More than six months after Governor Larry Hogan vetoed the Maryland’s proposed first-in-the-nation digital advertising tax, the legislature has moved forward with overriding the governor’s veto. In so doing, they fulfilled the fears of small businesses and consumers worried about having to bear the burden of the new tax. Now the bill’s lead advocate, Senate President Bill Ferguson, is attempting to assuage these concerns with a hilariously ineffective proposal to simply tell digital firms that they may not pass on the costs of the state’s digital tax.
Maryland passed its digital advertising tax legislation early last year, but was prevented from implementing it by Hogan’s veto in May. Nevertheless, like a man who has been saved from shooting himself in the foot by a concerned friend who then proceeds to successfully shoot himself in the foot soon after, the necessary supermajority of Maryland’s legislature decided to override Hogan’s veto.
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