I was thinking about this as I drove from The Mall back to
my office this afternoon during one of the heavier downpours. It occurred
to me that rain is a getting a bad rap this spring. Thanks to the General
Assembly, Marylanders have a new to tax to associate with this weather event.
The very term “rain tax” comes off as an affront to Mother Nature.
I think it’s doomed.
What started with grumbling on the fringes of the left and
the right is now becoming a bipartisan backlash. The lefties are pissed because
this is a tax that treats everyone equally, rich or poor. The righties hated it
because they hate anything that includes the word tax. It was one thing when
Repub county exec Laura Nueman came out against it but when a prominent Dem like city
councilperson Mary Pat Clarke added her voice to the fray, it got my attention.
Finally, here’s an issue that both parties can come together
on. This could be the beginning of the end of the rain tax, at least in
its current form. I suffer no illusion that this tax will actually go away. It will quietly get repackaged into some other environmental or public utilities legislation. Something less susceptible
to a nickname like rain tax.
