Homeowners in Anne Arundel County could receive another push to go green next year if the County Council approves a tax credit for solar panels.
County Councilman Joshua J. Cohen has sponsored a bill that would broaden the current tax credit for solar energy equipment, including panels that heat water and equipment that generates electricity for a household.
The tax credit would be for 50 percent of the cost of a system or $2,500, whichever is less, said Cohen, a Democrat who represents Annapolis. He said he had hoped for a $5,000 tax credit - which is available in Howard, Montgomery and Prince George's counties - but he does not believe that is affordable during an economic downturn.
"We are looking at a modest tax credit," he said.
Because Cohen wanted to change the wording of the bill to limit the amount that could be applied for, County Council members postponed a vote on the bill at their Dec. 1 meeting. Cohen and county officials are working on the language of amendments to the current bill.
Those amendments could come up for a vote at 7 p.m. Monday at the County Council meeting at the Arundel Center, 44 Calvert St. in Annapolis. If the amendments are approved, a vote on the amended bill would have to wait until the next council meeting. Council members Jamie Benoit of Crownsville, a Democrat, and Ronald C. Dillon Jr. of Pasadena, a Republican, are co-sponsors.
Even though the cost of a solar system can be more than $30,000, the county tax credit could be combined with state and federal tax credits, Cohen said.
Keeping a tax credit at all might seem impractical when county revenue is falling, but Cohen and county officials say the credit is too small to make much of a difference. As of Dec. 1, the county was facing a revenue shortfall of $35.8 million, said Alan Friedman, the director of government relations for County Executive John R. Leopold.
The current solar panel tax credit cost the county a little more than $11,000 in the past 18 months. Eliminating the current tax credit would not change much in the overall economic picture, he said.
"To be good environmental partners, we'll leave the environmental credit," Friedman said.
How much to expand it is being hammered out. The county has a property tax revenue cap, so the tax break would be made up by adjusting the property tax rate. With an assessable tax base of hundreds of millions of dollars, the increase would be so small that "it wouldn't even show up" Friedman said.
