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Readers Respond

Do lawmakers care about seniors and low-income families? | READER COMMENTARY

For The Baltimore Sun
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Police officers raise the U.S. and Maryland flags over the State House dome in Annapolis on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023. (Paul W. Gillespie/Capital Gazette).

Police officers raise the U.S. and Maryland flags over the State House dome in Annapolis on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023. (Paul W. Gillespie/Capital Gazette). (Paul W. Gillespie/Capital Gazette)

The Keep Our Heroes Home Act would exempt up to $40,000 of military retirement income from state taxes. As I read about this, I was wondering just when seniors will be taken care of and get some type of benefit from paying taxes on Social Security. Certainly, most seniors would love to be getting heftier Social Security checks and I bet seniors retired from Bethlehem Steel, like myself, would love to be getting a big tax break every month. These small monthly benefits should not be taxed (”Veterans pension tax giveaway unfair to other Maryland retirees,” Feb. 22).

It is a sore spot with me that seniors get stuck paying taxes but perhaps not veterans with larger retirement benefits who are still young enough to work at jobs paying $50,000 a year or more. The other issue is that some of these same retired military are now delegates and senators serving in the Maryland General Assembly. Talk about conflict of interest.

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Then there is how the effort to reflexively raise the minimum wage is being shut down (”Maryland senators put the brakes on Gov. Wes Moore’s plans to link minimum wage with inflation,” March 10). Seems the legislature is willing to take care of themselves, but when it comes to the poor working people they have no regard for their making a living wage. Here is hoping that the legislature will at least pass the service year program for recent high school graduates.

— Gordon Koerner, Joppa

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