The following letter was distributed to members of Marylanders for Fair Property Taxation. A copy was provided to The Dagger by group president Roy Whiteley:
December 2, 2009
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE — STATEWIDE
Senator Barry Glassman has once again prepared draft legislation for introduction in the 2010 session to aid the property taxpayer. The task force bill, which we have tried for several years to have passed, has been revamped and is to be introduced at the beginning of the session. This bill when enacted will create a task force to review, evaluate the effectiveness of and recommend, adopt, and implement reforms to the property tax assessment procedure and assessment appeals process. The task force would be formed from one member of the Department of Assessments and Taxation, and one member from each of Maryland’s 23 jurisdictions. Individual members would have experience in the fields of agriculture, building construction, engineering, financial, manufacturing, real estate sales and appraisal, and the utility and service community to give a well-rounded experience representation to the task force. Delegate Wayne Norman has indicated he will cross-file these bills in the House.
The second bill will codify the property owner’s bill of rights. In addition to the items currently contained on the Property Owner’s Bill of Rights card distributed by the Department of Assessments and Taxation, this bill, when enacted, will guarantee taxpayers adequate time for a hearing, an equal sharing of the burden of proof of the property value by the State not solely by the taxpayer, the right to record the hearing if desired, a change of hearing venue if necessary, more time to file an appeal, and required documentation of value by the State at all levels of appeal.
NUMBERS COUNT?? We need to pack the hearing rooms when these bills come up for hearings to let these Senators and Delegate know it is time to allow these bills out of committee and on to the floor for action by the legislators we elect — not just a select few on a hearing committee?! Watch for our notice on hearing dates and scheduled bus rides to the hearings. In the meantime, contact your legislators. Tell them these bills are coming and we want them to sign on as co-sponsors with their full support??
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE — HARFORD COUNTY
On Tuesday, December 1, 2009 Harford County Council Members Lisanti, McMahan, Shrodes, Council President Boniface and Council Boniface at the request of County Executive Craig introduced Bill 09-44 which when enacted will eliminate any service charges associated with the submission of the annual property tax paid in semi-annual payments by the property owner. This will be a big help to all of us in these trying financial times allowing us to stretch that large tax bill into two payments WITHOUT the burden of service charges.
A PUBLIC HEARING ON THIS BILL IS SCHEDULED FOR 6:00 PM JANUARY 5, 2010 IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS AT 212 SOUTH BOND STREET, BEL AIR, MD.
BE THERE TO SUPPORT ITS PASSAGE??
WRITE OR CALL YOUR COUNCILMEMBER NOW TO URGE PASSAGE OF THIS BILL??
REMEMBER NOTHING HAPPENS UNLESS WE MAKE IT HAPPEN??
Roy Whiteley, President
Marylanders for Fair Property Taxation
www.marylandersforfairpropertytaxation.com
Hi Cindy Thanks for publishing our notice and for all the great work you do. We need the public to supoort these issues so that the taxpayer can get a fair shake. Roy Whiteley
Mr. Whiteley
I happened upon this today and just wanted to mention that it was a pleasure to meet and be seated with Mrs. Whiteley and you last month at the Thanksgiving fundraiser. Best of luck with this bill, it certainly seems to make sense that the procedure and process should be evaluated by an informed government task force to ensure fairness to citizens.
Dave
It had been my priviledge to introduce the task force bill in the House last session. If we can get some more people to come out in support of the legislation this time around, it might “have legs”. Wayne Norman 35A