bcp
In My Opinion
Under Ulman's new proposal owners of townhouses and condominiums would be charged $15 annually. Owners of single-family homes on lots up to one-quarter acre in size would pay $45. Owners of homes on lots more than one-quarter acre would pay $90 annually.
The fee on commercial properties of $15 per 500 square feet of paved surfaces would remain
Something seems wrong to me with this type of fee structure.
First off, the people that live in town houses, in many cases have just as much impervious area as a modest size home. and certainly, a single family home on a quarter acre will have close to the impervious zone that the same size house on a lot that is 5 or more acres.
Now, the thing is this, if you have a house on 5 acres, the majority of your land is a non polluting buffer that actually absorbs the water before it gets to the bay. But, if you have a quarter acre in a neighborhood type setting, then you have little land to absorb runoff, and to make matters worse, you also have paved roads that run through the neighborhood. (these neighborhood roads are not being taxed)
basically, the people who contribute the least, are being charged the most. Seems a bit backwards to me.
Now look at the business end of it, 15 per 500 sq ft.
can you imagine if you took the Annapolis mall, rough estimate based on perimeter of the parking lot is 8,000,000 sq ft, X the $15.00 per 500 sq ft works out to somewhere in the neighborhood of 240,000 per year in additional taxes.
Im pretty sure that this is going to cause another mass movement of business from Maryland to surrounding states.
this all just points to the simple fact once again, Liberals are idiots.