Change Maryland on LG Brown’s Veterans tax relief plan: Where’s the follow through?

Lt. Governor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Anthony Brown issued a proposal yesterday – Veterans Day – to exempt military retirement income from Maryland taxes. In 2010, as a candidate for lieutenant governor, Brown vocally opposed the same proposal.

Change Maryland Chairman Larry Hogan blasted Brown’s hypocrisy: “Four years ago, this Lieutenant Governor stood before all Marylanders at a press conference and criticized this very proposal,” he said. “Not only did his administration not cut taxes for veterans for seven years, Brown and other tax and spend politicians raised taxes forty consecutive times, further burdening struggling veterans. Now, as he looks to succeed his political mentor, Anthony Brown is finally ready to talk cuts. Our veterans deserve better than a Governor who is only in their corner when it’s politically convenient.”

Touting tax relief in an election year is old-hat for Brown, who joined Governor O’Malley in promising no new taxes on the campaign trail in 2010. However when the duo won reelection, they pushed for the most regressive taxes we have seen in recent history, which have taken billions out of Maryland’s economy.

“Yesterday’s proposal from Anthony Brown is nothing new,” Hogan continued. “It is a plan that has stalled in Annapolis for nearly eight years. At any point during his seven year tenure as lieutenant governor, Brown could have followed through and championed this issue. Instead, he did nothing – except raise more taxes.”

“For over seven years the O’Malley-Brown Administration ignored the needs of Marylanders, including the men and women who serve our country,” said Hogan. “Now, during an election year, we’re supposed to believe that Brown and others like him view veterans as a priority. But if history is any indication of what Brown would do as governor, it’s obvious that our veterans, and Maryland as a whole, can’t afford another four years of broken promises and failed policies.”

Change Maryland is the state’s largest grassroots political organization. Under the leadership of successful businessman and former Ehrlich Cabinet secretary Larry Hogan, the group has exploded to over 60,000 Democrats, Republicans, and Independents from every county in the state, advocating for fiscal responsibility and common sense policies in Annapolis.