Maryland Rain Tax A public policy that is a direct impact to local government and its citizens is the Maryland Tax Rain. This recent public policy was implemented in my state of Maryland just a couple of years ago and in my County, this is a new tax fee. This policy has been a controversial proposal since it was proposed on April 2013 by Governor Martin O’Malley. The tax’s purpose is to require local governments to charge a stormwater remediation fee to pay for removing pollutants from rainwater before it reaches the Chesapeake Bay. (Johnson & Wiggins, 2015). This tax law was highly criticized because it would enforce a fee only against a handful of counties and its homeowner citizens and not the whole state of Maryland. The general public …show more content…
The current counties affected are Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Charles, Frederick, Harford, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George, and the city of Baltimore. I reside in Charles County and I saw my bill increase at the beginning of 2014 from $14 to $43 on a quarterly basis due to a recent survey on my home. I was very disappointed and shocked that my rain tax fee increased by over three times its original amount within a year. If you reside in any of these counties, these methods are simply implemented without any prior notice or vote. In Maryland we do get a significant amount of rain and I do understand that it creates damage in the drainage system and the public sidewalks, but as a citizen the fact that my county is one of the few being taxed, it’s an unsettling …show more content…
This law was in response to a 2010 EPA mandate aimed towards reducing the pollution levels in the Chesapeake Bay. While the EPA’s $7.7 billion project called on the seven surrounding states to pass legislation recommendations contained within the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), only a few states actually were required to participate and Maryland was one of them. (Brown,
responsibility to solve problems often exceed the capacity of state and local authorities to respond effectively. On the other hand, policies developed at the national level may not sufficiently reflect the great diversity of interests across the U.S. to be effective at the local level. Moreover, the
Despite the elevating taxes, many people argue that Texas has a very low combined state and local tax burden. This is only true at the state level, but at the local level Texas has a very high tax burden - 9th in sales tax per capita and 15th in property tax per capita (Lavine 15). The state managed to portray this image only because Texas pushes funding obligations down to the local level, such as public education. For this reason, cities such as Houston must implement high property taxes to ensure adequate funding for police enforcement, public transportation, and education. Because of the tremendous shortfall this year, the city of Houston resorted to layoff teachers and security personnel to meet budget requirements. Therefore, instead of continued tax hikes or sacrificing much needed state services, why not allow for casino gambling as an alternative source of revenue for the state? The direct economic impact of casino gambling is clear by looking at our neighboring states.
Besides being the most responsible for addressing the problem, government officials also have the most to gain from a successful policy proposal. This is why government officials are also this proposal’s target audience. If the homeless population can be reduced or the issue completely resolved to the point where homelessness is no longer an issue, government officials would benefit greatly from the publicity of such success. City officials, given their responsibility, are thus both the key player and target audience for this policy analysis and proposal.
Whats is Prop. 13? According to the article, Prop.13 in California, 35 Years Later, by Noah Glyn and Scott Drenkard and publish by The Tax Foundation, they mention "California voters passed Proposition 13, which cut property taxes down to 1 percent (for both homestead and commercial property) and limited the growth rate of future assessments to 2 percent. Once properties are sold, though, new assessments are conducted to value the properties at their market value"(paragraph one, June 06,2013), in order words, Prop. 13 was intended to lower taxes on home property and prevent any more taxes to be impose on Californians. Furthermore, they elaborate "requires taxes raised by local governments for a designated or special purpose to be approved by two-thirds of the voters,” and all tax increases to be passed by two-thirds of both houses of the
Property tax is a charge on property that the owner is responsible for paying. The tax is constructed on the value of the property one owns and is often estimated by local or municipal governments. When paying a property tax bill, the money goes to a number of important programs, city employees, police officers, firefighters, and public works departments also receive pay. The property tax money is used to pay for parks, traffic construction, street lights, sidewalks, and public transportation. Imposing a cap on property taxes would not only impact communities but it will also create several major problems. Cities would be affected and unable to hire employees in the public safety, since salaries and other benefits would be increased. A cap would reduce job establishment and damage the state's economic growth. The cap would also create more traffic problems by limiting
As seen in Chapter 15 of Real Estate Principles by Charles J. Jacobus, property tax is a large source of income for local governments. When property taxes are not paid, a lien is placed on the property. If property taxes are not paid, this gives the government the right to seize the property. This is currently happening to Bill Davies, a developer from Chicago, Illinois.
This was also claimed as a benefit of the Texas Lottery and look what happened to that? It is all well and good to say something will work but until it is in place, would one not know for sure. Unfortunately, the cost of implementing such a personal tax would blow the benefits right out of the water. It would be not be cost effective to propose such a tax, since the start up costs would be prohibitive. Both counties and cities receive huge revenues in their collection of sales tax. To consider cutting that back would be
Significance: This allows the state/city governments to use the money in a general sense, so they can spend it where they need to.
What historical problems/issues/concerns, as perceived by the policy initiators and/or sponsors of the legislation, including the governor led to the creation of the bill? In other words, what was the nature of the problems that the bill corrected? According to the initiators/sponsors how important is this piece of legislation to the citizens of the state.
H) and nobody liked this for the expense, everyone wanted this repealed and even great leaders worked to get it removed, like Benjamin Franklin (doc.
New Jersey like many other states relies on a tax system to provide many different services to its citizens including schools, roads, public health, and safety. Correspondingly, it has to raise the money required to
According to many community members, the state government should do a better job of allocating their funds. They seem to spend it on senseless projects that are just not working. Most of taxpayers’ money in Hawaii is now going to the Rail Transit Project. It’s a multibillion dollar project to build a public train transit to alleviate the traffic in Hawaii (HART). Many Hawaii residents believe that this is a waste of the state’s money. The train will little to no effect on the traffic in Hawaii, yet most of the local tax money is going towards that (LWV). Brook Parker, a resident of Hawaii for over 50 years stated, “The rail project is stupid. Tax payer dollars could go to something so much more beneficial like building more public housing, getting homeless off the street, or making cities safer. The state needs to wise up with their funds.”
An example of an effective method to utilize that influences public policy is civil disobedience. Let’s use the policy that imposed high taxation on tobacco and alcohol to demonstrate one’s ability to impact the government. First and foremost the policy is beneficial for the government because it generates revenue that is earned from the products, however the consequence is that it encourages illegal activity. There
Before 1978, the average property tax rate for a home in California was at a little less than 3% of the assessed value of a home. There were no limits on annual increases for the tax rate or on the individual ‘ad valorem’ charges; the taxes based on the assessed value of the property (Stoltman, 2013). During the early seventies the real estate market experienced dramatic growth and there was a rapid escalation in the value of our homes. At this time assessors were required to keep assessed values current. Because of such, property taxes were skyrocketing at a substantial rate. However, increases in the assessed value were not made every year thus resulting in a major tax jolt for homeowners every few years (California Tax Data, 2002). Prior to Proposition 13 local agencies could independently establish their tax rates, and make the total property tax rate composite of the individual rates with only few limitations. It was common in the late 1970’s for homeowners to lose their homes due to uncontrolled taxes. Essentially, before Prop. 13 if someone bought a home on a block in the 1950’s for $100,000 and someone else bought a home next door to you for $300,000, your property tax would go up because the assessed value of your home would go up with the new sold value, not with the price you paid for your home. This boom of the 70’s ultimately gave rise to a tax revolt that would aim to
Tax payer’s money is not used as intended to benefit them. Money paid in taxes are supposed to be used to deliver taxpayers (residents) highest priorities. In Pennsylvania, 25% percent is spent on K-12 Education, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program 16%, Higher Education 13%, Transportation 5%, Public Assistance 1%, Corrections 4% and all others 35%.( ) There has been a proposal to raise county property tax by 40% for 2016, fortunately it was approved for 32%. For every $100,000, tax would be increased by -----------. ( ) It is clearly unfair for citizens to be paying an exorbitant amount of taxes so that improvement can be made in their state and community,