Ocean City Tax Rate Suit Headed To Fed Court; Resort Appealing Ruling

OCEAN CITY — The battle over the property tax rate petition in Ocean City will be heard in federal court after a judge last week ordered the town’s case against the Ocean City Taxpayers for Social Justice (OCTSJ) be removed from Worcester County Circuit Court and consolidated with a concurrent civil case filed by the plaintiffs in U.S. District Court.

In July, OCTSJ organizer Tony Christ filed a request in U.S. District Court for the emergency removal of the Town of Ocean City’s Circuit Court case in Worcester County to the federal level, asserting the property tax rate issue as it relates to the constant yield should be considered a federal question because the alleged arbitrariness of the tax rate change falls under First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment violations. Essentially, the OCTSJ argues the case should more appropriately be heard in federal court because it doesn’t believe it would get a fair hearing at the local level.

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Bennett concurred and ordered the town’s petition for declaratory judgment against the OCTSJ to be removed from Worcester County Circuit Court and consolidated with a OCTSJ’s existing case against the town filed in U.S. District Court on July 1. In simpler terms, the town’s action against the OCTSJ filed in Worcester County Circuit Court, and the OCTSJ case against the Mayor and Council filed in U.S. District Court, which were proceeding on parallel paths, will now be consolidated into a single federal case.

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