If you don’t agree with the way the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation figured your property tax bill recently, you are not alone.
In a June 26th letter to Governor Martin O’Malley, Harford County Councilman Dion Guthrie says his constituents are complaining about the State’s “refusal to reevaluate real property valuations…in light of the real estate market’s virtual free fall over these last two years.” Guthrie says appeals are costly and unnecessarily time-consuming and that citizens are feeling “ignored, helpless and frustrated” and believe their State representatives appear “unsympathetic to their plight”.
Councilman Guthrie’s letter to Governor O’Malley concludes:
I respectfully request, therefore, that the State seriously reexamine this issue to help the State utilize a more potent procedure for arriving at a more realistic assessment estimate or value – one which could only serve to alleviate some of the burdens of our citizenry which the current system seems to impose.
Worth noting is the fact that property assessments can cut both ways. In a rising real estate market, more realistic assessments could spell higher taxes.
But Councilman Guthrie isn’t the only one making the case for property assessments that do a better job of tracking market prices.
State Senator Barry Glassman told The Dagger that the Harford Delegation also heard from constituents who were upset about inflated assessments and Glassman said that legislation had been brought forward to address the issue.
Glassman said he sponsored a bill in the last Maryland General Assembly session calling for yearly assessments on real property which would reflect changes in home values more precisely than the current process, which operates on a 3-year cycle. The bill (SB 302) also called for a one-year freeze on property tax assessment increases for owner-occupied residential properties. The legislation was co-sponsored in the House by Harford Delegates Rick Impallaria, J.B. Jennings, Susan McComas and B. Daniel Riley.
But Glassman said the bill was withdrawn because of the high fiscal note attached by the Department of Legislative Services. The Department estimated that it would cost the State over $14 million to perform, process and hear appeals on annual assessments. Resistance to the bill also came from the Maryland Association of Counties (MACo), which opposed the potential loss of local tax revenues. Glassman said “The political hardball is that legislative leaders are against it.”
But Glassman said he is looking at legislation for next year that would minimize the cost to the State of performing annual assessments, while ensuring that property valuations are more responsive to market fluctuations. Glassman said “In an up or down market, you ought to pay [taxes] that year for what your house is worth.”
Meanwhile, Guthrie says he is still waiting for a response from the Governor. Here is the full text of Guthrie’s letter:
June 26, 2009
The Honorable Martin O’Malley
Governor of Maryland
100 State Circle
Annapolis, MD 21401-1925Dear Governor O’Malley:
As a member of the Harford County Council, I wish to express my deep concern about the real property assessment system of our State. Since January of this year, I have received numerous telephone calls and emails from constituents complaining of the State’s refusal to reevaluate real property valuations, even in light of the real estate market’s virtual free fall over these last two years.
My constituents are angry and terrified about the current state of this Nation’s economy; their own potential employment losses and now their inability to quickly and effectively reduce the State’s assessment valuation of their real property without them having to succumb to hiring professionals to conduct costly appraisals or awaiting an appeals process to aggrieve an assessment that the citizens believe should have been automatically adjusted pursuant to the obvious reduced market values of real estate in the area.
According to my constituents, this current assessment system wastes their precious time and resources, while also placing tremendous additional stress upon the citizenry of Maryland who would rather remain beholden to a system or procedure with enough fluidity to rise or fall with the major fluctuations in market values that are experienced currently. Our citizens are feeling ignored, helpless and frustrated. They have expressed serious reservations about their State representatives who appear unsympathetic to their plight and who appear to be applying little or no attention to this issue within the General Assembly.
I respectfully request, therefore, that the State seriously reexamine this issue to help the State utilize a more potent procedure for arriving at a more realistic assessment estimate or value – one which could only serve to alleviate some of the burdens of our citizenry which the current system seems to impose.
Sincerely,
Dion F. Guthrie, District A
Harford County Council
It’s a good thing that Mr. Guthrie has taken up this cause. I’m glad. I believe that even if it costs $14M, they need to get it right. People don’t deserve to pay 30% too much in taxes.
I hope the opposition figures this out, or there will be a mass exodus of incumbents in the 2010 race 🙂
Of course, you know that if and when they get it right, it will be when the housing market is starting to rebound so O’ Guv can take more from us even faster.
It’s a nice gesture, but I’ll believe it when I see it. There will always be excuses as to why it cannot be done, or it will be danced/talked around until it is no longer necessary – i.e. the economy rebounds; IF the economy rebounds.
Mr. McGrady said:
It’s a good thing that Mr. Guthrie has taken up this cause.
I say;
If Mr. Guthrie was so worried about his constituents, why did he vote AGAINST the budget cuts NECESSARY for the tax cuts?
Mr. Guthrie’s explanation to me about that same question was that he didn’t think the cuts were adequately considered before being implemented across the board.
Obviously, this gives him the ability to play both sides of the field. He can say he supported the libraries and fought for lower taxes. I don’t know that he will do that, but it gives him an out.
#5
Cut weren’t adequately considered, so I’ll vote against them?
What a wonderful world we live in.
I guess I’ll try and top that with this;
One day soon my bud of calm will blossom into hysteria.
Who are these people?
Where were all you people complaining that the assemssment values should have gone up when the values skyrocketed?? I think we ought to go back a few years and raise everyones assessments first and send updated tax bills from then then adjust them for the downfall in the market.. this world isn’t perfect….