OC Tax Rollback Challenge Renewed In Circuit Court

OCEAN CITY — Defeated but not disheartened at the federal level, a group of Ocean City taxpayers last week filed suit in Worcester County Circuit Court as expected seeking a roll-back of sorts in the property tax rate in the resort to 2009 levels.

In June, a group operating under the guise of the Ocean City Taxpayers for Social Justice submitted to the Mayor and Council a petition containing nearly 1.500 signatures validated by the state Board of Elections essentially seeking a return of the property tax rate in the resort from the current 48 cents per $100 of assessed value to 38 cents, or the rate at which it was set in 2009. The petition sought a referendum within 90 days of its filing, or the next scheduled election, which would be November 2016.

Early in July, the Mayor and Council filed a petition for declaratory judgment against the OCTSJ and petition organizer Tony Christ in Worcester County Circuit Court seeking a judicial review of the validity of the petition and its attempts to launch a referendum. Anticipating the Mayor and Council’s move at the Circuit Court level, Christ along with three other named plaintiffs, including John Medlin, Herb Pawlukewicz and former Ocean City Councilman Joe Hall filed a complaint in U.S. District Court seeking a habeas corpus hearing at the federal level. Essentially, the four named plaintiffs were not confident the petition to return the tax rate to the 2009 level would not get a fair shake in Worcester County Circuit Court.

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