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Benefits Of The Maryland Rain Tax

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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,

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