Transfer Tax

Chad Shrodes got his wish when he was elected to the Harford County Council, but it cost him his job. While the Republican boasted that his experience as a county planner would help him as a councilman, conflict of interest rules prohibited him from holding both positions. So when he was sworn in at the beginning of the year as an elected official, he became temporarily unemployed. For the past three months, Shrodes has used the free time to delve into concerns lodged by residents in his district, which stretches from Jarrettsville to Dublin.

County needs help to deal with BRAC The good news about the national military base realignment is that we're getting thousands of new jobs at Aberdeen Proving Ground. The bad news is we're being stuck with the costs of providing infrastructure for tens of thousands of new people. Harford County is trying to shoulder these responsibilities but is being denied the tools needed to do the job. For example, Harford has already forward-funded schools just to keep up with current growth. The state government provides much less than is needed because of its own money issues, we're told.

Dear Mr. Azrael:If the price of a home is $74,900, what would be the settlement cost and how do you determine the amount of transfer fees?Connie Monteclaro, PikesvilleDear Ms. Monteclaro:Each county charges a transfer tax when a deed to real estate is recorded. The rate of tax varies by county, ranging from 0.2 percent to 1.6 percent of the purchase price.For example, Baltimore City charges a 1.5 percent transfer tax. The transfer tax rate in Baltimore County is 1.6 percent.Each county also charges a recordation tax on the recording of a deed transferring real property.

Only one issue spurred lively discussion at the Carroll delegation's annual forum on legislative proposals: a suggested increase in the real estate transfer tax.As they have done in two previous years, the County Commissioners are asking for an increase of one percentage point -- to 4 percent -- in the transfer-tax assessed on all real estate settlements. The revenue would help pay for a 20-year-old program to preserve agriculture land.The six-member delegation has not offered any support to the bill.

Determined to avoid the mistakes of their predecessors, members of the newly elected Board of County Commissioners said yesterday that they would not be sidetracked by squabbling over penny-pinching and political appointments.During their first day of official business, the commissioners reappointed Eugene C. Curfman as county comptroller and decided they would not push for an increase in the real estate transfer tax, a legislative proposal that had been made by former Commissioner Richard T. Yates, who left office Monday.

The worst drought in years has led some Carroll farmers to seek relief by selling easements that would keep their property from being developed.Twenty-eight farmers have sought to enter the county's agricultural land preservation program, but only 14 may be accepted this year because of limited funds, William Powel, the county's Agricultural Preservation Program administrator, told county officials last week.Powel joined County Commissioners W. Benjamin Brown and Donald I. Dell in lobbying state Sen. Larry E. Haines on Friday for support of a bill designed to garner more money for the preservation program.

The county commissioners got some blunt talk yesterday from Del. Ellen L. Willis of Westminster.They are unlikely to get General Assembly approval to hold a referendum on whether voters want to tax real estate transfers, she said.A tax of 1 percent or less -- which would be paid at the time of settlement -- is necessary, the commissioners say, for the county to achieve its goal of keeping 100,000 rural acres out of development.The 1 percent transfer tax would raise an estimated $4 million a year for the county's agricultural land preservation program.

RICHARD T. YATES, one of the three Carroll County commissioners, is right to be angry at the county's General Assembly delegation. Apparently, the county's state delegates and senators believe they know better than the commissioners on how to finance the operations of the county government.The focus of the conflict is the commissioners' request for a referendum on whether to create a real estate transfer tax. The proposed 1 percent tax on property transactions is intended to raise money for school construction and farmland preservation, two items typically important to the public.

The subject of closing costs is frequently raised in Mailbag inquiries -- how they are calculated, the major components, and whether they vary among Maryland's 24 subdivisions -- the City of Baltimore and the 23 counties.The best way to calculate closing costs is simply go to a lender, real estate agent or title company -- they are usually happy to do the math for a potential customer.In general, closing costs in Maryland are about 5 percent to 6 percent of the purchase price.Major components of the closing costs are the state and local transfer and recording costs, lender charges and about 13 months' escrow for real estate taxes.

DESPITE THE nearly universal agreement that Carroll County needs to apply the brakes on future residential development, the county's delegation to the General Assembly does not feel obligated to assist the effort. The group's thoughtless decision to reject a number of growth-related measures severely undercuts the county government's efforts to better manage growth in the rural-suburban jurisdiction.When it comes to making difficult decisions necessary to impose some order on Carroll's runaway development, the delegation willfully repudiated its responsibility.

Years before he became Anne Arundel County's chief executive, John R. Leopold sounded a lot like the critics of his current plan to impose perhaps the highest development impact fees in Maryland. In 2001, Leopold attacked county leaders' idea of raising those fees "during our current recessionary slump." He argued that it could hurt commercial growth, dampen the prospect of affordably priced housing and unfairly burden selective homeowners. "They are insidious, regressive homeowner taxes," Leopold, then a member of the House of Delegates, wrote in a letter to the Maryland Gazette.

Harford County has spent more than $20 million on land preservation this year, bringing to about 43,000 the number of acres in permanent protection programs, but the purchases have nearly exhausted all the funding reserves available to safeguard farms from development. If the county is to reach its goal of 55,000 acres preserved by 2012, officials say they must find alternative means, possibly a free market approach such as Transfer of Development Rights, or TDR, to continue protecting land.

Don't allow housing to fill tract in county I feel for the residents of the Hampton area ("Hampton residents fight development," Feb. 18). As a long-term resident of the Greenspring Valley, I have been involved in many battles with nonprofits groups like the Towson United Methodist Church - the group that is, in this instance, seeking to sell and rezone land for more dense use. These nonprofits (often schools) have benefited from tax breaks over the years and often got their original land free of charge or at a low price.

The Anne Arundel County Council has offered a counterproposal to a massive set of increases to impact fees on new development proposed by County Executive John R. Leopold: raise the transfer tax rate to generate millions of dollars toward school construction and maintenance and reversing the effects of storm-water runoff. On Monday, the Republican-majority council unanimously agreed to support a resolution that seeks state-enabling legislation to raise the transfer tax on property sales from 1 percent to as high as 1.5 percent.

As the Maryland General Assembly considered closing a loophole to prevent corporations from entirely avoiding state taxes, Marriott International Inc. warned legislators yesterday that it might "adjust operations" if they alter the tax system. While the Bethesda-based hotel operator insists that it pays taxes and stopped short of saying that it would move, business and economic development leaders are worried that fewer companies are choosing to call Maryland home. A dozen major Maryland companies have been bought out this year, often becoming branches of companies with headquarters elsewhere.

Harford's property owners will receive some minor tax relief next year, when a newly enacted credit takes effect. The Harford County Council lowered the 10 percent cap on the Homestead Tax Credit by 1 percentage point starting July 2008. The council expects to take the cap down to 8 percent by 2011. With the average property assessment rising at least 40 percent every three years, the Homestead Property Tax Credit caps the amount of property tax an owner-occupant must pay by limiting the annual increase in taxable assessments.

Transfer tax would hurt young buyers In the June 6 edition of the Harford County section, Morita C. Bruce wrote that the county needs help in dealing with BRAC. I agree with the writer in that our infrastructure probably cannot handle the influx of personnel coming to our county - but I do not agree with the writer's solution of creating a transfer tax on the sale of existing homes. Evidently the writer has not purchased a home recently and dealt with the closing costs associated with the settlement of property.

County needs help to deal with BRAC The good news about the national military base realignment is that we're getting thousands of new jobs at Aberdeen Proving Ground. The bad news is we're being stuck with the costs of providing infrastructure for tens of thousands of new people. Harford County is trying to shoulder these responsibilities but is being denied the tools needed to do the job. For example, Harford has already forward-funded schools just to keep up with current growth. The state government provides much less than is needed because of its own money issues, we're told.

Chad Shrodes got his wish when he was elected to the Harford County Council, but it cost him his job. While the Republican boasted that his experience as a county planner would help him as a councilman, conflict of interest rules prohibited him from holding both positions. So when he was sworn in at the beginning of the year as an elected official, he became temporarily unemployed. For the past three months, Shrodes has used the free time to delve into concerns lodged by residents in his district, which stretches from Jarrettsville to Dublin.

A proposed increase in Harford's real estate transfer tax could provide an additional $10 million for school construction, but the County Council resolution appears unlikely to win the support of fiscally conservative members of the county's State House delegation. The council unanimously supports an increase - from 1 percent to 1.5 percent - in the tax, levied during the settlement of properties. If passed, two-thirds of the revenue would fund long-overdue school projects with the remainder dedicated to land preservation.