That’s right, citizens in 10 Maryland counties will soon be charged a tax when it rains. Why, yes, this did all originate with Obama EPA (via The Blaze)
(The Gazette) …Get ready for their newest invention, the rain tax. Here’s what’s going on:
In 2010 the Obama administration’s Environmental Protection Agency ordered Maryland to reduce stormwater runoff into the Chesapeake Bay so that nitrogen levels fall 22 percent and phosphorus falls 15 percent from current amounts. The price tag: $14.8 billion.
And where do we get the $14.8 billion? By taxing so-called “impervious surfaces,†anything that prevents rain water from seeping into the earth (roofs, driveways, patios, sidewalks, etc.) thereby causing stormwater run off. In other words, a rain tax.
The unfunded mandate boiled to to the county level, where 10 will start charging the tax on July 1.
Well, you ask, “How on earth can the government know how much impervious surface I own?†Answer: It’s not on earth, it’s in the sky. Thanks to satellite imagery and geographic information systems, Big Brother can measure your roof and driveway (and you thought drones were only used for killing terrorists).
More spying.
OK, once the counties raise this money, how is it spent? The state law is kind of squishy. It can be spent to build and maintain stream and wetland restoration projects. And, of course, a lot of it will go to “monitoring, inspection, enforcement, review of stormwater management plans and permit applications and mapping of impervious surfaces.†In other words, hiring more bureaucrats to administer the rain tax program.
It can also be spent on “public education and outreach†(whatever that means) and on “grants to nonprofit organizations†(i.e. to the greenies who pushed the tax through the various levels of government).
Interestingly, Montgomery County is already charging a “rain tax”. How’s that working out?
“(The county) holds workshops and training events to help residents understand how various projects work. Projects such as rain gardens, conservation landscaping, rain barrels and cisterns, drywells and tree planting are then offered to be installed on properties that qualify, based on the County’s assessment.â€
So, I’m supposed to pay a rain tax so the county can train me how to plant a tree, which they’ll give me if, in its view, I qualify? Have we all gone mad?
Yes, they have. Welcome to Liberal World. Where they excepted government property from the tax. This might make a tiny bit of sense if the money was going to be actually used to reduce the runoff in a significant way. Alas, as typical it’s going to be pissed away.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.
Run off into the Chesapeake almost wiped out 90% of the striped bass. I am glad that something is being done. Chesapeake oysters probably will not ever recover but the stripers are doing much better since the EPA first clamped down.
And of course john forgets to say that the EPA got slapped down on those regulations by a federal court in Virgina who rightfully noted that the EPA had no control over runoff or rain.
Maryland is in financial difficulty. To try to lower the deficit, they raised taxes and then decided to allow slot machines in the state. I have nothing against slot machines, but they adversely affect lower income people (of which Maryland has plenty – especially in Baltimore) but that doesn’t matter to politicians.
Instead of cutting spending to help balance the budget, they raise taxes at every chance and come up with hair brained “solutions” that make the problem worse.
Except, nothing is really being done. Just more money for BS.
Green spray paint for your driveway and camo netting for your roof – that will teach them.
Right on Spikey1.
Damned straight. Screw em!!
Taxing rainfall. Playing god aren’t they. As if they can tax US to stop the rain from falling.
Don’t they know, that it doesn’t matter the surface type the rain falls on, it all ends up in the sewers and eventually the Bay.
So, they want to tax us to teach us about rain barrels, tree planting, gardening, and.. what in that will stop the rain from falling?
Oh, and john, .. as usual you are completely wrong and illiterate. The dwindling striper population became so because of overfishing and loss of habitat. Not runoff. They also suffered from lice and worms. But mainly overfishing.
If the population is in such dire straits john, they why do they continue to allow fishing??