Assessments And Taxation

In explaining his opposition to a proposed increase in Howard County's real estate transfer tax, real estate broker Louis M. Pope named a reason that was misleading in a Tuesday article in the Howard County edition of The Sun. Residents who refinance the home in which they live are not subject to transfer taxes, according to Robert E. Young, associate director of Maryland's Department of Assessments and Taxation.

Home values have continued to fall across Maryland, but for the first time since 2008, the average decline in tax assessments was in the single digits, state officials said. "It's showing an improved market, that's really the bottom line here," said Robert E. Young, director of the state's Department of Assessments and Taxation, which will send out tax assessment notices Friday to 678,763 property owners. After several years of disheartening double-digit declines, this year's lesser slump in home values - down an average of 6.9 percent from three years ago - is being taken by homeowners, government officers and real estate professionals as a sign that better times are likely ahead.

Access to real property assessment records, tax maps and sales data from the State Department of Assessments and Taxation can now be obtained on the Internet at www.dat.state.md.us seven days a week, 24 hours a day.The site was originally posted last April and was updated in the fall. It offers access to any of the 2 million real property accounts in Maryland.All that is needed to access the information is the address, the account number or the map parcel on the tax map."We noticed a large demand by people wanting to access property records, so we built this site to make it more convenient than having to call or visit local assessment offices," said Ronald W. Wineholt, director of Maryland's Department of Assessments and Taxation.

The deadline to apply for a property tax credit that, on average, cuts more than $1,000 off a homeowner's tax bill, has been extended until the end of October. Maryland residents can apply for the Homeowners' Property Tax Credit through October 31, said Robert E. Young, director of the state Department of Assessments and Taxation. The agency has extended the deadline from Sept. 1. Application numbers have jumped in recent years, as people's jobs or overtime income has vanished, and Young said he didn't want the newly eligible to miss out. “We administratively can extend the program until October the 31 st ,” he said.

The General Assembly did not meet during the weekend, th 26th and 27th days of the session.Today1 p.m.: Senate Budget and Taxation Committee receives fiscal briefing on the State Reserve Fund, public debt, Office on Aging, state treasurer and Baltimore Regional Council of Governments, Room 100, Senate Office Building.2 p.m.: House Appropriations subcommittees sponsor budget hearings on higher education issues, assessments and taxation, and the Patuxent Institution, rooms 130, 406 and 431 respectively, House Office Building.

Feb. 12 is deadline to mail appeals of assessments Homeowners who recently received a property assessment notice from the state Department of Assessments and Taxation and wish to dispute the department's estimate must postmark their appeal form by Feb. 12. About 620,000 assessment notices were mailed Dec. 29. The Feb. 12 deadline to file an appeal is for those property owners who received notices, said Ron W. Wineholt, director of the state Department of...

Mildred C. Kennedy, a retired administrative assistant with the state Department of Assessments and Taxation, died of cancer Thursday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Timonium resident was 79. Born and raised in Baltimore, Miss Kennedy was the daughter of Ambrose Kennedy, an insurance executive who was a congressman from 1932 to 1940. She attended the Institute of Notre Dame and graduated from Mount St. Agnes High School in 1942. After graduating from Eaton & Burnett Business College Inc., she worked as a secretary for the Veterans Administration.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening filled several remaining slots in his Cabinet yesterday by reappointing the commanding general of the Maryland National Guard and the director of state planning, and appointing a new director of assessments and taxation.The governor also proved once again that it often pays, literally, to leave the state legislature: He appointed recently retired Baltimore Del. John W. Douglass to become deputy director of assessments and taxation.His other appointments included:* Maj. Gen. James F. Fretterd as adjutant general of the state's 9,400-member Army and Air National Guard.

William Kenneth Blevins, former deputy director of the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation, died Thursday at Sinai Hospital of a heart attack after surgery. He was 68.A top-ranking official with the state for 16 years, he helped to unify the way state property taxes were assessed throughout Maryland. He began his career as an assessor in Baltimore County in 1963.Ronald W. Wineholt, director of the Department of Assessments and Taxation, said Mr. Blevins filled the No. 2 slot for many years before the deputy's position was created officially.

DENTON -- "Caroline County came in first, unfortunately," sighed Margaret Myers, president of the three-member County Commission during yesterday's meeting.The "first" -- Caroline County's property assessments increased more than any other in the state last year -- has angered a lot of property owners and stirred up a small furor in this rural mid-Shore county, known for its rich soil and productive vegetable farms.Citizen complaints and letters of appeal led the County Commission yesterday to invite the local assessor and the director of the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation to a future meeting and explain how assessments are made.

Getting a break on your bill from the Homestead Property Tax Credit? If you're among the 150,000 or so who haven't yet applied for the credit, a new(ish) one-time requirement, then make sure you get that form in by the end of the year. Those who miss the deadline will lose their credit in the 2013 tax year , which begins July 1 of next year. Poof, gone. The good news for confused homeowners who do manage to miss out is that you can at least get your credit restored for the 2014 tax year -- the amount you would have gotten if you had applied on time, rather than starting from scratch.

Butchers Hill property owner Alex Stroh had the right question about The Sun's comparison of two public databases that found hundreds of vacant Baltimore properties getting a tax break for owner-occupied homes: "Why couldn't the city just do that?" According to a report by Scott Calvert and Jamie Smith Hopkins , at least $325,000 in credits was at stake - not a fortune in terms of the city's overall finances, perhaps, but enough to at least partially restore some of the services that have been eliminated in recent budget cutting.

In an effort to provide tax relief to homeowners, Republican Sen. Barry Glassman has filed a bill to freeze at current levels those properties due for re-assessment in 2009 and to recalculate assessments completed in the last five years so that those reflect today's market values. The proposal would mean the properties along the Route 40 corridor would remain at the assessment level established three years ago rather than go through the process, scheduled to begin in January and likely to show an increase in value.

Thousands of property owners might be getting improper tax breaks on second homes and rental properties, and more than 1,100 out-of-state companies might be doing business in Maryland without registering or paying required fees, according to a legislative audit released yesterday. The state is instituting a new application procedure to ensure that Maryland residential property owners get homestead credits - which limit annual property tax increases - only on their principal residences, as the law requires.

While the highest assessments in more than a decade are arriving in the mail to one-third of Harford's property owners, the county isn't preparing for a major boost to its coffers. "It helps the county grow revenues to cover inflation," said budget director John J. O'Neill Jr. "It's not a big windfall for the county. It doesn't give us a big pot of money." The state Department of Assessments and Taxation, which reassesses one-third of the properties in each of the state's 24 jurisdictions each year, mailed out new assessments last week to more than 645,000 properties, 22,500 of which are in Harford, said Jerrald Simmers of the state Department of Assessments and Taxation.

A Maryland state employee identified as No. 004577 was laid off last week. According to records released by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s office, that employee earned $59,746 a year as supervisor of property maps in the Department of Assessments and Taxation. The supervisor's termination - along with the layoffs of about 80 additional state employees and the abolishment of 879 vacant positions to help cut $208 million from the state budget - leaves questions about how the state and those who depend on its services will adjust.

Property tax protest! It's on the minds of many people, some ofwhom may never have thought about it until various groups formed in Baltimore County.My group, Property Taxpayers United, started in January 1990 when central Baltimore County property owners were reassessed. Now new groups and extensions of our group are organizing in Dundalk, Essex, Perry Hall, Parkville and elsewhere. These are the homeowners from the Eastern part of the county who recently received their new assessments and tax bills.

Beginning next week, more than 600,000 property owners in Maryland will receive reassessment notices from the state assessments and taxation department and will be facing an average increase of 9.5 percent starting July 1.That cold fact is hardly welcome news to homeowners who might have assumed that a slowing real estate market would translate into a lower property assessment when the state tax notice arrived.Marylanders whose home or other property was reappraised by the state this year will see the 9.5 percent assessment increase TC for each of the next three years, slightly below the 10 percent cap on annual increases adopted by the 1990 state legislature.

Mildred C. Kennedy, a retired administrative assistant with the state Department of Assessments and Taxation, died of cancer Thursday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Timonium resident was 79. Born and raised in Baltimore, Miss Kennedy was the daughter of Ambrose Kennedy, an insurance executive who was a congressman from 1932 to 1940. She attended the Institute of Notre Dame and graduated from Mount St. Agnes High School in 1942. After graduating from Eaton & Burnett Business College Inc., she worked as a secretary for the Veterans Administration.

Last month brought more than the usual holiday spirit for 692,000 Maryland homeowners who received their residential property reassessments from the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation. For many, it was an insignificant reminder that three years have passed since their last property reassessment. For others, it was a rude awakening that an increase in demand - coupled with a decrease in housing inventory - has raised real estate values and their property taxes. Case in point - the average property assessment increase for 2003 was 26.4 percent, compared with 15.9 percent in 2002, 10.1 percent in 2001 and 5.7 percent in 2000, according to state figures.