From Del. Kathy Szeliga:
July 1 brings the New Rain Tax!
Unfair, Uncertain, Unnecessary, Unwarranted, UGLY!
Those are just a few words that describe the new Stormwater Management fee – better known as the Rain Tax. If you don’t know how much your bill is, you’re not alone. The Rain Tax will appear on our property tax bills due out in July.
How Did We Get Here?
In 2012, HB 987 passed in Annapolis requiring the 9 most populated counties plus Baltimore City to charge property owners a stormwater utility fee by July 1, 2013. Stormwater is rain.
Arguments were made in the House of Delegates and the Senate to amend and even kill the bill. The measure passed largely along Party lines. I VOTED NO.
Environmental groups and the Leadership in Annapolis pushed this new tax through. They claimed that the EPA requirement mandated a new tax. However, Virginia sued the EPA and prevailed – proving in court that the EPA does not have jurisdiction to impose taxes and fees on states. The O’Malley/Brown team did not join in that lawsuit, but rather worked to pass yet another tax in Annapolis. And our Attorney General, Doug Gansler, did not fight for us either.
One more reason for Maryland businesses (i.e. jobs) – that will get hit with a huge Rain Tax bill – to leave and move to Virginia. Commercial properties, including some churches, shelters, soup kitchens, and animal shelters, will get taxed thousands and thousands of dollars per year in Maryland beginning July 1, 2013.
How will businesses pay for this new Rain Tax? They will pass it on to consumers. Gas tax, rain tax, sales tax, increased tolls, new fees, increased fees – it’s a steady drumbeat from the liberal leadership in Annapolis that hurts working families and senior citizens on a fixed income.
Unfair and Uncertain
If you live in one of the 10 counties identified in the law: Anne Arundel, Baltimore County, Baltimore City, Carroll, Charles, Frederick, Harford, Howard, Montgomery, Prince Georges, you will be charged a Stormwater Management Fee – or Rain Tax. Each county and the city are mandated by the law passed (HB 987) to set up a fee structure. Each of the 10 jurisdictions is taxing at different rates. 10 counties + 10 different rates = mass confusion.
If you live in one of the other 14 counties that have not been required to charge a Rain Tax, you will not see a bill this year. However, it’s certainly possible for them to tax you next year. After all, most of those counties do impact the Bay too and the rain falls across our state not just in 10 counties.
What Is My Rain Tax?
Frederick Co has the best solution – charging only 1 penny! Residential, commercial, agriculture, non-profit, – all pay 1 penny per year! Blaine Young and the other Frederick Co Commissioners are showing good leadership by protecting citizens and taxpayers.
Baltimore Co Rain Tax – $39 single family, $21 attached home, commercial varies by impervious surface and could be tens of thousands of dollars, non-profits and churches will get a discount from the commercial rate but will still have a significant bill. Not all the property Rain Taxes are finished yet.
Harford Co Rain Tax – $12.50 single family going up to $125 next year. Commercial varies by impervious surface. Property owners can get up to a 100% credit on this tax for remediation on their property. Harford County has a great explanation on their website about this tax – Click Here to Read About Rain Tax The full tax will phase in over 10 years, this is just year one.
Baltimore City Rain Tax – still finalizing their plan. $48- $144 per residence, commercial is HUGE, highest in the state and non-profits and churches are still negotiating their rates.
Anne Arundel Rain Tax – $85 residential house, non-profits and churches $1 per year, commercial is huge and threatens to put some business under. The full tax will phase in over 3 years, this is just year one.
Montgomery – already is charging most of their citizens a rain tax!
Howard Co Rain Tax – $18 million per year will be generated! All properties are charged differently, about $75 year per residential house. Commercial and agriculture are high, and non-profits and churches have to pay too. Howard Co has a good website and property owners can estimate their Rain Taxes too – Click Here to Find Your Howard Co Property
Charles, Prince Georges, and Carroll Counties have not finalized their Rain Tax structures yet.
Except Frederick County, residential rates are different than commercial, non-profit and agriculture. Some counties charge less for townhouses than single family homes and others do not. Those properties with large parking lots – like malls and churches – will be hit the hardest. Anne Arundel County did the right thing and is protecting churches and non-profits by only charging $1 annually. Your church, like mine, probably has a large parking lot. That bill will be VERY high. Please warn your pastors, as they may not be aware that this tax is on the horizon.
Unnecessary & Unwarranted
Usually, before a tax or fee is passed or raised, there are identified problems and SOLUTIONS. There are NO shovel ready projects in any counties! That’s right – we will pay a Rain Tax in the 10 chosen counties, and government bureaucrats will find or create projects to spend our hard earned money!
Ugly
The non-partisan Department of Legislative Services estimates that the Rain Tax will cost local governments $482 million each year through 2025.
To put salt in the wound, the EPA is using bad data to formulate their Chesapeake Bay cleanup goals! The EPA admits they’ve known about this for more than a year. Click Here to Read Article
We all want a clean Chesapeake Bay. Yet the EPA and the State of Maryland are ignoring the Conowingo Dam – which is a major problem and filled with pollution from Pennsylvania and New York.
Click Here to See Pictures and Article
Thanks for your continued support and prayers. I will keep you updated on this important issue as more information is made available.
As always, do not hesitate to call me if I can be of assistance to you and your family.
Kathy
Delegate Kathy Szeliga
Minority Whip
Maryland House of Delegates
I fear that many elected officials are getting distracted by the HB 987 (Rain Tax) aspect of this issue, and are neglecting the true root issue — the EPA permit requirements for stormwater discharge and accompanying state regulatory penalties associated with them.
Even if the state does away with the Rain Tax, counties will still be saddled with the requirements and face stiff penalties for noncompliance. Harford County estimated that the mandated infrastructure improvements will cost $90 million by 2017, with similarly high figures in other counties. So instead of raising the money through a Rain Tax, they’ll have to fund it through property tax increases. That is the real issue that Del. Szeliga and others need to be focused on fixing.
I consider myself green friendly and all, but this is all just so damn ridiculous. Enough is enough. Where is the protest going to be Delegate S???
I find the tone of Delegate Szeliga’s letter very troubling. No one “likes” to pay taxes (or “fees”, call it what you will). We all claim to wish it were possible live in a fair, just, and equitable republican society while holding onto the largest amount of the financial fruits of our own (or our ancestors’) labor. Most Americans recognize the need to contribute our fair share of economic support to create and maintain the type society we wish all people were privileged enough to live in. The problems come when we evaluate what “type” and what rate of tax or fee we consider “fair” or even acceptable. Are we speaking of fees or taxes on gas, entertainment, tolls, inheritances, tobacco or liquor, school taxes, incomes , drivers’ licenses, capital gains, storm water runoff. I might personally think a raise in the sale of gasoline and liquor are logical and reasonable but that increased fees/taxes on drivers’ licenses and concert tickets are unwarranted.
Delegate’s Szeliga’s letter has that all-too-familiar tone of “no tax is good, all fees are bad.” THE GOVERNMENT is out to GET US. It’s THOSE “leaders” (elected officials) and those “government bureaucrats” (professional marine biologists, environmental lawyers, chemists and water quality specialists, etc.) who are out to take OUR money away from US, despite, she claims, having ” identified no problem.”
Mrs. Szeliga’s diatribe runs approximately 1050 words. Of these she uses only seven to assert that “We all want a clean Chesapeake Bay .” I’m afraid the proportion of her word usage suggests the contrary. at least not if at the cost of OUR precious monies. I’ve never been a fan of Populism, whether in the late 19th, mid 20th, or now early in the 21st centuries. Populism, sadly, too often comes close to demagoguery, of which there’s a good bit in this part of the state.
Kudos Mr. Moderate. Apparently she has had no experience with heavy rains or flooding as was recently experienced by many in our area. The cost (including manual labor) to correct the DAMAGE as a result of these torrential downpours will only increase with time if we don’t do anything to fix the problem, i.e. where the water goes after it accumulates on roofs, roads, driveways, parking lots and becomes a gushing and dangerous situation. Just as we need to stay on top of our transportation system (due to more people and more vehicals) and thus “increase the tax” on gasoline, our communities must also rely on folks living here to support efforts to help PREVENT costly rain damage due to the increase in impervious surfaces. It’s all about civilization and substainable living–we all need to pitch in for the quality of life we strive for.
Great job of misunderstanding the topic Elsie. This tax has absolutely nothing to do with floods or flood damage. It has to do with the water that has run off and is headed toward the bay. It is cuddly warm and fuzzy solution to a spending problem. It is a tax! It goes to the general fund! It will be misappropriated! By the way, Del Szeliga has more than adequate experience with heavy rains and flooding. She also has adequate experience with trying to stop the socoi-marxists in the peoples republic of Maryland from just taking all of out wealth.
It doesn’t go into the General Fund. The state law says that counties must create special stormwater funds and that all of the funds collected must go toward stormwater improvements.
Don’t get hung up on the Rain Tax aspect of the issue. The real problem is MDE’s interpretation of EPA stormwater guidelines. That was the reason the tax was created in the first place, and even if the Rain Tax is eliminated, counties will still have to come up with millions of dollars from somewhere unless that issue is addressed. If all they are fighting is the Rain Tax, and not O’Malley’s MDE, they are not really doing anything. Instead of paying a $125 Rain Tax, you’ll just have to pay an increased property tax of a similar amount.
Duh – “Flooding” is what causes the Bay to become polluted!!
Just another voter who forgets that there’s two sides to the bBalance Sheets. Instead of raising taxes as a knee-jerk reaction to every funding problem, why don’t we take a look at lowering some the expenses?
Just another voter who forgets that there’s two sides to the bBalance Sheets. Instead of raising taxes as a knee-jerk reaction to every funding problem, why don’t we take a look at lowering some the expenses?
Howard County already reported thety are going to complete this differently. They will not start in July and when they do, they are reducing the cost? Lets look into this? (WJZ TV) We also have to implement the flush tax in Annapolis when sessions are in because of the added BS on the system.
“Frederick Co has the best solution – charging only 1 penny! Residential, commercial, agriculture, non-profit, – all pay 1 penny per year! Blaine Young and the other Frederick Co Commissioners are showing good leadership by protecting citizens and taxpayers.”
Good leadership? The Republican Party, Ms Minority Whip, does not deserve to govern this state if it deals in political stunts and refuses to deal seriously with the issues that matter, including not turning the Chesapeake Bay into a very large storm sewer. EPA mandate or not, Maryland, of all the states, has a vested interest in leading the effort to clean up the Bay. Childishly refusing to pay the bill for efforts to clean up the bay doesn’t look like “good leadership” to me.
Its unfair that the people of Baltimore City will be charge for “RAIN TAX” the rain come from GOD not man. How can you charge rain tax in the winter? This is other scram to get more money from the people of Baltimore. I am very a shame of the Governor and Mayor including those who vote for this tax what are you thinking. do you realize the people of Baltimore paid enough taxes at this present time. Everyone of you shall be voting out of office because you know that this tax is greatly wrong.
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