Martin O'Malley presidential campaign, 2016/Taxes

	; ; Former presidential candidate; Martin O'Malley
	Political offices: ; Governor of Maryland; (2007-2015); Mayor of Baltimore; (1999-2007);
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Martin O'Malley suspended his presidential campaign on February 1, 2016.^[1]

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This page was current as of the 2016 election.

On December 8, 2015, Martin O'Malley wrote a brief op-ed for the Concord Monitor on climate change and clean energy, which includes a tax on carbon emissions. He said, “I’m the first candidate – and I hope not the last – to put forward a plan to power our country with 100 percent clean, renewable energy by 2050, while ending our reliance on fossil fuels. … As president, I will not only fully implement the Clean Power Plan, I will go further, setting targets for reducing emissions from other large sources and adopting a zero-tolerance policy for methane leaks from current oil and gas production. I will also fight for a cap or tax on carbon emissions and to set a national, cross-sector Renewable Electricity Standard so our nation is powered by 100 percent clean energy within 35 years." He continued, "With so much at stake [at the U.N. Climate Change Conference], it is disappointing that the other Democratic candidates for president haven’t released similarly ambitious plans. Secretary Clinton’s clean energy plan appears to be based on the voluntary adoption of solar panels. And Sen. Sanders’s plan, which he finally released Monday, appears to include weak carbon pollution reduction targets.”^[2]

On November 23, 2015, O'Malley criticized the Pfizer-Allergan merger, characterizing the arrangement as a way for Pfizer to avoid certain taxes. The move is known as an tax inversion and occurs when an American-based company merges with foreign firm and the new combined company sets up headquarters abroad for the purposes of lowering it's U.S. tax bill. O'Malley said in a statement, “The Pfizer-Allergan merger is fundamentally unfair, and a prime example of how our capitalist economy is not supposed to work. American small businesses and middle-class taxpayers do not have the ability to game the system and avoid paying the taxes they owe — Pfizer should not be able to either.”^[3]

As two-term governor of Maryland, O'Malley pushed for tax increases to fund his priorities such as investment in education and to prevent cuts due to the downturn in the broader national economy at the time.^[4] Taxes and fees raised under O'Malley's watch included a three-year surcharge on the income of the state’s millionaires that expired in 2011. In 2012, lawmakers increased the personal income tax rate for residents who make more than $100,000 or couples who make more than $150,000. The state sales tax was raised to six percent from five percent in 2007. ^[5]

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