The following testimony was presented by Cindy Sharretts to the Aberdeen City Council. She provided a copy to The Dagger for publication:
There is an attempt in the Maryland General Assembly to put Aberdeen in a position where it will not refuse a certain responsibility that it does not want. It is House Bill 584 sponsored by Delegate Mary-Dulany James.
HB584 is coercion. To receive revenue from a hotel tax, Aberdeen is forced to do something else; that is, to extend a credit for the value of the property tax of a specified property.
Most people are unfamiliar with our Maryland Constitution. This bill rejects the authority of the Maryland Constitution in two ways:
The first is the issue of one subject per bill.
MD Constitution, Art. III, Sec. 29 says: “. . . and every Law enacted by the General Assembly shall embrace but one subject, and that shall be described in its title . . .” Strategically-smart, the bill is entitled “Harford County – Taxes.” Casually, one could say that’s just one subject. Likely, other bills have similarly incorporated more than one subject, but that does not make them legal.
The bill Synopsis states: “Authorizing Harford County to impose a hotel rental tax at 5%; requiring Harford County to distribute the hotel rental tax revenue in a specified manner; requiring the governing body of Harford County and the governing body of a municipal corporation in Harford County to provide, by law, for a credit against the County and municipal corporation property tax imposed on specified property owned by and used in connection with a continuing care facility; etc.”
Clearly at least two entirely different actions or changes to law are being rolled into one arm-twisting maneuver:
1. Imposition of a new hotel tax in Harford county
2. One property owner’s special credit against its property tax in Aberdeen
And the bill deals with two completely different taxes:
1. Hotel tax
2. Property tax
In addition to the disregard for the one-subject rule, the second infraction against the Maryland Constitution is that the bill causes government to create a monopoly.
MD Constitution, Preamble & Declaration of Rights, Art. 41: “We, the People of the State of Maryland, grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious liberty, and taking into our serious consideration the best means of establishing a good Constitution in this State for the sure foundation and more permanent security thereof, declare: [41] That monopolies are odious, contrary to the spirit of a free government and the principles of commerce, and ought not to be suffered.”
This bill creates a monopoly. Government extends a privilege to one entity, and not to all. While most other property owners in Harford County are required to pay property tax, this legislation will give a specified property owner (corporation) a credit against the property tax, so the specified corporation will not have to pay the tax. That is a monopoly.
I urge all to oppose HB584 and to express your opposition to the Harford County Delegation in Annapolis, or to your own delegate(s) and state senator. The city of Aberdeen should also hear your opposition to the “deal.”
Bill summary page online: http://mlis.state.md.us/2011rs/billfile/hb0584.htm
Bill text online: http://mlis.state.md.us/2011rs/bills/hb/hb0584f.pdf
The legislators of the Harford County Delegation:
Senator Barry Glassman, barry.glassman@senate.state.md.us
Senator Nancy Jacobs, nancy.jacobs@senate.state.md.us
Senator J.B. Jennings, jb.jennings@senate.state.md.us
Delegate Glen Glass, glen.glass@delegate.state.md.us
Delegate Rick Impallaria, rick.impallaria@house.state.md.us
Delegate Mary-Dulany James, mary.dulany.james@delegate.state.md.us
Delegate Susan McComas, susan.mccomas@delegate.state.md.us
Delegate Pat McDonough, pat.mcdonough@delegate.state.md.us
Delegate Wayne Norman, wayne.norman@delegate.state.md.us
Delegate Donna Stifler, donna.stifler@delegate.state.md.us
Delegate Kathy Szeliga, kathy.szeliga@delegate.state.md.us
The Mayor and the Council members of the City of Aberdeen:
Mayor Michael Bennet, mbennett@aberdeen-md.org
Councilwoman Ruth Elliott, relliott@aberdeen-md.org
Councilman Bruce Garner, bgarner@aberdeen-md.org
Councilwoman Sandy Landbeck, slandbeck@aberdeen-md.org
Councilwoman Ruth Ann Young, ryoung@aberdeen-md.org
Thank you,
Cindy Sharretts
Aberdeen, MD
I don’t understand what the big deal is about giving Pres. Homes a tax credit. The County, Aberdeen and Havre de Grace do it all the time for businesses. Granted it is not 100% for 15 years but it is 80% for 5 years and then it decreases for the next five. With BRAC both cities should not be giving any tax credits. Tax credits are no longer necessary to attract businesses or developers to build office space in the Rt 40 corridor. How much revenue are we losing with this program – this is what residents should be outraged over – at least we would get the hotel tax revenue with HB584. Where were you Cindy when they extended the Zone in 2006??? On a $500,000 dollar investment on one property we lose $34,490 in tax revenue. I wonder what the total is with all the new office space going up?
“The following minimum standards must be met by business entities located within the Greater Aberdeen/Havre de Grace Enterprise Zone (Zone) in order to apply for the real property tax credit:
Seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) in capital investment above the base level for those sites capable of supporting ten (10) or fewer full-time employees OR one hundred twenty-five thousand dollars ($125,000) in capital investment above the base level for those sites capable of supporting eleven (11) or more full-time employees.
The credit for the first through fifth years is for 80% of the property taxes on the “eligible” assessment. The “eligible” assessment is defined as the difference between the base year assessment (i.e., the taxable assessment on the property in the tax year immediately preceding the first year in which the special tax credit will be applied) and the assessment for the first
year in which the credit will be applied.
Property tax credits for the sixth through the tenth year are: 6th year – 70%; 7th year – 60%;8th year – 50%; 9th year – 40%; and 10th year -30%. Zone designation expires 6/14/2016″
@confused you stated…I don’t understand what the big deal is about giving Pres. Homes a tax credit. The County, Aberdeen and Havre de Grace do it all the time for businesses.
The tax credit is normally extended to businesses or developers building commercial/retail projects not residential communities. As you pointed out in your post, the business are required to create a certain number of jobs.
Pres. Homes will create jobs – i think the number is 160 – I’m sure they are not all full time but there will be jobs for CNA’s, RN’s, dining staff etc.
My point was everyone was outraged about giving a non-profit tax credits when we do it all the time for for-profit companies like Frito Lay etc. and there is no outcry about that and we have their tractor trailer traffic on our roads. They even threatened to leave the state if a snack tax was enacted.
At least in this situation there would be $$ from the hotel tax to mitigate the credit.
@Cindy Sharrets – You could have proposed a bill for the Harford delegation to subsidize Aberdeen’s stupidity of deal they struck with Cal Ripken, but you are so full of yourself you won’t do it. You’d rather attack both republicans and democrats. Aberdeen needs to extract its proverbial head out of its ass.
The city needs to learn to “pay to play”. A hotel tax would benefit the city and county by taxing low impact business activity to county residents. This source of income can be used to pay off stadium debt that the city taxpayer is now paying and a new conference center to service the growing APG needs as well as private companies in the county. The housing complex is a non-profit that would bring the first continuing care retirement community to the county. A host of business such as medical, support and business that cater to that population would sure follow. This would be a win win-win for the city and county.
With all the horrible decisions Aberdeen has made (Ripken Stadium for example), mabe they should leave all the policy making decisions up to the State.
This is good information. I hope people will take it into consideration.
Exactly! Frito Lay received how much in tax credits? How much did the building of the stadium cost us and continues to cost us? And we crying foul on giving a non-profit church a tax break? How idiotic. But then again Aberdeen officials haven’t gotten anything right since they incorporated. The citizens would be better served if these clowns unincorporated and turned everything over to the county.