Ehrlich to propose property tax cut today...

[nickshepDEM]

With part of a $1.2 billion budget surplus to spend and a blemish on his record of opposing tax increases to erase, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. plans to announce a property tax cut at a Realtors conference in Ocean City today.

But since Ehrlich was foiled by the Board of Public Works in April in an attempt to reduce the state property tax rate by a penny, Maryland has received increasingly good news about its budget. The state closed fiscal 2005 with a $1.2 billion surplus, although about half of that money has already been allocated.

"I think now is the time," said Sen. J. Lowell Stoltzfus, the Senate minority leader from the Eastern Shore. "Any time we can give the taxpayers relief, we should, especially in this climate of increased gas prices and increased costs."

Ehrlich has pushed for an increase in a number of fees since taking office, but the only general tax increase he has endorsed came in his first year in office when he proposed raising the state portion of the property tax from 8.4 cents per $100 of assessed value to 13.2 cents as a budget-balancing move. That's an increase of about $120 a year for the average single-family home.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-md.tax13sep13,1,1584609.story?coll=bal-mdpolitics-headlines

[DaveinMD]

1. House Democrats

passed a property tax last session but the Senate wouldn't go along.

[freestyle]

2. This only shifts the burden to the general fund.

The state property tax serves one purpose, to pay the debt service on the state's bonds. It has been a long time since it was sufficient to do this, and the shortfall comes from the general fund, which means less money for other programs. Reducing the state property tax is just bogus posturing, regardless of who is doing it.