2 Fires Displace Residents: Maryland Tax Collections Decline

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY

House, Apartment Fires Displace Residents

Fires in Prince George's County displaced residents of nine homes and caused an estimated $1 million in damage yesterday morning, but there were no serious injuries, authorities said.

One blaze gutted a large Upper Marlboro house about 2:30 a.m. The second damaged all eight units of a District Heights apartment building. At least four units were extensively damaged, a county fire department spokesman said.

Maj. Erroll George, a Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department spokesman, said no one was home when fire erupted before dawn in the 100 block of Stan Fey Drive in Upper Marlboro. The owner returned as the house's second floor collapsed, George said. The damage was estimated at $800,000.

About 9:45 a.m., 65 firefighters responded to a fire at the Penn Landing complex in the 6400 block of Pennsylvania Avenue in District Heights, George said. One resident was treated at the scene.

George said the property management company would find temporary housing for the residents. A phone call to the company, Gates, Hudson & Associates Inc., was not returned yesterday.

Both fires remain under investigation, George said.

-- Greg Gaudio

STATE GOVERNMENT

Tax Collections for May Decline 20 Percent

State tax collections in Maryland were nearly 20 percent less last month than in May 2008, Comptroller Peter Franchot (D) reported yesterday in a letter to the governor and legislative leaders.

Franchot said the collections continue a pattern of lower-than-anticipated revenue in the economic downturn. But he said that the state typically collects less revenue in May than in some other months and that the magnitude of the decline might be "not quite as concerning" as it appears.

Collections of personal income, corporate income and sales taxes were all down, Franchot said. State lottery sales, however, were up, he said.

For the fiscal year that started last July, revenue collections are down nearly 5 percent, Franchot said.

-- John Wagner