Maryland

The ballot title of a referendum legalizing slot machines in Maryland suggests slots would be authorized only to fund education. In fact, slightly less than half of the money would go to education, the League of Women Voters reports. Such misleading titles are common in referenda that are placed on the ballot by legislatures, since they can draft the titles themselves. In citizen initiatives, someone independent of the authors -- typically an attorney general or secretary of state -- writes the title.

In the past year, we have seen both Michigan and Maryland enact new taxes, only to repeal them soon thereafter and before they became effective, due to complaints. That's a lot of work for no effect. What could have been done differently?

On 12/1/07, the day a use tax on specified services was to go into effect, Michigan repealed the law (see prior blog post). More recently, Maryland repealed its expansion of the sales tax to computer services. In November 2007, the legislature added computer services to a measure designed to address a budget shortfall (see Washington Post article of 12/9/07). The tax was to become effective on July 1, 2008. Fierce opposition by the business community led to its repeal in April 2008. The tax would have mostly applied to businesses since they purchase more computer services than do individual consumers.

Back in 1987, we saw Florida expand its sales tax to include specified services, only to repeal that tax 6 months later. In 1990, Massachusetts expanded its sales tax to services, but repealed it before the effective date.

QUESTION TIME: Last year, San Francisco voted down a ballot initiative that would have required the mayor to submit to "question time" from the board of supervisors, in the same manner that British prime ministers must take questions in the House of Commons. But the board of supes hasn't given up, inviting Mayor Gavin Newsom to show up and take questions. He is declining these invitations. Newsom, who remains popular despite a public confession of adultery with a top aide's wife, has been deflecting requests for information of all kinds as he explores a race for governor in 2010. (Arnold is termed out, so the seat is open).