Please note. At the beginning of this legislative session, Jack Markell kept all the tax increases in, except one, for those making over $60,000. There was a lot of talk about the need for a higher bracket, talk that perhaps in Delaware it should start at $1 million. It could then be accurately called a millionaires tax. Delaware’s Gatsby Tax has a nice ring to it….

This year, their rate was shifted from 6.95% down to 6.75%, then in future years it drops to 5.95%. Per every $100 million assessed in income, that is a loss of $1 million dollars coming in. Based on Budget estimates this tax cut will cost Delaware $68 million a year… This all happened at the beginning of the session.

Now with 6 days left in this year’s session, today, we get the announcement that we need $80 million dollars in new taxes.
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Gov. Jack Markell has offered (mighty nice of him) legislators a selection of more than $80 million in tax and fee increases to spend on roads, beaches, parks and waterways, but already legislators are rejecting some of the ideas. Markell included a 5-cent increase in the gasoline tax…

Other ideas including upping document fees charged when Delawareans purchase a car (aka a sales tax on new car purchases), expanding the hotel accommodation tax so it applies to beach rental properties, and increasing vehicle registration fees and highway tolls. Excerpt from News Journal (why bother linking to it; most of you don’t subscribe anyways). See Real News at Delaware Liberal.

This had to be planned all along! Cut the tax on the wealthy at the top, wait for the last minute, then call an emergency and slap regular people with $80 million dollars worth of fees… just averaged out to every Delawarean,(including every child so per family it is much higher) that is an increase of $80 dollars spread out over the year… If your take home pay was say, $30,000, it will now effectively be $29,920…

You are losing $80… Why? Because the General Assembly was USED. Tricked by a switcheroo….

Here is what should happen. The Democratic Majority in anger against being made into a fool by their governor of the same party, should ramrod over the dead bodies of Republicans, a 10% marginal tax rate on all those making over $1 million a year! And put it defiantly right on Markell’s desk to sign, (thereby almost guaranteeing everyone of them re-election into the next session. Woo Hoo)

Markell will either have to sign, put the state in arrears, or back down and compromise.

That is how you teach a trickster a lesson.