Loophole

A bill designed to close what supporters call a lucrative corporate real estate tax loophole and increase Howard County's tax income by an estimated $1 million a year was approved by the House of Delegates last night in a 90-39 vote. The bill, denounced by business boosters but hailed by others as a way to boost sagging government revenues across Maryland during the recession, would stop the use of so-called shell corporations to transfer land without paying recordation and transfer taxes.

The Baltimore County Board of Appeals upheld yesterday a loophole in the zoning code designed to prevent too many renters from living in one house, a particular problem in the areas surrounding Towson University. The law says only two unrelated renters can live in a house in a single-family zone. In this case, the owners of a Towson rowhouse made two tenants 1 percent owners of the house, thus allowing two more people to live there. In May, county Administrative Hearing Officer Stanley J. Schapiro ruled that the arrangement was a sham and did not constitute real ownership.

Dr. Thomas W. Fauntleroy Jr. is convinced that a lawyer's mistake cost him and his family almost $1 million in inheritance taxes.But when the family sued the lawyer, their suit was thrown out because of a little-known legal loophole: When it comes to wills, you have to be the one who hired the lawyers to sue them.Even if it is obvious that the lawyer's negligence shortchanged the heirs, they are out of luck, according to a May 21 ruling from the Maryland Court of Appeals. The Fauntleroys and other plaintiffs have asked the court to reconsider its ruling, but it's not known when the seven-member panel will act on the appeal.

In the wake of a zoning ruling that exposed major loopholes in the county's ability to regulate crowded rental homes, Baltimore County councilmen have introduced one bill and are preparing another to give more power to code enforcement officers. County zoning law says that no more than two renters unrelated to the owner can live in a house in a single-family zone. But in some areas, particularly around Towson University, renters looking for cheap housing crowd into dwellings while landlords turn a blind eye. The county and neighborhood groups often have trouble enforcing the law because it's difficult to prove conclusively how many people live together.

Howard County's new anti-smoking law -- once hailed as among the East Coast's toughest -- has a critical loophole that would let a bar comply with no more than a smoke-free rest-room or phone booth.The law, which also prohibits smoking in most restaurant areas, was passed three years ago with the intention of forcing county bars to keep more than half of their space smoke-free.But a mistake in the law's wording accidentally eliminated the restrictions on the size of the nonsmoking area, meaning bar owners barely need to build one at all, according to an interpretation from the county's Office of Law.That can be changed -- but only through action by the County Council, which is not eager to revisit the contentious issue, particularly after recent complaints about the law from bar and restaurant owners.

MONTGOMERY County Executive Douglas M. Duncan has a good friend in Francis O. Day III. The Rockville developer, his family members and about a dozen companies he controls have contributed almost $75,000 to the likely 2006 Democratic gubernatorial candidate - using a provision of Maryland election law that lets donors get around the state's $4,000 limit on contributions to a single candidate over each four-year election cycle. Fifteen of the contributions worth $68,000 - all but one for $4,000 - were listed as coming from the same Rockville address Sept.

Campaign gifts to political candidates and groups are limited under Maryland law, but Howard County's Republican Party gets virtually free Columbia office space from developer Patrick McCuan via a legal loophole - a gift valued at $25,776 over four years. And although Howard's Democratic Chairman Wendy Fiedler runs the party from her home, without a permanent office, she has no criticism of the $1 a month deal the GOP is getting. "If we had a benefactor who wanted to donate, I'd take it in a heartbeat," she said.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. -- This and next week's columns take two views of one river, the Elizabeth, which forms Norfolk's harbor and branches through the bay watershed's southeast corner.It is the story of an ironic coupling of environmental ruin and promise, of land and water, and of our continuing inability to treat them as a connected watershed, despite a bay restoration predicated on that approach for some two decades.Next week we will look downstream, at perhaps the first truly wise management of the bay's critically important oyster stocks in well over a century.

In the wake of a contentious proposal to build a retail "big box" store in Bowleys Quarters, the Baltimore County Council aims to close a loophole that allows large commercial developers to sidestep community input meetings. "It was a good idea when created as part of the county code, but the exemption has turned into a loophole for the bigger developers," said Councilman Vincent J. Gardina, a Perry Hall Democrat. Gardina said the council has given its support to ensure more public participation in the planning process and to change how the planning office's Development Review Committee grants "limited exemptions" to developers.

Campaign gifts to political candidates and groups are limited under Maryland law, but Howard County's Republican Party gets virtually free Columbia office space from developer Patrick McCuan via a legal loophole - a gift valued at $25,776 over four years. And although Howard's Democratic Chairman Wendy Fiedler runs the party from her home, without a permanent office, she has no criticism of the $1-a-month deal the GOP is getting. "If we had a benefactor who wanted to donate, I'd take it in a heartbeat," she said.