Property Tax Rate

They just don't get it. Those lesser-lights in the Baltimore City and Baltimore County councils still haven't figured out what the public wants from its elected leaders. The same holds true for most of this state's county executives and mayors.What the people want, these politicians maintain, is lower taxes. ''Cut the property tax rate!'' is still their battle cry.But is that really the most pressing thing on Marylanders' minds?No way.What's of paramount importance to citizens these days is public safety.

Back in the early 1990s, Baltimore leaders set a long-term goal: to have the city's property tax rate be no more than 150 percent that of Baltimore County. I was reminded of that goal last week, when Mayor Sheila Dixon announced a task force to recommend property tax relief, as many residents are reeling from soaring assessments. The city, of course, has never come close to reaching its goal. Although the numbers and calculations have changed (rates are now based on 100 percent of assessed value, as opposed to 40 percent 15 years ago)

Annapolitans hoping for a rerun of last year's cut in the property tax rate should promptly tuck those hopes away. Even as she holds the line on taxes, Mayor Ellen O. Moyer's operating and capital budgets call for spending more to preserve historic properties, expand bus services and crime prevention and cover increased benefits to employees. The $74.3 million operating budget for fiscal 2008 -- a $5 million increase over the current year -- maintains the property tax rate of 53 cents per $100 of assessed value.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon backed away yesterday from a commitment made by her predecessor to cut the city's property tax rate by 2 cents annually - potentially ending a policy that lowered Baltimore's tax rate to its lowest point in decades. During a news conference in which she named a new task force to make long-term property tax relief recommendations, Dixon would not commit to continuing annual 2-cent reductions billed by then-Mayor Martin O'Malley as the best way to cut Baltimore's tax rate, which is the highest in Maryland.

As appealing as a reduction in property taxes may sound, Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposal to shave 3 cents off the state property tax rate over the next three years isn't smart policy. And yet there he was yesterday in Howard County touting the tax cut as a boost for seniors and others living on a fixed income. That may be true - to a modest degree - but what the governor's $2 billion deficit-reduction proposal giveth, it also taketh away. This is one tax cut he ought not be bragging about.

As a cooling real-estate market continues to be a drag on city finances, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon's administration proposed a $2.65 billion spending plan yesterday that calls for a slight property tax cut and increased spending for recreation centers, the cleanup of vacant property and affordable housing. Spending would increase by nearly 11 percent in the fiscal year that begins July 1, though that increase is largely driven by $160 million in state environmental grants - including money from Maryland's "flush tax" - the city will use to rebuild sewage treatment plants that currently permit tons of pollution to flow into the Chesapeake Bay every year.

It has been called the mayoral campaign's unspoken issue.Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's successor will take office in December saddled with a projected $153 million deficit over the next four years.The problem is simple: City spending will exceed yearly income because of a leveling off of property taxes from families moving out. The solution, as mayoral candidates know, is anything but elementary.The Baltimore Homeowners Coalition, a citizens group that over the past four years has tried to focus attention on the problem, recently published a 32-page booklet pinning the mayoral candidates down on how they would deal with the city's financial woes.

A pattern of property tax decreases continues for homeowners in Sykesville.In five of the past six years, the town of 3,500 has lowered its property tax rate, once one of the highest among Carroll's eight municipalities. The proposed fiscal 2000 budget, introduced last week, promises another slight decrease.The $1.5 million budget, which the Town Council is expected to adopt this month, sets the town property tax rate at 76 cents per $100 of assessed value, down 1 cent from last year. That would mean about $10 a year for the owner of a $100,000 home.

The Annapolis city council voted to cut the property tax rate by 2 cents, a change implemented through a series of amendments that a bloc of three aldermen tacked on to Mayor Dean L. Johnson's $44 million spending proposal approved last night.The action, trimming the tax rate to $1.68 per $100 of assessed value, reversed Johnson's 2-cent increase of last year.Aldermen Sheila Tolliver, a Ward 2 Democrat, Louise Hammond, a Ward 1 Democrat, and Herbert H. McMillan, a Ward 5 Republican, introduced the amendments at the start of last night's meeting.

At a hearing last night in Ellicott City, Howard County Republicans attacked a proposal by County Council Democrats to raise the property tax rate 2 cents to provide extra funds for education.County GOP party Chairman Louis Pope of Laurel called the proposal a "horrible precedent."Gregory Fox, first vice president of the Howard County Republican Club and unsuccessful County Council candidate last year, assailed Democrats as "tax and spend liberals."At the hearing, which was sparsely attended, the council's two GOP members announced plans to introduce a budget amendment that would cut the spending of other agencies to raise money for education.

Baltimore's Board of Estimates approved an agreement Wednesday to lease city-owned land near M&T Bank Stadium to the developers of a slots parlor, with revenues aimed at a reduction in the property tax rate. "I made it very clear that we would only do this for property tax reduction and school construction," said Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, who has previously opposed gambling. The city officials hope for an 8-cent reduction in the city's property tax rate of $2.27 per $100 in assessed value - more than twice as high as in adjacent Baltimore County and the highest in the state by far. City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake supported the measure, saying that the city will "flourish" by using revenues from the facility's rent payments to build schools and cut taxes.

Requests for more public facilities was a theme for the County Council last week, at a public hearing and at a joint meeting with the school board. But one vital - and politically touchy - element was missing from the debate. No one among the Elkridge residents who said they want a larger library, fire station, community center and more new schools, and no one among the school officials who need more for renovations and maintenance, suggested a way to get the money. The notion of raising taxes, the traditional way for elected officials to fund government, never came up, though economist Anirban Basu told council members that speeding development along the U.S. 1 corridor could help produce more tax revenue.

The Carroll County commissioners have proposed maintaining the current real property tax rate, which would mean higher bills for property owners because of rising state assessments. Reducing the rate would offset the effect of the 8.6 percent increase in assessments, according to a public notice the county released, and retaining the current $1.048 per $100 of assessed value would generate more than $13 million in additional revenue, county officials said. "Property taxes are the major revenue for all county governments," Steve Powell, the commissioners' chief of staff, said during the board's open session yesterday morning.

The political wars over Howard County tax policy pop up each spring, as evidenced by a County Council budget debate and the four people who came to the annual constant-yield tax rate hearing before the council's May legislative meeting. The constant yield hearing is required under state law to demonstrate to residents that rising state property assessments (and state legislators) are not responsible for their higher property tax bills. If local government officials would lower county tax rates, the amount of revenue would remain the same.

Baltimore City Council leaders said yesterday that they will attempt to restore a property tax rate cut that Mayor Sheila Dixon's administration pulled from the city's proposed budget last month. Though the council has limited power to alter the proposed $2.94 billion spending plan, several members said they will seek to cut millions in spending in the coming weeks so the city can afford to reduce its property tax rate by as much as 2 cents, the latest step in a five-year plan to reduce Baltimore's highest-in-the-state property tax rate.

Blaming a weak economy and shaky revenues, Mayor Sheila Dixon is abandoning a long-standing plan to cut 2 cents this year from Baltimore's highest-in-the-state property tax rate. The annual cut - which has been made each of the past three years - was supposed to knock 10 cents off the tax rate over a five-year period. The reductions have become a primary means to provide tax relief to city property owners. Baltimore's property tax rate is by far the highest in Maryland - more than twice Baltimore County's - and a broad spectrum of city officials have acknowledged that the tax may be stifling growth and threatening homeowners on fixed incomes.

Relying on a surge in property and income tax revenue to offset losses from a sliding economy, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon proposed a modest budget yesterday with a small property tax cut and no increase in other levies. Predicting tougher times ahead, Dixon proposed a $2.92 billion budget, about 10.4 percent more than last year. The plan includes nominal increases for police, fire and schools but also cuts to parks and health programs and the elimination of 95 vacant positions. The spending plan, which must be approved by the City Council, continues for the fourth straight year the city's practice of reducing its property tax rate by 2 cents annually, though many residents will still pay more because of rising assessments.

Halfway houses ease re-entry into society Halfway houses such as Volunteers of America's Comprehensive Sanction Center are not intended to restrain violent criminals ("A halfway house full of holes," Feb. 17). As the photograph that accompanies The Sun's article demonstrates, a halfway house is not a jail. Jails are built to separate criminals from society, while halfway houses are designed to integrate criminals into the community. Many halfway house occupants are authorized to leave the facility during working hours, and these facilities feature no razor-wire fences or sharpshooters.

When George Waldmann bought a Washington Village home four years ago, he knew his property taxes would be higher than if he had settled in the suburbs. Now he's beginning to wonder if all those tax payments are worth it. Waldmann, 38, who commutes every day to a government job in Washington, isn't sure city services justify the taxes. After giving Baltimore a try, he's thinking seriously about moving out. "If I'm paying that much in property taxes, where is my money going?" he said, adding that many of his neighbors share the sentiment.

A study committee's proposal to decrease Baltimore's property tax rate but make up for lost revenue by increasing the cap on assessed home value, among other options, evoked negative reactions from dozens of city homeowners at a hearing last night. The proposal to lift the annual cap on the increase in assessments on principal residences, known as the Homestead Tax Credit, from 4 percent to 10 percent seemed to worry homeowners most, especially those who bought houses before the local real estate market peaked.