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June 16, 2025

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Op-Ed Point of View Opinion

Report from Annapolis # 8 by Laura Price

April 20, 2022 by Laura Price

Now that we have passed Sine Die, it’s time to start wrapping up the 2022 legislative session. You may be wondering what is Sine Die? It is Latin for “without a day”, but in the context of the Maryland General Assembly, it is the conclusion of the 90-day session. The body will reconvene in the future, the second Wednesday of January, unless there is a call for a special session.

The first bill I’d like to cover is HB1448 – Concurrent Civil Jurisdiction – Violation of Ordinances. It is a bill that is incredibly important to our counties and came about because of an ongoing case right out of Talbot County. A brief history takes us all the way back to 2006 when an owner of an unimproved property began clearing trees, after he had been told not to do so. This was in direct violation of our critical area laws. Abatement orders included civil penalties until the property was restored. The owner didn’t complete the mitigation until 2015 – nine years later!

In 2017, he appealed that he shouldn’t have to pay the county any fines. Over the next five years, the case went through our local Board of Appeals and through the Circuit Court, Court of Special Appeals and finally the Court of Appeals. At every juncture, he was found in violation and the imposition of fines was found correct. However, in 2021, the court issued a decision that said, “under State law, only the courts have the authority to decide such matters and not the local jurisdiction.” The court also stated that any section of the County Code, granting a right of appeal is in conflict with State law and is invalid and unenforceable.

After 15 years of litigation at enormous legal cost to the county, we were not able to impose and collect a fine for egregious violations of our environmental laws. As soon as the county learned of the court ruling last summer, I knew this was a problem far larger than just Talbot County. Immediately, I took the issue to MACo and they started work researching what impact this could have statewide.

This bill, seemingly innocuous by its title fixes an issue that impacts every county that has established a local review process of our ordinances and civil penalties. Without this authority, people can violate our local laws with no consequences! I am happy to report that HB1448 passed without opposition out of both judicial committees and unanimously out of the House and the Senate! But it sure took a lot of leg work. The MACo staff, along with the Baltimore City sponsor and the help of our county attorney, working together, we were able to accomplish something quite meaningful. It didn’t matter, big county, small county, rural or urban, it was recognized as good policy, and we don’t always get to experience that during the legislative session. That is what MACo is all about.

Following up on one of MACo’s legislative initiatives, HB44 / SB295 – Emergency Transport Reimbursement, I also have great news to report. Since passing the Senate unanimously a few weeks ago, it moved to the house and with some amendments on the last day of session, with Senate concurrence, it also passed the House unanimously! County EMS will now be reimbursed for not only transport to an Emergency Department, but also to an urgent care facility or other appropriate location. Additionally, we will be reimbursed when our Paramedics and EMTs treat on site and also when we provide mobile integrated health, which is when we deliver care to patients in their home proactively, before there is an emergency situation and they have to call 911.

Highway User Revenues, HB1187 / SB726 did pass, but heavily amended. MACo has been advocating on this issue for over a decade and while we are grateful for any increase, we are disappointed in the percentage of our restoration. Our full funding amount used to be 15.3%, we are currently at 3.2%. The final number where we land is 4.8%, still less than a third of what we used to receive, and it will take three years to get there. The municipalities came out well and will actually receive far more than their full restoration formula. In future years, I anticipate that MACo will continue to lobby for closer to our full restoration amount that should have been received. However, there may be an opportunity to ask for additional IIJA (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) dollars to supplement and leverage additional funding that is available to fill some of the gap.

In the time since the Senate went back to in person hearings, there have been many opportunities to network in person, which can make all the difference in the world in getting legislation moved forward, changed or if necessary, killed. In the past six weeks, relationships have solidified again, and trust has been built. MACo was able to hold our legislative reception, normally done in January, on March 23rd. This was perfect, because it was near enough to the end of session, to really get things accomplished. Through those personal interactions, the county elected officials had our first opportunity to talk one-on-one with the legislators in almost two years. We could explain the true local impact of State decisions.

And for the first time since 2019 on Sine Die, there were many receptions, and everyone was able to come out and mingle with each other and applaud all the good work that got done.

Laura Everngam-Price is the President of the Executive Board of Directors of Maryland Association of Counties, former chair and current member of Budget and Tax, member of MACo’s Initiative subcommittee, Talbot’s legislative liaison and member of the Talbot County Council.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Op-Ed, Opinion

Report from Annapolis – Report 6

February 27, 2022 by Laura Price

In the General Assembly this week, the Senate has introduced 15 new bills for a total of 992 and the House added 36 new bills for a total of 1465.  Because the technical deadline for introduction passed a couple weeks ago, there were not that many new ones.  The trick now is getting all of them scheduled for a hearing, and some will not be heard at all.  MACo’s Legislative Committee considered 21 new bills this week.  But this week I am focusing on just one, our #1 initiative, restoration of Highway User Revenues (HUR).

There are three separate bills that address HUR and a fourth that addresses provisions for use of unanticipated ARPA federal funds.  There are four opportunities to get this done and differences in each proposal.  To remind you of the history of our transportation funding problem, back during the recession in 2009, there was a major decline in revenues and the State cut local funding by 90%.  The split used to be 70% to the State and 30% to the local governments, including the 23 counties (15.3%), Baltimore City (12.1%), and municipal governments (2.6%).  

It took nearly ten years, but the locals finally got a partial and temporary fix in 2018.  However, the county share only increased from 1.5% to 3.2%, which is nowhere near what we used to receive from the State.  Additionally, the increase was only for five years and is set to expire in 2024.  Remember these are your gas tax dollars that everyone in each county must pay at the pump.  It is proper for those dollars to be returned to the locals where we must repair and maintain thousands of miles of roadways.  This is our “vehicle” to pay for it.

The first bill HB410 / SB400 was introduced by the Administration.  It has good intentions and does recognize that by removing the sunset provision, we would not end up back to only 1.5%.  It makes the percentage permanent, but it is not restoration, which the local governments desperately are in need of.  It also requires reports of projects that we didn’t do.  Just because we didn’t receive the highway funds, doesn’t mean that we didn’t do the projects.  It just means that we had to use general revenue dollars from income and property taxes to pay for them.  It is much more appropriate to use gas tax money to pay for road projects.

The items required for the report are good ones to be aware of.  Showing actual costs and the current budget year expenses, along with identifying the specific projects that are eligible for use of these funds are all fine, but we already do this at the local level.  Showing a real number for the amount of funds diverted from the general fund to pay for them is a great idea and a useful tool for us to have, but to require the county to submit those reports to SHA, in order to receive our funds, is an extra layer that has never been required.  Local governments do a good job budgeting and prioritizing our projects and this seems an unnecessary step.

SB 946 – “Transportation – Highway User Revenues – Distribution” does reset the percentage higher than what is current, which is good, but counties would still only receive 10%.  Additionally, it disproportionately appropriates more to municipalities, who are already a lot closer to full restoration than we are.  The percentage still doesn’t make the counties whole and doesn’t get us back to the original 15.3%.  It would however, provide for some flexibility and we could use some of the funds for projects such as pedestrian walkways.  

HB1187 / SB726 – “Transportation – Highway User Revenues – Revenue and Distribution” is the MACo bill!  Restoring these revenues has been a priority almost every year since 2009 when the State severely cut the local share.  Specifically, County governments were cut to 1.5% and we are partially restored to 3.2%.  With this bill, the counties would finally be made whole and receive our previous share of 15.3%.

We have heard from leadership that it is difficult to commit to ongoing funding and that there are state road projects that wouldn’t get done.  But a road is a road is a road.  The citizens don’t know if it is a city road, a county road, a state road or a federal road, they just want it fixed.  All projects are important and the funds need to be divided equitably.  The current division is not, and the funds should never have been diverted back in 2009.  Yes, State revenues took a big hit in the economic downturn, but so did our county dollars!  This is about fairness and now it is time to fix it.  

HB 1322 – “Operating Budget – Consolidated Transportation Program and Unanticipated Federal Funds.”  This may actually be the main avenue to get full restoration of our Highway User Revenues.  As everyone is aware, during the past two years of Covid, there has been a large influx of federal dollars to help the economy in various ways.  There was the CARES Act and ARPA and there are guidelines for their use.  This bill provides the guardrails for use of the ARPA funds and requires the “Consolidated Transportation Program to include a reserve of $35 million for changes in revenue sources for each fiscal year included in the financial forecast.”

This would be a good place to “find” the revenues to help support restoring the funds to local government.  We are not asking for an additional percentage of money beyond what we used to receive.  This influx of unanticipated revenue for projects is a reasonable and appropriate use of these dollars.  

Hearings for all of these bills take place March 8 – 10 in the various committees.  All information is posted on the Maryland General Assembly (MGA) website.  Please consider lending your voice and testifying in person or writing a letter of support.  Please share this information, so that our elected officials understand the differences in these three bills.  All have a good intent and recognize the problem, but the MACo bill is the only one that fully restores us back to where we used to be.  

Let’s use roads money for roads projects and not divert general tax revenues.  Let’s keep them in place to support our schools, public safety and all the other general government services that we need to provide to you, our citizens. 

Laura Everngam-Price is President of the Executive Board of Directors of Maryland Association of Counties, former chair and current member of Budget and Tax, member of MACo’s Initiative subcommittee, Talbot’s legislative liaison and member of the Talbot County Council.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Op-Ed

Report from Annapolis – Report 5 by Laura Price

February 20, 2022 by Laura Price

 

The Maryland Association of Counties Legislative Committee has continued to meet every week and review proposed legislation.  In the General Assembly, the Senate has introduced 977 bills and the House 1429 bills thus far.  The introductions are beginning to slow down, but MACo is playing catchup on all those bills.  We considered 49 new bills this week, the most so far.  With that, let me get to it and tell you about the most interesting ones of the week.

HB1259 / SB871, “Accessory Dwelling Unit Authorization and Promotion Act” would establish a policy requiring the “creation of accessory units on land zoned for single family residential, in order to meet the housing needs of the citizens of the State.” The bill states: “Each legislative body SHALL adopt a local law authorizing the development of accessory dwelling units on land zoned for single–family residential use” and “SHALL apply to all land in the local jurisdiction zoned for single–family residential use.”

Apparently, county zoning officials had a “collective stroke” when they read this bill.  Every county has its own zoning laws for a reason and we go through extensive procedures and public hearings to establish them.  We have our Comprehensive Plans and zone areas of the county differently for appropriate uses. Though the bill says it does not alter or repeal any zoning power or authority granted to a local jurisdiction,” that seems in direct conflict with its intent and use of the word “shall” throughout the bill.  Accessory dwellings are not appropriate in all areas and this bill would not allow the county to have any oversight into these important land use decisions.  Local autonomy should be very closely protected.  This is about the most egregious overstep from the State I’ve seen in years and it is what MACo will fight to protect.

HB979, “Tax Sales – Homeowner Protection Program Automatic Enrollment and Funding.”  This bill is an add on to a program that passed last year.  If someone is unable to pay their water or sewer bills, then the county typically uses the tax sale process to enforce the lien for unpaid charges, resulting in private tax sale of the property.  This bill is helpful for low-income citizens because the State comes in and pays the amount owed so it doesn’t go into tax sale and the County is made whole right away.  

Currently, qualified applicants have to apply for the Homeowner Protection Fund and this bill repeals the requirement that the department limit the maximum number of homeowners who may be enrolled and would automatically add these citizens.  The language states “the Department shall pay the county or municipal corporation the full amount of the tax lien on the homeowner’s dwelling and assume exclusive responsibility for collecting the outstanding tax debt.”  This is all about enabling people to stay in their homes while not burdening the county with uncollected debt.  

SB760, “Property Tax Exemption – Religious Group – Third Party Leases.”  Counties grant property tax waivers to many types of non-profit organizations, including churches.  Sometimes that religious institution then leases it to a group that is not exempt.  This bill would change the property tax exemption if the land or building is leased to another party and the property tax would be payable.  We are more than happy to grant this allowance, but this is a problem in some areas, in particular, Baltimore City, where approximately 1/3 of their land is considered tax-exempt and no property taxes are being collected.  They, and other jurisdictions need the revenue to pay for municipal and county services.  Additionally, this bill is uniform across the State and does not leave it up to the local jurisdictions to determine the appropriateness of these requests.  

Are you sensing a theme to so many of the bills this year, and for that matter, every year?  There are different levels of Government for a reason.  Programs that are best run and decided upon by either the Federal, State or Local governments.  At the local level, you elected us because we are closest to the people, closest to the land and closest to the revenue needs that enable us to provide the necessary services to you, our citizens who are paying the taxes.

MACo is busy testifying every day, along with many of our elected officials on the issues that are so important to all of you.  Bills are starting to move out of their committees and some legislation has made it onto the full floor of either the Senate or the House for them to take their votes.  My future reports will start to focus on what has moved forward, what has been amended, along with what has “died” for this year.  I’m optimistic because MACo’s four legislative initiatives are moving in a positive direction right now and I look forward to providing the updates on those as well.  Don’t forget to stay involved and lend your voice to the many issues that Annapolis is talking about.

Laura Everngam-Price is President of the Executive Board of Directors of Maryland Association of Counties, former chair and current member of Budget and Tax, member of MACo’s Initiative subcommittee, Talbot’s legislative liaison and member of the Talbot County Council.

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Op-Ed

Report from Annapolis – Report 4 by Laura Price

February 13, 2022 by Laura Price

The last day to beat the deadline for bill introduction for the Legislature was this past Friday.  There was a huge rush to get them all submitted without having to go through the “rules” committee if introduced late.  MACo’s policy staff continues to be hard at work reviewing them all. The Senate has now introduced 911 bills and the House 1386 bills; clearly the avalanche has continued!  Our Legislative Committee considered 41 new bills this week, which prompted engaging and thoughtful discussion amongst our membership.  As we always do, we listened to one another and the recommendations of our staff to come to agreements that are in the best interests of our counties and that we could all support.

HB677 “Homestead Property Tax Credit – Portability of Value to New Dwelling” is back again this year in a slightly different form.  You may wonder what is the homestead tax credit?  It was designed to help homeowners deal with assessment increases, making it more affordable to stay in your home.  But that home must be your principal place of residence and not a secondary home.  The law requires each county in the State to limit the annual increase to between 0% and 10%.  In Talbot County, our credit is set at zero, meaning even if your assessment goes up, you will see a line item on your bill with a credit in the exact amount of any assessment increase.

This bill proposes to make it transferable to another property with a credit of up to $25,000, if you sell and purchase a new dwelling within three years.  This completely defeats the purpose behind the original concept, which is to keep people in their current homes, so higher assessments don’t price them out.  

If we want to incentivize people to purchase a new property, we shouldn’t do it by hijacking the homestead credit.  A different type of tax credit should be considered.  As I mentioned last week, a county only has two main forms of revenue, income and property tax.  For the State to decide who does and does not qualify for tax incentives, which would have a negative impact on our local revenues, without county government input is highly problematic.

Another interesting bill that we considered was SB567, “Property Tax – Agricultural Use Assessment – Improvements.”  Most would agree that we want to support agriculture and retain as much of that beautiful land in farming related activities.  Those properties are taxed at a far lower real property rate of about ten cents.  Business personal property, such as equipment or structures, is a business owned asset, That tax is imposed and collected by the local government.  

Activities, such as wineries, breweries, and event venues have been added to farms, which absolutely does help make them sustainable.  We support that.  However, they are not necessarily using products that are grown on the land.  This bill is aiming to tax the business equipment or structures at the much lower agricultural property tax rate.  The machinery to make the wine or the structure to host the wedding are new activities.  This could create an incentive for a brewery, etc, to locate on agricultural land instead of a more urban area.  In order to keep the playing field level for all businesses, they should be taxed the same rate.

Here in Talbot County, I think about St. Michaels, which has a winery, a brewery and a distillery, all on the main street of town.  We also have wineries on some farms in the area.  Shouldn’t all of those businesses pay taxes on their equipment at the same rate?

Let’s talk about a few that are much easier to digest.  HB598 / SB540, “Higher Education Transfer Platform – Transfer with Success Act” would require each community college and four-year institution that receives State funds to make it easier to transfer credits. The platform would allow students and advisors to determine if a course will transfer from any community college to any 4–year institution and provide recommended courses for specific programs of study.  More and more of our high school graduates are trying to save money and are opting to start their college education closer to home and utilizing our wonderful community colleges.  This bill would help ensure the courses they take are well-chosen and transferrable, if and when they continue on to complete their 4-year degree.

Maybe the easiest bill to support all week was HB633, “Accountability and Implementation Board Membership.”  The topic of Kirwan is a big one and I wrote about it extensively in 2020.  (Feb 26 and March 9) It is the massive reform bill that increased education funding in the State of Maryland.  With that change, it did require an oversight board to make sure it would be properly implemented.  Unfortunately, membership was not representative of the whole state.  It had only 7 members and left out many rural areas and even one large jurisdiction.  This bill proposes expanding to 11 members.  One each must be from the Eastern Shore, Western Maryland and Southern Maryland.  Additionally, one member from each of the five most populous counties. This is a good bill and MACo was happy to lend its support 

On another note, a positive development in Annapolis, is that the Senate has decided to move to in-person committee hearings starting on Monday, February 14th.  This is good news, since having the legislators hear testimony face to face can be so much more effective than virtual.  

MACo will likely have another couple of weeks of bills to review and report on.  Then we will watch to see how each committee votes, see what amendments were made, and see which ones will move on to full votes in each respective house before crossing over.  We are in the thick of it, so please consider lending your voice to the testimony, as all of these bills will have an impact to each of our counties.

Laura Everngam-Price is President of the Executive Board of Directors of Maryland Association of Counties, former chair and current member of Budget and Tax, member of MACo’s Initiative subcommittee, Talbot’s legislative liaison and member of the Talbot County Council.

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Op-Ed

Report from Annapolis: Report 3 by Laura Price

February 6, 2022 by Laura Price

What an overwhelming amount of bills MACo’s dedicated policy staff reviewed this past week.  The race continues with the Senate having introduced 743 bills and the House 866 bills to date and the avalanche will continue for at least a few more weeks!  The staff reviewed hundreds before they managed to get it narrowed down for our Legislative Committee.  Out of those, we considered 40 bills just this week that would have a meaningful effect on counties.  Our work is still being done virtually, but the participation among the committee members is robust and discussions have been thought-provoking.  Hearing a different perspective from each county helps us come to a unified consensus that we can all agree with.

Every year there are always dozens of bills that would reduce certain taxes through a process called subtraction modifications.  “Sub-mod” bills lower or eliminate taxes for specific groups of people, like Retirees, Military, Veterans and Disabled, Union Members, EMS workers and many other specific types of people.  This issue is not about whether you favor or oppose tax reductions for these individuals, but the problem is the method with which these are proposed by the State. 

Counties only have two main revenue sources, income tax and property tax.  Local governments must pay for mandated education expenses, public safety, emergency services, county road maintenance and so much more.  There is very little flexibility in our budgets and if these revenues are severely reduced, we will not be able to cover these costs and provide much needed services here at home.

These “sub-mod” bills mandate that the taxes are reduced at the State and County level.  The testimony given from MACo states, “MACo stands for local self-determination.  Counties, led by locally elected leaders directly accountable within the communities they serve, are best positioned to govern local affairs – ranging from land use to fiscal matters. MACo steadfastly guards this local autonomy and consistently advocates against one-size-fits-all policies that override local decision-making.  MACo urges the Committee to primarily consider state income tax credits as the best means to incorporate local tax relief as part of a broader policy.” Approaching it this way would leave critical revenues in place for the county governments to serve our citizens.  

There are always bills introduced each year that would make school construction much more costly, even if the idea behind them is well intended like HB365 “Fossil Fuel Based Energy System Costs – Prohibition – Green School Construction Act.” The cost of a new or replacement system may NOT be considered a capital improvement cost and may NOT be paid by the State and eliminates ANY State funding contribution if a County builds a school that uses coal, natural gas or petroleum for its heating system.  This is a challenging question and many are looking for alternative energy sources to be more environmentally sensitive.  Here again, if the State is going to make a decision that adds to the County costs, then they should pay a larger share of it.  MACo will suggest an amendment that says just that.  Additionally, there needs to be a waiver requirement if, for example, solar or geo-thermal is not an option based on the geographic location of the building.  Unfunded mandates and “one size fits all” are always going to be issues that counties need to guard against.  

Along the same lines, SB259 “Procurement – Prevailing Wage” would expand the prevailing wage law beyond building construction to include ALL mechanical systems, HVAC, refrigeration, plumbing and electrical.  Under current law, the County must pay the State’s prevailing wage on any capital project (primarily school construction), where the State contributes just 25% of the cost.  This has been problematic because it does not adjust for regional cost of living differences where actual costs could be far less.  An example is the recent $50 million Easton Elementary school project.  If Talbot had been able to use a normal wage, more appropriate to a rural Eastern Shore County, where the cost of living is far less (and not based on a higher Montgomery or Prince Georges County wage rate), the project could have been about 20% less.  This new legislation will pile on to that law and make project costs even higher by a significant margin.  Every county would be obligated to pay these higher costs, regardless of market realities.  The bill, once again, usurps local authority and prescribes a one size fits all (read, one size fits none) approach over facilities management.

There are a couple of disease presumption bills that have been introduced.  HB439 / SB374 “Workers Compensation Occupational Disease Presumption for 9-1-1 Specialists” makes the assumption that if a worker is diagnosed with post-traumatic-stress-disorder (PTSD) that they are presumed to have an occupational disease that was suffered during the course of employment.  SB10 “COVID-19 Occupational Disease Presumption” says that public safety employees and health care workers are assumed to have an occupational disease that is compensable under workers compensation and applies retroactively.  

To attribute a certain type of disease simply to where one works shouldn’t be an automatic assumption.  There are other aspects to one’s lifestyle that could account for these health issues and a reasonable method of determining the cause should be recognized and documented.  Employers need to be accountable, and are responsible for true workplace injuries.  This is the reason they pay into a workers compensation fund for each employee. 

On a more positive note, MACo wholeheartedly supports SB448 “Regional Resource Centers and Library funding.”  All Maryland counties are highly supportive and are already funding many times over the mandated levels.  This bill proposes to increase the State share so that there is additional funding of up to $20 per resident per year.  This will be a nice addition.  Libraries have become so much more than books and are essential resources in every community.  Computers are just one example and key to so many people that don’t have that critical access at home.

You may have a noticed a theme throughout this article, a “one-size” approach by the State.  The reason you elect local officials is because we know our own backyards, we are closer to our citizens and we understand our local economies.  The State has a very important role but so do the Counties.  Let us do the job we were elected to do and retain our autonomy.  As I look again at the nearly 100 bills and the broad range of topics the Legislative Committee has advocated for so far, the impact it would have to the counties and our citizens is enormous. 

Laura Price is President of the Executive Board of Directors of Maryland Association of Counties, former chair and current member of Budget and Tax, member of MACo’s Initiative subcommittee, Talbot’s legislative liaison and member of the Talbot County Council.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Op-Ed

Report from Annapolis – Part 2 by Laura Price

January 30, 2022 by Laura Price

Despite the fact that all of the legislature’s committee hearings are virtual again this year, that hasn’t slowed down Annapolis and they have been busy introducing legislation. I think it’s a race between the House of Delegates, who have introduced 543 bills and the Senators, who have introduced 541!

All in just 16 days, and we have 74 more days to go! To be fair, it will slow down in a few weeks, so the bills can be heard in committee, and then for those bills that pass, they will move to the full floor of each body for an up or down vote. If a bill passes there and hasn’t already been “cross-filed” it moves over to the other body for debate and a vote. Proposed legislation must pass both the House and Senate before it is presented to the Governor for passage or a veto.

MACo has held three legislative committee meetings, and we have discussed 55 bills to date. There are some that are similar to bills that MACo took positions on in past years. So, it is helpful to be a veteran of the committee to be able to more quickly understand the impacts of the proposed legislation and make an informed decision.

I am going to focus this week on the bills that really affect our businesses. There are some that are good and some, not so much. Government needs to do what we can to help support business especially small ones that have been harmed by the pandemic for the past two years and then there are times that government needs to get out of the way.

HB 268 “Property Tax – Exemptions for Business Personal Property” is a bill that MACo took an unusual position on. Normally, when a bill is introduced in which the State proposes a subtraction modification to the income tax or property tax, we will oppose it with a statement that says that the State should consider issuing a “State Tax Credit” instead. From our statement “The General Assembly routinely considers broad or targeted tax incentives to stimulate economic growth, encourage beneficial activities, or attract and retain residents. These proposals sometimes focus exclusively on the state’s tax structure, but often extend to local revenues as well.” When the State is making policy decisions that directly affect the counties and reduces one or both of our only two main sources of revenue, we need to guard this local autonomy and advocate against one-size-fits-all policies that override local decision- making.

In the case of HB 268 however, MACo decided to support it. This bill changes the eligibility for exemptions from the personal property tax for businesses that had a total original cost for equipment purchases of less than $20,000, which doubles the current exemption of $10,000. It also prohibits the State from requiring the submission of a property tax return at all for certain businesses. In this situation, where MACo would have normally opposed because it would reduce our revenue, the counties recognized that small business needs help and we are always trying to attract and retain businesses. The relatively small impact that reduces the tax generated, we believe will be more than offset by keeping more businesses viable and keeping more people employed. These businesses create jobs and their employees then pay the taxes and live and work and support our community businesses.

HB 89 / SB 480 “Child Care Stabilization and Expansion Grant Program” establishes a grant in the State Department of Education to help provide financial support to licensed child care providers that are in danger of closing or going bankrupt in the next year due to financial hardship. The program would increase access and availability then award grants ranging from $1,000 to $50,000. This program could have the added benefit as the Kirwan education law expands to include access to all Pre-K students. Some school buildings lack the capacity to include this expansion and this may allow a licensed child care to fill the gap of Pre-K access. We also believe that this will benefit our citizens

who have jobs, since there are more daycare facilities available to take care of their children, so they can get back to work.

HB 8 / SB 275 “Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program has the potential to be detrimental to small business. There is a federal law (FMLA) that requires employers with 50 or more employees to give 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a family member and guarantee that they can come back to their job and also maintain their health benefits. We all agree this is an important measure for families going through a crisis. This bill would establish an insurance fund and have the employer and employee split the cost of .75% as a payroll deduction. However, a major difference between this and the Federal law, is that it would apply to every business, even if there is just one employee. Why is this a potential problem? It is not necessarily just the cost, but if a business has only a handful of employees, finding someone to be trained, fill the gap, and run the business if someone is out for three months is challenging. The intentions of this legislation are good but amendments will be needed to make this workable for all, the businesses and the employees.

We had our first guest speaker this week. Vicki Gruber from DLS gave an overview of the Governor’s budget which allowed the committee to gain insight and ask questions. A quick look at the 2022-23 budget is about $58 billion, which is a decrease of $3.5 billion, however that is due to the temporary federal aid from Coronavirus relief and Cares act ending

Also, this week, the Board Officers and other leadership from MACo had the opportunity to meet virtually with House Speaker Adrienne Jones and Senate President Bill Ferguson. This was a very productive, positive and open discussion about their leadership priorities and also the Counties priorities. We have another meeting scheduled with them in a few weeks and MACo appreciates that dialog and is so important to building that relationship and understanding where all parties are coming from.

I hope this helps continue to give an understanding of our review process so that all the citizens understand how important our county voice is. The items that come up at the State level absolutely affect our citizens at home. Without the input of a representative from each county and a seat at the table to influence policy in Annapolis, we could be left out of the conversation.

The Governor’s spending plan leaves a record balance of $3.6 billion in the rainy-day fund. There will be much debate this session over what to do with the surplus. Should it be one time spending on short-term and capital items or used to provide long-term tax cuts? Stay tuned.

Laura Price is President of the Executive Board of Directors of MACo, former chair and current member of Budget and Tax, member of MACo’s Initiative subcommittee, Talbot’s legislative liaison and member of the Talbot County Council.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Opinion

Letter from Annapolis by Laura Price

January 24, 2022 by Laura Price

Annapolis is back in session and this means it is time again for the twenty-four counties in Maryland to be vigilant about understanding legislation that is introduced and the consequences, both good and bad, it may have on our citizens.  I am the current President of the Maryland Association of Counties and the Talbot County liaison to MACo.  I am serving my eighth year as representative on both the Legislative Committee and the Board of Directors.  I was chair of the committee last year and the former chair of the Budget and Tax sub-committee.

So, what is MACo?  We are the voice of every county in the State.  MACo watches for unfunded mandates and advocates to retain our local autonomy and decision-making authority while the General Assembly is in session.  We used to gather each Wednesday morning at the office in person, but given the current health circumstance, we have had to meet virtually the past two years and it’s just not the same.  However, the membership still recognizes that we have the same issues, no matter how big or small, rural or urban, Republican or Democrat.  The members in the “zoom-room” understand and agree on what is beneficial or potentially harmful when evaluating pieces of legislation and taking a position and we still leave our partisan “hats at the door.”  

The goal of the Legislative Committee is to guide positions on bills that have been introduced by the General Assembly and to advise each county’s representatives on relevant issues.  MACo’s staff provides insight into the effects of the proposed legislation on the counties.  We, the elected officials, serving as members discuss and agree on the positions to be advocated for in Annapolis, with each county receiving one vote.  This is critically important because the smaller, more rural jurisdictions have the same equal voice as one of the larger counties.

In addition to reviewing legislation each week, MACo has four Legislative Initiatives each year.  That subcommittee, of which I am a member, considered over fifty possibilities and narrowed that list down to four.

The first of MACo’s 2022 selections is “Restoring our Local Highway User Revenues and Transportation Infrastructure.” This has been a priority most years since the State severely cut 90% of our local share during recession-driven budgets over 10 years ago.  We got a partial and temporary fix in 2018, but still nowhere near what we used to receive from the State.  Last year, the 23 counties received approximately $56 million and the City of Baltimore received the remainder of the total amount of $200 million.  Counties used to receive $555 million per year!  Remember this is your gas tax money that you pay at the pump and it should go to fund the roads that the County has to maintain and repair and keep our residents safe.

Our second priority is “Protect Local Officials Against Threats and Intimidations.”  Under Maryland law, an elected official is provided protection and it is a crime for residents to threaten or intimidate them and impede their public responsibilities. But these protections are not extended to non-elected officials, such as health officers and election officials who are performing their job duties and oversight roles, and may suffer the same sort of potentially dangerous feedback from irate residents.  HB267 has been introduced and is similar to our initiative and also includes hospital staff members.  Whether the public agrees or disagrees with the decisions of these officials, they still deserve reasonable protection against being threatened with harm and pressured from carrying out their job duties.

Our third initiative is “Ensure Funding Fairness and County Role in Elections.”  This has been introduced this week as HB35 / SB 158.  In a county budget, this is the only “department’ where all the decisions are made at the State, but funded by the county of which we have no say.  The State Board of Elections makes unilateral decisions that place substantial burdens onto local Boards of Elections.  Without proper resources, these state-mandated expenditures represent significant unfunded mandates on county governments.  For 20 years, the split between the County and State has always been 50% each and MACo is advocating to codify that precedent and also ensure local input into major decisions that obligate our county funds.

Finally, our fourth priority is “Emergency Transport as a Realistic Recognition of Care.”  I was proud to testify this week on HB44, Maryland Medical Assistance Program Reimbursement.  Currently the reimbursement rate is only $100 for transport and only if the patient who calls 911 is actually transported to an Emergency Department.  HB44 would ensure that the State is reimbursing the critical functions of EMS at a fair and modernized rate which would gradually increase to $300.  It would allow for billing of treatment in the field, when transporting a patient is not necessary and it would also recognize that transport to an ER is not the only place a patient could go.  It would also allow for transport to other appropriate locations, such as an Urgent Care facility.  But because Medicaid does not acknowledge anything other than “transport to a hospital ER as care, the county EMS cannot bill the insurance companies for any of those other circumstances and we are not reimbursed for treatment at all. 

 From the testimony I gave this week… “I have always been extremely supportive of Emergency Services and have witnessed the treatment given to loved ones.  But until you experience it for yourself, you can’t fully appreciate just how knowledgeable our EMTs and Paramedics are.  This happened just last month when 911 was called for me.  I was in awe at how much medical care was given to stabilize me before we ever left the driveway.  Though I was transported to an ER, it is imperative that we have the capability to compensate these true health professionals for treatment in the field.  Under our current system, this doesn’t happen and that needs to change.”

In the past two weeks, our committee has reviewed more than 40 bills.  There were many major bills and several smaller ones, but all are important to consider and sometimes that smaller bill might have a very large unintended consequence.  I will write in more detail about them in future weeks and many other pieces of legislation we will consider as they get introduced.  But for this first article of 2022, I wanted to give an overview of the process, review MACo’s initiatives and remind everyone how important the county viewpoint can and must be, in influencing policy in Annapolis.  

Laura Price is President of the Executive Board of Directors of MACo, former chair and current member of Budget and Tax, member of MACo’s Initiative subcommittee, Talbot’s legislative liaison and member of the Talbot County Council.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Op-Ed

Coronavirus Impact will be Long and Hard Road by Laura Price

April 20, 2020 by Laura Price

No one really knows how to deal with this unprecedented coronavirus crisis that every one of us is going through. What is the right balance between lessening the health aspects and how many of us get sick, with the catastrophic repercussions of shutting down nearly all of our economy and having millions unemployed and small businesses not able to survive? As an elected official and a small-business owner, I have several perspectives. There are at least three issues right now that are going to be real problems if they are not addressed.

The first is that individuals who have either lost their job or have been laid off for a period of time. In the past four weeks, about 22 million people have lost jobs; that’s more than one person out of every 10. They have applied for unemployment from their respective states and generally will receive an additional $600 from the federal government as a supplement. Unemployment benefits are extended in most places for an additional 13 weeks for a total of 26 weeks’ worth of benefits. While this should replace most of their income, it will have long-term consequences. When the Federal government starts printing trillions of dollars, the repercussions of this amount of debt will be felt for years to come.

The second, as an alternative to a business laying off their employees, the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act, (CARES) includes U.S. Small Business Administration loans/grants to small businesses. There are two programs for which to apply. The Economic Injury Disaster Loan is a program of up to $10,000 of immediate cash. Unfortunately, because of the massive number of requests, it has taken much longer to distribute these funds. Something unexpected for small businesses also changed with the EIDL, and they have now limited the amount, so if you were expecting $10,000, you can only receive $1000 per employee.

The Paycheck Protection Program is a loan that might convert to a grant, if you use 75% of it for payroll. This program runs for eight weeks. This sounds like a good idea until you really dig into the requirements. A business pays its employees and can then use 25% of the loan amount for other fixed expenses like rent and utilities. Understanding that the intent of the program is to keep employees from having to file unemployment, what if payroll does not make up 75% of your expenses? This is problematic because for many businesses, it does not, so for them, the loan is a loan and will not be forgiven.

Where does that leave a small business trying to make the difficult decision of whether to incur the risk of taking out a loan that may not be forgiven, lay their employees off and let them collect unemployment or have no alternative but to close their business? Incidentally, it may be less beneficial for the employees, who could possibly get more than their regular weekly payroll once the additional $600 from the Federal government is added to their Maryland unemployment.

If the money received under either of the programs does ultimately turn into a loan, many retailers and restaurants won’t be able to make it up later in additional sales. It is simply lost revenue. Even if it is a 30-year long term, low interest loan, how can the government really expect them to pay it back? Another ongoing struggle is with commercial rent, which is one of the larger expenses that landlords expect to be paid. Many Governors have now included these leases in their emergency orders that businesses cannot be evicted for non-payment, but when those orders are lifted, rent will be required to be paid back per the terms of your lease. Deferring that expense, along with utilities is not truly helpful. It’s pay now or pay later, but bottom line is it lowers the bottom line. If there is even a bottom line left when this is all over.

On top of that, it was just announced that this very program has now run out of money. For those businesses for which it does make sense, they are out of luck right now. Until Congress acts, there are no more funds to keep their business going.

In my role as an elected official, a big concern is how to pay to keep government running at the local level. Billions of dollars have been set aside to go to the State and those jurisdictions with more than half a million people to pay for COVID-19 response expenses. However, that is not going to make up for lost revenues that we receive from income tax. Local government should run like a business and by law, we must have a balanced budget. If revenues decrease, then expenses must also decrease, or we have to subsidize them by using our reserves (savings). Generally, this is a bad idea and should only be used in times of emergency, which this definitely is, but these funds will only stretch so far and only for a limited period of time.

One part of the CARES package that hasn’t been approved yet is aid to local government for lost revenues, not just COVID expenses. The National Governors Association and the National Association of Counties (NACo) are advocating for an additional $500 billion to flow down to state and local government. There are differences of opinion about this funding and some feel this could be used as a bailout to governments who have used poor judgment in how they spent the citizens money. However, this should not be the focus and any funding should simply be to reimburse at least a portion of what is lost in revenue, especially to the local governments. We, like small businesses who are closed or nearly out of business, did not make these decisions. How are we supposed to keep government running to provide the services that our citizens rely on?

And because so many individuals are unemployed, they won’t be paying as much in income taxes. They also aren’t spending as much money in general, so sales tax revenue will take a hit, which affects the State primarily. It also affects the small business with reduced sales, leading to being less profitable and possibly not being able to survive. This is a vicious circle that one problem just leads to the next. This is why it won’t end quickly and the long-term effects on individuals, small businesses and government revenues will continue.

Laura Price is 2nd Vice President on the Executive Board of Directors of MACo, Chair of Budget and Tax, Talbot’s legislative liaison and member of the Talbot County Council.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Op-Ed Tagged With: coronavirus

Report from Annapolis 2020 Final Report by Laura Price

March 26, 2020 by Laura Price

What happened during the final few rushed days in Annapolis? Amidst the Coronavirus crisis that we are experiencing and shut downs all around us, the Legislature’s 2020 session came to an abrupt end three weeks early. There was an urgency to pass bills that were deemed priorities, despite the economic catastrophe that is taking place. It didn’t seem to matter what impact financially some of these bills would have on the public. Pass tax increases, they did, and pass the expensive education bill, they did.

While the sweeping sales tax bill that would have added sales tax to nearly all services was defeated, a “luxury” sales tax bill did pass. As did the “Google” digital advertising tax, the digital download tax and the tobacco tax. These were all identified as ways to pay for a small portion of the most expensive legislation of all, the Kirwan Blueprint Education bill.

However, the use for some of these taxes has already been changed. The first year of the “download” tax will be used to deal with the Covid 19 response. The tax revenue from the tobacco tax will now be used to settle a lawsuit with the historically black colleges. And the digital tax will be likely be challenged in court because it conflicts with the U.S. Constitution’s commerce clause and the International Tax Freedom Act.

Point being, we have known all session long, that these new taxes would never come close to paying for the State share of Kirwan and we counties have definitely known that it didn’t pay for ANY of the local share.

Last minute amendments were added to the Kirwan bill to supposedly make lawmakers more “comfortable” with its passage. Spreadsheets were updated and numbers kept changing during the past several weeks, somewhat reducing the local share. There were two that I previously discussed that unfortunately ended up being merged onto one sheet of paper. One was the “local relief” to give counties such as Prince George’s and Baltimore City, along with jurisdictions like Caroline, Dorchester and Somerset additional State aid. The other was to fix a double counting of the “floor formulas,” which means that no matter the supposed wealth of your county, 15% of the base and 40% of an “at promise” student is funded by the State. This amendment corrected a mathematical error when the bill was written. Included counties were Anne Arundel, Kent, Talbot, Worcester and a few others .

As I wrote before, the two amendments got merged and was titled “Local Relief.” As the Senate was going into its final voting passage on Monday, one more set of figures came out for the Local and State shares. The final numbers ended up being higher for the County share. Part of this must be due to other amendments pushing implementation dates for certain aspects of the bill sooner than the original phase in. But there is an oddity that I can’t figure out yet. Most of the seven counties whose technical fix was being corrected, changed dramatically. I cannot yet explain what caused the changes but will be inquiring, as it just doesn’t seem logical since it has no “wealth formula” attached to it.

The other major amendment was the “trigger” provision offered on the floor by Senate majority leader, Nancy King. It reads:
Beginning December 1, 2020, and each December 1 thereafter, if the December General Fund estimate in the December Board of Revenue Estimates report is more than 7.5% below the March General Fund estimate in the March Board of Revenue Estimates report of that year, per pupil increases in major education aid required under this Act shall be limited to the rate of inflation, as defined in § 5–201(h) of the Education Article as enacted by this Act”.

The Board of Revenue Estimates consists of the Comptroller, the Treasurer and the Secretary of Budget and Tax. They update their revenue projection in March. This amendment states that if on December 1, the revenues are down by more than 7.5%, education increases will be limited to the rate of inflation. With current revenue estimates about $18 billion, the revenues would have to drop by $1.4 billion. That is an enormous number, bigger than even what is considered a recession. On the surface, this appears to be a safety net, but the likelihood of this occurring more than once is pretty slim.

Here’s why. Let’s say you project $100 in March. In December, revenues are $92.50 or less, the trigger provision kicks in. The following year in March, one would assume that a responsible budget projection should be similar to your actual number. For an example, the estimate comes in at $90. That means that the following December, actual revenues would have to project to be $83 or less. The reality is, that this trigger may only happen once. Even though it would be evaluated each December, it is unlikely to happen in successive years. Meaning the full force of Kirwan implementation and massive spending increases would occur even without a recovery in our economy. Many of the legislators took comfort in this provision, however I do not.

At the end of the day, the passing of this and other legislation that costs our citizens dearly, in the face of this unprecedented health and economic crisis is irresponsible.

Laura Price is 2nd Vice President on the Executive Board of Directors of MACo, Chair of Budget and Tax, Talbot’s legislative liaison and member of the Talbot County Council.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Op-Ed Tagged With: Kirwan

Op-Ed: Kirwan Bill is Moving Too Fast by Laura Price

March 16, 2020 by Laura Price

The Kirwan Blueprint bill is continuing to move way too fast, this week through the Senate.  There are still so many things that haven’t been vetted thoroughly. As we hear amendments and arguments in the committees, it’s pretty clear that it still needs more work.  But legislators are determined to get this passed, before too many questions are asked, let alone answered.

Having attended several sessions this week, I will share my perspective on the process.  As a reminder, this passed the House of Delegates last Friday after a “leadership chosen” package of 65 amendments was added to the bill.  Amendments offered from the floor, mostly by Republicans were summarily defeated. This same progression played out in the Senate.

On Monday. Senator Pinsky had a walk-through of the Kirwan bill with members of the Education, Health and Environment committee (EHE) and some members of Budget and Tax (B&T), primarily to go through all the House amendments.  Rachel Hise from Department of Legislative Services (DLS) was also there to explain the changes. It went on for three hours before announcing the procedure for the rest of the week. On Wednesday afternoon, 55 “leadership chosen” amendments were offered by Senator Pinsky and voted on before taking amendments from other EHE Senators, primarily Republicans.  With one exception, they were all rejected on a pure party line vote. When writing these reports, typically I don’t talk about the politics of a piece of legislation, but this one is so partisan. Many of these common sense amendments that were offered were not given any consideration at all. Later that night, B&T went through a similar process.

Meanwhile, as I wrote last week, “until you account for many different factors, it would be unfair to classify a county wealthy, poor or somewhere in between.  The true wealth of a county has very little to do with how many kids we educate and everything to do with the quality of jobs, incomes, and demographics of who we serve.”  An amendment was being offered in the Senate to consider “median household income” and I placed it on the agenda for the Talbot County Council to discuss and send a letter of support.  For some strange reason, there were members who resisted, though three of us voted to support the amendment. Our county and many others who also have median incomes far below the State average would benefit from such an amendment to the wealth formula and potentially receive millions more in State education aid.  We have been asking for this “Fair Funding Formula” for many years, and this would truly help equalize all counties in the State.

On Friday, the full Senate was on the floor and before voting on other pieces of legislation, Senator Pinsky went through all of the Kirwan amendments.  A full vote is expected on Saturday afternoon and undoubtedly the Senate will pass the bill. There are some differences between the House and Senate versions, which they will have to reconcile before the entire Education Blueprint bill can be approved by the legislature.  After which, it will move on to Governor Hogan. If he vetoes the bill, expect that the super majority will override his veto before the end of session and it will become law.

Additionally, one of the major problems that has been identified by the counties are the budget requests by our local Boards of Education.  In many cases, the BOE’s are asking for millions more than not only Maintenance of Effort (MOE), but also millions more than what we would be required to fund two or three years down the road as per the Kirwan formula.  In Talbot County, the request is $46.5 million dollars, over $2 million above MOE and nearly as much as would be required in FY23. In Queen Anne’s County, the budget request is about $5 million more, close to Kirwan requirement in FY24.  These requests are happening all over the State. This is where the formula falls apart. The counties have always known that Boards of Education will say they need more money than what is in the formula. We have been saying for years that there are categories in their budgets that Kirwan doesn’t include, such as salaries for non-teachers, other operations, health insurance and transportation.

But what also concerns me is in the pleas for additional money are items that are INCLUDED in the Kirwan formula.  The Blueprint is a ten-year phase in and BOE’s want the money for those programs now. During my interactions this week in the hallways, while waiting around for hearings to begin, I mentioned this to a member of this group.  I asked, where were the Boards of Education during the process, and in particular, during the public hearing last month? Why didn’t they testify that the billions in Kirwan money wasn’t enough? I was told that conversations were going on quietly but they were waiting until the bill had actually passed before they really voiced that concern.  That is beyond disingenuous. Wait until it is law, then say they need more. There is no way for counties to deal with this massive (now even larger) increase that is not only the billions of dollars more in the formula, now we have to plan on even more funding.  

Exactly how much are we supposed to raise taxes on our citizens?  Those same citizens that are struggling. Those same citizens that need other county services, especially our roads and emergency services, that we can’t find the money to pay for.  The State really needs to step up and figure out how to fund this increase themselves and not put this mandate on the local jurisdictions. Exactly when is enough, enough?

Laura Price is on the Board of Directors of MACo, Chair of Budget and Tax, Talbot’s legislative liaison and member of the Talbot County Council.

 

Laura Price is 2nd Vice President on the Executive Board of Directors of MACo, Chair of Budget and Tax, Talbot’s legislative liaison and member of the Talbot County Council.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Op-Ed Tagged With: Kirwan

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