Americans $76 billion per year in wasted time and fuel. The interstate highways, begun 50 years ago, are wearing out and will need repairs and reconstruction costing many hundreds of billions of dollars. Two national commissions have estimated that the shortfall in productive highway investment (federal, state and local) is in the vicinity of $60 billion to $90 billion per year.

We invented the federal Highway Trust Fund in 1956, promising motorists and truckers that all proceeds from a new federal gas tax would be spent on building the interstate system. They aren't. Congress has expanded federal highway spending beyond interstates to all types of roadways. And ever since 1982, a portion of those "highway user taxes" have been diverted to urban transit. Today, the federal role in transportation includes mandating sidewalks, funding bike paths, and creating scenic trails.

As a result, spending exceeds gas-tax revenues and the Highway Trust Fund is broke. Some claim this is because the 18.3-cents-per-gallon federal gas tax needs to be raised. But drivers can fairly put the blame on the fact that 25 percent of gas-tax funds are diverted to non-highway uses.

A key to fixing the problem is to identify what should be federal and what should be state and local responsibilities. In principle, only the interstate highways—our key arteries for interstate commerce—should rise to the level of the federal government. Other highways, streets, sidewalks, bike paths, local transit lines, etc., are more properly state and local concerns.

Reserving the federal Highway Trust Fund just for highway improvements would mean a 25 percent boost in federal highway investment—about $11 billion per year, a good start toward repairing our aging infrastructure.

But what would happen to urban transit if gas taxes went back to being spent solely on highways? Proper federalist principles would make transit a matter for metro areas and local governments to fund themselves, but realistically, that's not going to happen anytime soon—this Congress will continue to fund local transit projects. But a good case can be made that if the federal government is going to support transit, bikeways and sidewalks, it should do so out of general revenues, not highway-user gas taxes.

READ MORE @ REASON

Robert W. Poole Jr., an MIT-trained engineer, is director of transportation studies at Reason Foundation. This article originally appeared in The Washington Times.