Does the state have an alternate plan to go after the Baltimore City slumlords who are wrongfully claiming the homestead credit on their vacant properties?

Apparently not, MCG. The story notes that the head of assessments "warned lawmakers that eliminating the application would substantially reduce the state's ability to weed out property owners getting the homestead tax credit on multiple properties or vacation homes."

I would think a much cheaper, less annoying way to do this is to take the tax records for every piece of property in state and compile 1 large database. Then 3-5 people could sort and look for duplicate names. This would not get every offender(some may use wife's name etc.), but would catch a large number of them. This would not bother any homeowners with extra paperwork, and the number of state employees doing the work would be smaller than the current system.

I have a simple solution for the state weeding out people falsely claiming homestead credits. Publish the complete list of data in a machine readable formate (i.e. NOT a PDF) and let the citizens of MD find the deadbeats for you. As a tax payer I have a vested interest in MD finding those deadbeats and so do a lot of other people.

I like all of the above suggestions. Why not just send out a letter to all home owners asking them to report any false primary residence filings that they know of. I know of quite a few personally. The state could then investigate every report that was filed. A lot less paperwork and I am sure they would catch a few cheaters.

Now why in the world would the Maryland Association of Realtors care so much about the homestead verfication act and want it to be repealed? Could it be that a lot of the properties incorrectly labeled as "princial residences" are owned by real estate agents who are also landlords? And is it is just a coincidence that MAR is one of Kasemeyer's largest political contributors, according to the political contributions database?