In comments, Bryan in Timonium asks about the top taxpayers in Baltimore County: "Where does Black & Decker fall on that list?" Interestingly, Towson-based Black & Decker is not on the list of the top 25 county taxpayers. In fact only two county-based big-corporation headquarters are on the list: McCormick, at No. 14 and paying $882,000 a year in tax. (McCormick also has manufacturing facilities in the county, which boosts its taxable assets.) The other is CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield in Owings Mills, at 25th and paying $574,000 in tax. This is all property tax, of course, so most of the county's big taxpayers are big malls and commercial real estate partnerships. But now I'm curious about Black & Decker, so I'll try to find out in the next few days.