Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley is threatening to ram through a sweeping new land use plan that imposes an environmentalist agenda on the state's sprawling rural populations - a move that could spark a tax revolt and mass exodus unless it is rewritten, county officials and state legislators told The Daily Caller on Monday.

O'Malley has indicated that he intends to impose what some lawmakers are calling a draconian new environmentalist agenda, known as "Plan Maryland," through executive order and regulation, rather than through the state legislature, even though his fellow Democrats dominate both chambers.

Plan Maryland's expensive new mandates for rural home builders will make new residences prohibitively expensive. O'Malley also intends to withhold state funds from new road projects and even new sewage systems if they are proposed outside the "smart growth" boundaries designated by his state planning board.