The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

Maryland Officials Prepare More Gifts to the Wealthy

Sep 29, 2014

On September 23, Maryland lowered projections for state revenues by almost half a billion dollars. The problem, according to state officials, is the bad national economy.

Yes, there certainly is a bad economy. Too many people have been laid off. Too many workers have had their pay cut. The vast majority of young workers can’t find a single decent-paying job.

So of course incomes are “stagnant,” and of course there is a “weak housing market” in Maryland–as well as in almost every other state. And there are tax losses.

But public officials have repeatedly taken the money that has come in and spent it on increased subsidies and tax breaks for rich developers, big corporations and banks, further reducing tax revenues. Making everything worse.

When officials announce budget shortfalls, all they mean is that they want to take away from public funds in order to give more to the banks, the corporations and the wealthy people who own them.