Farmers speak out on state’s new taxes

Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photo by Erica Mitrano Sen. Roy Dyson (D-Calvert, St. Mary’s, Charles) spoke during the Calvert County Farm Bureau legislative dinner on Monday at Trinity United Methodist Church in Prince Frederick. Several lawmakers attended the event and farmers spoke out against new ordinances and tax increases. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

A favorite topic among bureau members was the set of tax increases, including a 1 percent sales tax increase, passed in a recent special session in Annapolis.

Del. Sue Kullen (D-Calvert) defended the tax increases, saying they were tough but necessary.

While she apologized for the tax increase, she went on to say, ‘‘It was a very, very difficult situation the state was in. We could go backwards or forwards. We know when you start messing with somebody’s back pocket, there was a very serious response from the community, and it was well heard.”

Del. James Proctor (D-Calvert, Prince George’s) also chimed in to defend the increases, saying former Gov. Robert Ehrlich (R) bore part of the blame.

‘‘The previous governor was robbing other funds to balance the budget and we’ve gotten to the point of — don’t rob those funds anymore,” Proctor said. ‘‘Don’t rob Peter to pay Paul, as the expression goes. That’s what he was doing.”

Proctor said the money raised by the taxes would pay for the state to upgrade its helicopter fleet, allowing the state to buy three a year for four years to replace aging medical evacuation helicopters.

Proctor also waxed grandiloquent on the Maryland’s two-party system.

‘‘We have a two-party system and one party keeps the other honest,” Proctor said.

‘‘Not really. You know that’s not true,” chimed in Betty Hunter of Sunderland, before making known her own displeasure about the higher taxes.

Hunter wasn’t the only one.

‘‘I’m sorry the senators left,” before hearing from the audience about the taxes, said Del. Anthony O’Donnell (R-Calvert, St. Mary’s), a vocal opponent of the tax increases. ‘‘They have a habit of leaving early when they’re not supposed to. That was a joke.”

O’Donnell said he is one of the plaintiffs in a current lawsuit seeking to overthrow the tax increases of the special session because the Maryland Senate allegedly adjourned for seven days without permission from the House of Delegates as required by the state constitution.

The lawsuit is ‘‘not frivolous. The requirements of the state constitution are not aspiration guidelines,” O’Donnell said. ‘‘... I do not think any taxes are going to be thrown out, though that’s what we asked for. ... We still have done nothing [in the legislature] to rein in the rate of growth of state spending.”

Of Proctor’s speech, O’Donnell said, ‘‘There’s the old axiom, if it looks like a duck, and sounds like a duck, then it’s a duck. You know what previous administrations have done and what previous administrations haven’t done, and you’re not fooled by any of it,” he told the audience. ‘‘So I’m just going to say, respectfully, pray for me in Annapolis.”

Another issue at the front of many minds was the precariousness of Calvert’s agricultural future.

Farm bureau president Walt Wells asked for estate tax relief for working farms so they could safely be passed on to the next generation.

‘‘This situation hit Sue’s and my farm, Tommy Briscoe’s farm and it really puts a burden on you,” Wells said. ‘‘You have to sell something so dear to you to survive. Estate tax is a killer.”

County planning and zoning director Greg Bowen offered a ray of hope, suggesting that Calvert farmers could take advantage of increasing demand for locally-grown food.

‘‘There’s changes in the wind,” Bowen said. ‘‘... There’s a movement to buy local. Can we capitalize in any way on the buy-local movement to help farmers?”

But the attitude among the current generation of farmers seemed to remain glum.

Later, Wells said to the members of the Calvert County Board of County Commissioners, ‘‘I hate to say this. ... We’re the last farming generation so you’d better be making plans for what you’re going to do with all that ag-preserved land, because there are no young farmers.” In the past, whole generations took up farming, but now ‘‘you can count on one hand the number of young farmers. That’s not a good sign. That’s not a good sign at all.”

Farmers also asked the commissioners about the ongoing revision of the Calvert County Animal Control Ordinance, and expressed their concern that the proposed new version had expanded to include livestock in addition to pets.

Commissioners President Wilson Parran (D) offered words of reassurance.

‘‘The intent was to tighten the ordinance for cats and dogs, for the most part. ... The [Citizens’] Advisory Committee put ‘animals and livestock,’ ” but the commissioners are methodically reviewing the document to see whether the livestock provision should remain.

‘‘Most, if not all, of those will come out,” he said.

The other two commissioners in attendance were more strident in their assessments.

‘‘I don’t think you want to hear my comments” because she had so many reservations about the proposed ordinance, Commissioner Susan Shaw (R) said.

One of the provisions she questioned is a tax on breeders, with ‘‘breeder” loosely defined.

‘‘Taxing $100 if your dog has pups, that I don’t like,” Shaw said.

Commissioner Barbara Stinnett (D) said that delegating drafting the ordinance to the advisory committee was like ‘‘sending a boy to do a man’s job.” The work sessions required to revise the proposal have ‘‘taken up a lot of — all time is valuable. It’s taken up a lot of time that could have been spent on something else.”

Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert, Prince George’s) and Sen. Roy Dyson (D-Calvert, St. Mary’s, Charles) spoke briefly at the beginning of the dinner before departing for Baltimore to introduce Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) there.

‘‘We have to keep farming viable in this state,” Dyson said.

E-mail Erica Mitrano at emitrano@somdnews.com.