Issue Position: The Flush Tax

Issue Position

In July 2012 most Marylanders saw a 100% tax increase in their Flush tax bills. This measure was supposedly taken because the O'Malley administration claimed the original flush tax estimation of $750 million to upgrade all Maryland sewage treatment plants was grossly miscalculated and the correct estimate is now $1.4 billion.

Yet, the taxes that goes into the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Restoration Fund to pay for sewage treatment facility upgrades has been purged of over $290 million just since 2010. In fact, the bond credit rating agency, Moody's, downgraded Maryland's bonds that were backed by flush tax money because of these numerous raids on the Fund.

The reality is that the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund has become another money pot that isn't protected from big spending administrations. Every dime of that raided taxpayer money was transferred to the General Fund to balance the budget.

As your elected official I will pledge to:
Produce a bill that will carry out an audit of the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund to assure that all fund monies go toward the upgrade of only the 67 sewage treatment plants earmarked.
Write an amendment that protects the fund from any future raid to pay for other projects to balance the budget.
Insist that septic tank users (and those rural neighborhoods and businesses that have communal tanks) be waived the requirement to pay into the fund when they do not contribute to the cause of bay pollution.
To include in my audit bill a provision that says once all treatment plants are in compliance with federal regulations, then the Flush tax will be terminated.

Source