After weeks of negotiations, a budget conference committee agreed on a compromise plan that calls for more than $2 billion in program and spending cuts, along with more than $1 billion in tax increases.
Members of the House and Senate conference committee went through pages of changes and adopted the compromise plan. The committee adopted a new $5 per tire tax to be levied at the time of purchase. The revenue generated will go to the dwindling Transportation Trust Fund.
During floor debate, Senate Republicans were successful in getting an amendment adopted to direct the tire tax revenue specifically for highway maintenance. However, during the conference committee, that amendment was stripped.
“They decided it goes back into the transportation trust fund and at that point it gets mixed up with everything else,” Sen. Paul Corderman, R-Frederick and Washington Counties, said after the meeting.
The committee also agreed to raise the vehicle excise tax from 6% to 6.5%; the House’s version called for the number to be slightly higher, at 6.8%.
Lawmakers kept the 3% tech tax – or a new tax on data and IT services – but carved out more industries for exemptions. Now, quantum and cybersecurity are largely exempt from the new tax.
The budget plan also includes other tax and fee increases, like:
- Raising the cannabis tax from 9% to 12%
- Raising the tax on sports betting from 15% to 20%
- Implementing a 6$ sales tax on vending machine sales
- Implementing a rental car excise tax
- Speeding up the implementation of vehicle registration fee increases
- Implementing a 2% capital gains tax on filers with more than $350,000 in income
- Create new tax brackets: Individuals earning more than $500,000 will be taxed at a rate of 6.25%- an increase from the current 5.75% rate; individual earners making more than $1 million will be taxed at 6.5% – an increase from the current 5.75%
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Mikenzie Frost over at Fox 45 News
