MDCEP Statement on Governor’s Education Funding Actions
Maryland Center on Economic Policy Executive Director Benjamin Orr issued the following statement in response to the governor’s actions on the “Blueprint for Maryland’s Future” education funding bill:
“Achieving the vision of the Kirwan Commission requires us to strengthen our commitment to Maryland’s public schools, and the ‘Blueprint for Maryland’s Future’ legislation is an important first step. We thank Governor Hogan for allowing these new investments in critical needs like increasing access to prekindergarten and raising salaries for teachers to move forward.
We also agree with the governor that we must take additional steps to ensure that we can sustain these investments in the long term. Smart reforms to our state’s tax code can close loopholes placed there by special interests and provide the additional funds our schools need, while maintaining resources we need for other essential components of thriving communities, like health care and transportation.”
For additional background on reforms to Maryland’s tax code that would support the recommendations of the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education, see MDCEP’s January 2019 report “Building Our Future.”
Report summary:
Smart reforms to our state’s revenue system can close loopholes placed there by special interests and provide the additional funds our schools need. Our tax code today includes several ineffective components that hold Maryland back from being the best state we can be. As a result, revenue growth generally does not keep up with our needs, and our tax responsibilities get distributed upside-down—allowing the wealthiest to avoid making the same contributions the rest of us do. We can afford to build a world-class public school system if we take three steps to strengthen Maryland’s revenue system:
- Clean up our tax code. We should close corporate tax loopholes, eliminate ineffective economic development subsidies, and reverse a recent cut to our millionaire estate tax. These special tax breaks benefit the powerful few but do nothing to help our economy.
- Modernize our sales tax. Maryland’s economy has changed a lot over the last several decades, but our tax code hasn’t kept up. We should modernize Maryland’s sales tax to reflect the increasing importance of services and online commerce to our economy. We can offset the impact on struggling Marylanders by expanding working family tax credits.
- Strengthen our income tax. Restructuring Maryland’s income tax will enable us to raise significant revenue, lower income taxes on most low- and middle-income Marylanders, and improve our upside-down tax code.
Together, these reforms will increase state revenues by $1.9 billion in fiscal year 2030 (adjusted for inflation)—enough to fully fund the state share of a robust public education reform package. The average impact for low- and middle-income households would be about $5 per month.
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Media Contact
Kali Schumitz, Director of Communications and Partner Engagement
410-412-9105, ext. 701
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About Maryland Center on Economic Policy
The Maryland Center on Economic Policy advances innovative policy ideas to foster broad prosperity and help our state be the standard-bearer for responsible public policy. We engage in research, analysis, strategic communications, public education, and grassroots alliances promoting robust debate and greater public awareness of the policy choices Maryland residents face together.
