This panel of fools are about to chase everyone out of baltimore. Living in the city for 45 years, owning homes for the last 24, I've seen alot of changes. This panels suggestions are about the widest yet. Ask each one of them if they live in the city. On fixed incomes many are tapped out on prop. taxes, even if they do nothing prop. values rise and out pace most modist incomes. Dixon better get her head out of her as! and take care of us city residents or look for other employement.

Under the present plan it would take 20 to 25 years to pay taxes on a 100 percent assessment increase just like the one I received in the mail a couple of days ago. Under the proposed plan it would take between 7 and 10 years. Guess which one I favor.

Sadly the other thing that John Fritze missed is any mention of the Constant Yield Tax Rate. As the total tax base goes up the tax rate is supposed to go proportionally down so that the amount collected stays the same. Rates should already be going down in the city far more than the announced O'Malley plan of two years ago. The City Council has to approve a deviation from CYTR and you can expect that many more people will watch this session to make sure that they do not.

It's unfortunate for the article to show an example of a $300k house with an assessment that goes up 25% every three years and not mention that the tax rate should already be going down in proportion if the tax base is increasing at a similar rate - this is before any fiddling with Homestead Caps or other cuts. It's very misleading because the main takeaway people will get from the article (taxes will go up big) is largely wrong.

I'd also say it's time for Mayor Dixon to appoint a blue ribbon panel to study how to control or cut spending in a responsible way. If we can do it for revenues we can do it for expenses too. Publicize the results, get backing. But don't just use the tax panel's work and an end-run around CYTR to increase spending irresponsibly.

Lowering the rate from what?? At first blush I have sympathy with Baltimore and the need for revenues to work on development and many problems. However, having the highest property tax rates in the state is utlimately counterproductive and patently unfair for people willing to put their lot in with Baltimore. It also makes the city far too dependent on the property tax at a time when housing costs are already a tenuous proposition for many homeowners.

It's all about the Constant Yield Tax Rate! Before we can come up with a plan to see how to lower the tax rate we need to know what the CYTR is. From what I can tell from the recent assessments there has been a substantial increase in the total tax base. The CYTR could be below the 2.138 rate it was at last year when the City Council approved a deviation and gave us a rate above 2.138. This year we all need to organize and put pressure on the Council to stick with the new CYTR. We would then have a rate cut without fiddling with hotel taxes, incomes taxes, and the Homestead Tax Credit.

Coming soon.... http://www.Baltimore2008.com

What is fair and equal taxation?

If you have two identical homes one with a long time resident and the other with a new owner the new owner pays far more in property taxes because of the homestead tax credit build up by the former owner is now gone. In other words, two house with the same square feet and location with two different property tax amounts.

Is that fair and equal taxation?

In addition, if the Real Estate Wonk wants a tip it may be beneficial to do some research about the constitutionality of the Homestead Tax Credit. She may find some it of interest to this discussion.

If you have two identical homes one with a long time resident and the other with a new owner the new owner pays far more in property taxes because of the homestead tax credit build up by the former owner is now gone.

This has been a continual bone of contention in Maryland, no question about it. The blue-ribbon panel makes mention of it in the report (which I've now gotten through, all 100 or so pages of it), though raising the cap wouldn't get rid of the difference in the way that eliminating the cap would.

for my side I would cite:

Zobel v Williams
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/zobel.html
(Alaska law to unequally distribute oil dividends based on length of residency is struck down by USSC)

and

Osterndorf v Turner
https://taxlaw.state.fl.us/view.aspx?id=4136658&file=pta_cc01&format=3&banner=Property%20Tax%20Oversight%20-
(Fla law with differing property tax exemptions based on length of residency is struck down by FlaSC)

but I'm sure there's lot of case law and commentary about California's Proposition 13:

Nordlinger v Hahn
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=CASE&court=US&vol=505&page=1
(Cal. law capping property tax at 1%, capping annual assessment increases at 2%, and resulting in unequal taxes based on "acquisition value" is upheld by USSC)

i'm not sure if it's all considered a settled matter though ...

With all of the credits, limits, and so forth, real estate tax has become an amazingly unfair tax. It's also a very expensive tax to administer, requiring a great deal of manual evaluation of property values. Real estate property tax punishes those who invest in improving their homes and their neighborhoods. And worst of all, it rewards overcrowding of homes, since the tax on a small home that has three families (and 12 schoolkids) in it is less than the tax on a large home that has just one family it it.

I'd like to see the real estate tax scrapped entirely and replaced by an even higher sales tax. This sounds regressive on the surface, but in Maryland, the true necessity that we purchase, food, is not taxed. A sales tax punishes only those who consume, not those who invest or save. It is also a tax that is difficult for cheaters to avoid.

I don't think that Baltimoreans yet fully understand the seriousness of this issue. As long as assessments were low, the high tax rate was not so much of an issue. But as assessements have started to approach market value in many neighborhoods (mine have tripled in 6 years), the full amount of the tax has become staggering. While current homeowners can hunker down behind the protection of the homestead tax credit cap, they will find it imposible to sell their homes. Just think about it: for example, a $400K row house in Charles Village (where there is also a "special benefits district" tax) would come with a property rax of $10K. Who will go for that? The notion of Washington professionals, or BRAC transferees, moving to the city is just a fantasy under these conditions. I'm afraid the real estate market in Baltimore is going to hit a brick wall in the next year of two.
This brings me to the Blue Ribbon Committee report. It's ultimately a very sad document, because it makes clear that any meaningful reduction in the tax rate will depend on revenue-raising measures that the Committee members themselves rate as not feasible (for example, casino gambling or a commuter tax).
I wish I were wrong about all of this, and I would welcome any words of encouragement that anyone couold offer.