If you live in Wicomico County and want to keep the revenue cap in place, you need to so some work! HB-125, sponsored by Del. Sheila Hixson (D-20) of Montgomery County and Del. Maggie McIntosh (D-43) of Baltimore, will permit a charter county (like Wicomico) to:
I am someone who has opposed the revenue cap, on principle, from the start. However, this is not the way to go! Until the voters of Wicomico County see fit to amend the charter and rescind the cap, we're stuck with it. Until the office of the County Executive sees fit to stop embracing state tax increases and advocating the purchase of land for parks which the county can't afford, even an opponent of the cap (such as myself) could not see fit to support the removal of the revenue cap.
There are few things that you can do:
1. Contact your legislators and demand that they vote against HB-125 (or any similar bill) both on the floor and in committee (if applicable):
Sen. Richard F. Colburn (R-37)
Sen. J. Lowell Stoltzfus (R-38)
Del. Page Elmore (R-38A)
Del. Norman Conway (D-38B)
Del. Jim Mathias (D-38B)
Del. Rudy Cane (D-37A)
Del. Addy Eckardt (R-37B)
Del. Jeannie Haddaway (R-37B)
The link for each members name will take you to a page with their contact information.
2. Contact each member of the Wicomico County Council and request that a resolution be passed to send a letter to each member of the County's delegation in the Legislature as well as to House Speaker Michael Busch and Senate President Mike Miller stating that Wicomico County Government does not support the passage HB-125 (or any similar bill).
3. When you contact the members of the Council, request that a resolution be passed to send a letter to MACO (the Maryland Association of Counties) stating that Wicomico County is opposed to the passage of HB-125 and that the Wicomico County Council requests that MACO oppose adoption of such a bill.
4. Contact County Executive Rick Pollitt and express you dissatisfaction with HB-125. Ask Pollitt to also send letters the county's delegation, Speaker Busch, Senate President Miller and MACO expressing vehement opposition to this attempt to circumvent the will of Wicomico County voters in a local matter.
It's up to you! If you want the revenue cap to be broken, do nothing. If you want a tax increase, remain apathetic. If this bill passes, expect to hear the term "EMERGENCY" when the next budget is introduced after such a bill becomes law.
cross posted at Delmarva Dealings
Technorati Tags: Maryland, Wicomico, politics, marylandpolitics, wicomicopolitics, taxation
set a property tax rate that is higher than the rate authorized under the county's charter or collect more property tax revenues than the revenues authorized underSimple translation: the county council may raise property taxes, despite the revenue cap, simple by adopting the measure by a 2/3 vote. Now in the case of the Wicomico County Council that would require a vote by five council members.
the county's charter, notwithstanding any provision of a county charter that places a limit on that county's property tax rate or revenues
I am someone who has opposed the revenue cap, on principle, from the start. However, this is not the way to go! Until the voters of Wicomico County see fit to amend the charter and rescind the cap, we're stuck with it. Until the office of the County Executive sees fit to stop embracing state tax increases and advocating the purchase of land for parks which the county can't afford, even an opponent of the cap (such as myself) could not see fit to support the removal of the revenue cap.
There are few things that you can do:
1. Contact your legislators and demand that they vote against HB-125 (or any similar bill) both on the floor and in committee (if applicable):
Sen. Richard F. Colburn (R-37)
Sen. J. Lowell Stoltzfus (R-38)
Del. Page Elmore (R-38A)
Del. Norman Conway (D-38B)
Del. Jim Mathias (D-38B)
Del. Rudy Cane (D-37A)
Del. Addy Eckardt (R-37B)
Del. Jeannie Haddaway (R-37B)
The link for each members name will take you to a page with their contact information.
2. Contact each member of the Wicomico County Council and request that a resolution be passed to send a letter to each member of the County's delegation in the Legislature as well as to House Speaker Michael Busch and Senate President Mike Miller stating that Wicomico County Government does not support the passage HB-125 (or any similar bill).
3. When you contact the members of the Council, request that a resolution be passed to send a letter to MACO (the Maryland Association of Counties) stating that Wicomico County is opposed to the passage of HB-125 and that the Wicomico County Council requests that MACO oppose adoption of such a bill.
4. Contact County Executive Rick Pollitt and express you dissatisfaction with HB-125. Ask Pollitt to also send letters the county's delegation, Speaker Busch, Senate President Miller and MACO expressing vehement opposition to this attempt to circumvent the will of Wicomico County voters in a local matter.
It's up to you! If you want the revenue cap to be broken, do nothing. If you want a tax increase, remain apathetic. If this bill passes, expect to hear the term "EMERGENCY" when the next budget is introduced after such a bill becomes law.
cross posted at Delmarva Dealings
Technorati Tags: Maryland, Wicomico, politics, marylandpolitics, wicomicopolitics, taxation
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14 comments:
I agree with you G.A. The vote of the people should never be overturned except by another vote of the people. What I don't understand is why you don't take the same position on the vote of the People which supported collective bargaining with BINDING arbitration. Incidentally, I believe if the past county govts. had practiced more conservative spending policies, we wouldn't have this revenue cap now.
This is probably being done at the behest of one or more other counties that have had a tax cap since before the one in Wicomico.
Anne Arundel is the likely leader in this, and possibly MACO behind the scenes.
BTW, many members of the Gen. Assembly are sick and tired of those counties (including Wicomico) begging for more local funding on the ground that they can't raise more tax revenue themselves. It may pass for that reason, so the best tactic may be to try to have Wicomico exempted fro the legislation.
Why not pass this and let the local councils decide what the taxes in their county should be? If we don't like what they do, then we can elect persons who will do the right thing.
Please ask this congressmen (and women) to pass a tax cap in Salisbury because it is really needed.
Sir:
This is actually a prudent measure because of the potential for an emergency (flood, hurricane, 9-11, etc.) that might require special expenditure above that possible under the tax revenue cap.
And what is your general concern all about: under the Wicomico County Charter, in order to pass a tax in excess of the rate under the cap, it would require first that the County Exec. propose doing that and then a vote by at least 5 of the 7 members of the County Council. Unless they could make a convincing case for doing so, it would be the end of their political career -- just look at the current flap over those expensive pens.
We elect these officials to set an appropriate budget under the circumstances that may prevail at any particular time, so why should they be hamstrung.
I sent my request in to all deleghates and senators to oppose this bill and also did the same with a message to Rick Pollitt. I for one, believe the revenue cap is needed to control spending somewhat in Wicomico county, so you tell me why thats such a bad thing to be for?? Guess you want more and bigger pens in the future.
A. Goetz
Those two sponsors had the same bill last year, and the "Fiscal and Policy Note" for that one is very interesting --
http://mlis.state.md.us/2007RS/fnotes/
bil_0009/hb0399.pdf
Mr. Goetz:
I want decent roads, schools, etc., but hold the "more and bigger pens." Things like the pens will take care of themselves with public scrutiny -- look at what occurred last week -- so we don't need a tax cap for that reason. The way to control spending is to can persons like Gary Mackes, who find ways to waste the taxpayers tribute whether or not there's a tax cap.
We need the tax cap. Just look at how things were done before, and the massive tax increases we got. There is massive pork in the budget even now-- much bigger stuff than a few pens.
Salisbury akready has a tax cap. The city council, minus the 2 honorable ones, voted to amend the charter and raise it so the mare's tax increases would be possible.
There’s another reason why HB125 makes good sense. Because Wicomico’s “tax cap” does not apply to real estate development during the fiscal year that it first enters the tax rolls, property tax revenue has increased much more than 2% in recent years because of the substantial new homes and offices, etc., that were build during that period. This data is from the County’s latest (FY07) audit:
Year Increase
2004 3.0%
2005 3.9%
2006 6.1%
2007 7.0%
As new development drops – it’s already much lower and falling – this extra amount (above the 2% revenue cap that applies to the existing tax base) will decrease to little or almost nothing during the next several (at least) years, as the prices of goods and services continue to escalate. Because the property tax is about 50% of the County’s total revenue, and the other sources fees, state funding, etc.) are also likely to drop or remain flat, the situation will soon be critical. In essence the rapid growth in real estate development during the recent past (2000-2006) has prevented that from occurring sooner.
The “good times” have now ended so we will soon see the inevitable effect of the tax cap in a period of low/slow growth in the real estate “tax base” and the resulting revenue.
Anon @ 11:02:
That's why Salisbury needs a tax REVENUE cap, which is what the County has, that the Council cannot override like the "Scheme Team (Smith, Comegys & Shields) did last year.
I agree that our county leaders need to control spending and concentrate on more important expenditures than pens. However for all of the growth that our county has seen in recent years due to new develop and new business's, we should not be left needing funds. However this revenue cap has kept the money out of the hands of the people and by the time the cap is overturned the developers who made out during this boom will be long gone. I say get rid of the cap and put a leash on the people in charge of spending the money
If they bought the pens from hotel tax revenue as a promotional thing for the county, they should have had Wicomico County written on the pens, oops F'd up again. These idiots really expect us to believe this hogwash? Mackes can, belongs in the can!
So they had wrestling at the Civic Center, Big Whoop, more goofy jocks hopped up on steroids.....
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