Annapolis, MD – After promising to act on infrastructure for more than a year, yesterday, Donald Trump released an infrastructure plan that looks very familiar to Marylanders. Trump’s plan, which aims to aggressively implement new #TrumpTolls and taxes on drivers, looks almost identical to the new highway tax plans released by Governor Larry Hogan in recent months.
“Governor Hogan deserves a writing credit on Donald Trump’s new infrastructure plan,” said Maryland Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Matthews. “After campaigning on a promise to roll back taxes and tolls, Governor Hogan rolled out a highway tax plan that could cost Maryland commuters as much as $40 in daily tolls. Now Donald Trump in joining him in the toll lane. Instead of working with Democrats to bring our infrastructure into the 21st century with efficient transit, both Hogan and Trump want to pave paradise, auction off our roads and highways to the highest bidder, and ask taxpayers to foot the bill.”
Last year, Hogan proposed new toll lanes, which would levy exorbitant new taxes on commuters. The plan ignores public transportation.
Hogan’s highway tax plans are in direct conflict with his campaign pledges and add to a long list of Hogan’s broken promises. During the 2014 gubernatorial campaign, on September 2013, Hogan said, “Now, they’re going to add new tolls to new roads, roads that they shouldn’t have tolls on.” Months after entering office, at a press conference in May 2015, Hogan referred to toll increases as “regressive tax hikes who hurt people who could least afford it.”