Tax Cap

We couldn't agree more with The Sun's recent editorial caution against changing the revenue stream that feeds the Waterway Improvement Fund without first researching the likely outcome ("Bailing out yachts?" Sept. 4). It is accurate to say that the Marine Trades Association has long advocated increasing the number of boats registering in Maryland. No one benefits more than members of the boating industry and the boating communities from a well-funded and robust Waterway Improvement Fund.

We couldn't agree more with The Sun's recent editorial caution against changing the revenue stream that feeds the Waterway Improvement Fund without first researching the likely outcome ("Bailing out yachts?" Sept. 4). It is accurate to say that the Marine Trades Association has long advocated increasing the number of boats registering in Maryland. No one benefits more than members of the boating industry and the boating communities from a well-funded and robust Waterway Improvement Fund.

Sponsors of measures to place caps on property tax levies in Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties are having a field day whipping the populace into a "no more taxes" revolt. Their approach is enticing, and dangerously simplistic.Should voters approve these referendums on Nov. 6, the tax-cap mania could turn to panic when county residents confront the implications of these new restrictions.Baltimore County's 2 percent tax cap referendum would mean a $20.3 million loss next year, a $13.5 million cut in pay-as-you-go construction programs and a $28 million reduction in bond projects.

Maryland's constitution mandates that every student have access to an adequate (indeed, "thorough" is how it's described) education. Court cases have backed this up, and the state legislature's response was the Bridge to Excellence in Education Act, more commonly known as the "Thornton" funding that ensured even the state's poorest jurisdictions had enough money for K-12 schools. Crucial to this transfer of tax dollars from the state to local school systems was the assurance that Baltimore and the 23 counties would maintain their share of that financial responsibility, too. Otherwise, the $1.3 billion in Thornton assistance would not provide a boost to schools but merely give local governments an opportunity to slack.

Two years ago, Anne Arundel County residents made the right decision when they voted against placing a ceiling on the amount of property taxes the county can collect. Nothing has changed since that time.On Nov. 3, the county's voters should kill a tax cap referendum that is on the ballot once more.Caps on tax revenue are a bad idea, and not just because of their potential to decimate services. Tax caps violate the founding principle of a representative democracy.We elect leaders to do a job for us. A tax cap says, in essence, that we cannot trust our representatives, so we must tie their hands to keep them from hurting us.We already know what to do about leaders who fail us: Vote them out of office.

Does Anne Arundel County really need a charter amendment to shave a penny or two off its property tax rate?That, apparently, will be the net effect of the much-debated referendum capping property tax levies. A glitch in the language of the proposal, it seems, creates a loophole that will all but wipe out the savings promised by tax rebels.Under the original interpretation, annual increases in levies on all property -- including new construction -- would be held to the lower of 4.5 percent or inflation.

The thousands of Anne Arundel residents who voted in favor of a property tax cap can't accuse County Executive Robert R. Neall of ignoring their mandate.He was opposed to the tax cap -- and still believes it's the wrong route to slimmer government -- but that is not stopping him from giving voters what they want.The executive has come up with a smart idea that targets tax relief at homeowners without costing the county more money.One myth about the tax cap that voters embraced a month ago is that it would reduce individual tax bills.

The day after Anne Arundel County voters overwhelmingly approved a property tax cap in November 1992, government officials predicted financial ruin. Employees would be laid off, services cut, libraries closed, recreation programs scaled back.But as they prepare a budget for the second fiscal year since then, county officials concede the cap -- which limits the growth in total property tax revenue to 4.5 percent or the regional rate of inflation in January of each year, whichever is lower -- hasn't had the devastating effect they predicted.

If Anne Arundel's elected leaders thought voter dissatisfaction had peaked, Tuesday's election taught them a bitter lesson. When 90 percent of registered voters show up at the polls, you know they have a purpose. They sent their message loud and clear: They're sick of taxes and politicians.Ballot questions to cap county property taxes and limit County Council members' terms didn't just pass. They passed overwhelmingly. Seventy percent voted for the tax cap; an astounding 77 percent were in favor of term limits.

Proponents of the measure to cap property tax revenue finally began their campaign in earnest last week, airing ads on radio and cable television and starting an advertising blitz that is sure to heat up in this last week before the election.The leader of the anti-tax movement sees his head start as a distinct advantage over his opponents."Whatever happens, if they blow out the airwaves from here on in, the fact remains: I was first," said Robert C. Schaeffer, president of the Anne Arundel Taxpayers Association.

Maryland homeowners who are caught getting unwarranted homestead credits on their property tax bills would face fines equal to 25 percent of any undeserved break, under a bill introduced Friday in the General Assembly. Meanwhile, Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg, the bill's sponsor, has abandoned an ambitious idea to revamp Maryland's 35-year-old homestead credit — which rewards longtime residency — with a tiered system tied to homeowners' incomes. Though he earlier called that a fairer system, he says he has concluded such an overhaul lacks public support and would be too complicated.

A state lawmaker who helps set tax policy is calling for an overhaul of Maryland's property tax cap law, after a Baltimore Sun investigation documented how the costly program has resulted in homeowners across Baltimore paying vastly different amounts for similarly valued houses. Del. Samuel I. "Sandy" Rosenberg says he will begin crafting legislation Monday to cap property tax increases based on homeowners' incomes, substantially changing an entrenched system now based only on the time people have lived in their homes.

Leaders from Maryland's two largest counties and Baltimore asked lawmakers Tuesday to raise the state's gas tax as a way to fund road projects and create jobs, making their case for an increase as tea party activists rallied against the idea in a plaza outside. "The last thing you want to do is say, 'You have to pay more taxes,'" Prince George's County Executive Rushern L. Baker III, a Democrat, told a joint meeting of the House Ways and Means and Appropriations committees. "We are here to say we support your efforts to find revenues.

Your article on how to shore up Social Security was intriguing. You are quite correct in stating that the program, while it will require to be adjusted at some time in the future, is certainly no Ponzi scheme and that it will continue to operate in a secure fashion for at least another generation. It can be fixed by a rather simple device of imposing a uniform FICA tax rate on all payers. The current FICA tax is a regressive tax on income (with no standard deduction or personal exemption deduction)

Your editorial "Arundel takes a balanced approach to its budget" (May 26) commends the Anne Arundel County Council and County Executive John Leopold for a "balanced" and "common sense" approach to the county's structural deficit through what you refer to as "the strictest property tax cap in the state. " The council, you say, recently "stared down the no-new-taxes demon" by "upping the property tax 3 cents to 91 cents of assessed value. " If fact, property owners of Wicomico County enjoy — or more to the point, are burdened with — a "tax revenue cap" substantially more onerous and less flexible than that in Anne Arundel.

Anne Arundel County has not been tax-friendly territory. It has the strictest property tax cap in the state, thanks to a voter revolt nearly 20 years ago, and council members have been known to come close to blows over budget measures. Yet this week, guess who came up with a balanced approach — cutting services and adding new taxes — to solve its budget woes? None other than Anne Arundel County. Here we have a conservative county, led by a Republican executive and council, that — rather than clinging to the credo of never, ever raising taxes — took the common-sense step of upping the property tax 3 cents to 91 cents per $100 of assessed value.

Five Annapolis wards have contested races for alderman this year. (Wards 1, 2 and 4 are uncontested.) We asked the candidates to tell us in their own words why they thought they were the best person for the job: WARD 3 Classie Gillis Hoyle (D) I am the best person to represent Ward 3 on the City Council because I am accessible and responsive to constituents. I will bring experience and continuity to the next administration on issues such as financial management, city growth, economic stability, intergovernmental relations and transportation/traffic improvement.

A few disciplined and determined Anne Arundel County Council members may have saved John R. Leopold from himself. Through deft budget cuts and the shelving of a few favored projects, the council found $43 million in the county executive's spending plan to meet the school system's needs and spare hoteliers an increase in the room tax. Council members may have satisfied worried education leaders and a vocal business lobby, but they've basically passed the...