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Ehrlich Succeeds in Cutting Property Taxes
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"There will always be needs," he told Kopp. "If that's the argument, you'll never cut taxes. You'll never give taxpayers a break."
Around the Maryland suburbs, some county officials are also proposing cuts in local property tax rates to blunt the impact of rising assessments.
Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) has proposed a 9.5-cent cut in the local property tax rate. That cut would bring the rate down to 85 cents per $100 of assessed value. In Howard County, County Executive James N. Robey (D) this week proposed a 3-cent cut in the property tax, a reduction that would save the average homeowner $135 a year.
Frederick County officials are looking this year at a 6.4-cent cut, to 93.6 cents per $100 of assessed value.
Elsewhere the rate has remained static. In Prince George's County, the tax rate remains at 96 cents per $100 of assessed value in the proposed budget for fiscal year 2007. The county has had a voter-imposed cap in place since 1978.
In Southern Maryland, where proposed county budgets will come before public hearings over the next several weeks, the spending plans working their way toward adoption in Calvert, Charles and St. Mary's counties are all based on maintaining current property tax rates. The Anne Arundel budget for next year hasn't been proposed yet.
Senate Minority Leader J. Lowell Stoltzfus (R-Somerset) said he believes the governor's decision should be greeted as welcome news all over the state, even if the amounts are small.
"People are overwhelmed with the cost of fuel, electricity and taxes in general," Stoltzfus said. "I think this was the right thing to do."
Staff writers Tim Craig, Daniel de Vise, Fredrick Kunkle and Amit R. Paley contributed to this report.
