St. Mary's Budget

[Clare Whitbeck]

Tonio,
My comments are based on 48 years of working experience. When there's been a tax cut, my family has always gotten a couple hundred at most. The businesses I worked for got thousands. I know because I kept their books.
Clare

 

[Clare Whitbeck]

Hi Surface Tension,
My complaint against this Board is that McKay is talking tax cuts when the Board can't properly fund what is needed. You can't fund a new school with a tax cut, and we now need at least two that are not yet planned.
Clare

 

[alex]

Kain - the problem I had was the way they went about it. They promoted doing something that was against the law at that time. If any other citizen's group had advocated such actions they would have been arrested. As county commissioners they had a responsibility to at least appear to act as law abiding citizens.

Also, a decision on how to development that land had not been reached by the county or the BOCC when they decided to just do what they wanted and the heck with the process.

 

[Kain99]

Alex - I remember all of the Myrtle Point Hoopla but it was all way back when I paid no attention to local politics. Maybe the BOCC broke the law and maybe Larry should be locked up for the pre-meditated grass cutting plot. I just don't know. Without all of the facts it all sounds kinda silly.

you and I will get a $50 tax cut while businesses save $1,000's. This group is on a trail to disintegration unless they change some things.
Clare

Explanation *below*

My comments are based on 48 years of working experience. When there's been a tax cut, my family has always gotten a couple hundred at most. The businesses I worked for got thousands. I know because I kept their books.
Clare

I think I'm missing something here. Based on your explanation, tax refunds have been a problem for 48 years thus, releasing the current BOCC from responsibility. These guys haven't even been in office for a full year! I believe from your statements, that the trail of disintegration.... runs backwards. One, cannot deny the mess they were handed. Let's give em' a fair chance.

 

[SxyPrincess]

Originally posted by alex

Also, a decision on how to development that land had not been reached by the county or the BOCC when they decided to just do what they wanted and the heck with the process.

Someone gave somebody the "ok" to clear the land, right?

 

[alex]

Sxy - No authorization was given to clear the land. They just decided to do this on their own. I guess (JMO) that they though once the land was cleared the parked would have to be developed in a certain way.

Kain - I don't think he should be locked up I was just stating an example of why telling everyone you know about what the BOCC does good or bad NOW thinking it will effect the next election often is a waste of time since most of the county changes so often. However, telling them now to get them to go to public forums and ask questions it another matter.

 

[Oz]

Originally posted by Clare Whitbeck
Tonio,
My comments are based on 48 years of working experience. When there's been a tax cut, my family has always gotten a couple hundred at most. The businesses I worked for got thousands. I know because I kept their books.
Clare

Tonio - (without the spin,) Mrs. W. has no detail, only gratuitous assertions.

The fact is that the General Assembly passed enough tax increases on business this year to more than wipe out a small county property tax reduction. (ie. The Stenny-Rate.)

HB753 has hundreds of millions of dollars in tax increases focused at business. ($786.1 Million dollars in revenue are projected, to be exact, through FY2008.) This bill has a 10% Corporate Income Tax Surcharge for the next 3 years. 2% premium tax on HMO's. Corporate registration fees will change from $100 per year, to $400 per year up to $20,000 depending on # of employees. There are a ton of LLC's which just realized a 400% increase in their taxes because of this.

Maryland is a tax hell, and a small reduction in our property taxes will have no impact on the overall taxation imposed by our state.

 

[SurfaceTension]

I too am confused about a tax cut....According to this Notice of Proposed Real Property Tax Increase our property taxes will be increasing next year (albeit by maintaining the current tax rate on increased assessment values).

 

[jazz lady]

Originally posted by SurfaceTension
our property taxes will be increasing next year (albeit by maintaining the current tax rate on increased assessment values).

By choosing NOT to lower the tax rate in order to maintain the Constant Yield Tax Rate - i.e. collect the same amount of taxes as the previous year - governments effectively circumvent the onus of "raising taxes." True - the tax rate didn't increase, but the assessable property base DID, so it really is a tax increase.

Every 3 years the county assessor's office reassesses the property in their area. I own property in 3 different counties in Maryland - in every one of them, the property valuation jumped significantly this past year where they hadn't in years. Pretty slick way to get additional revenue and usually doesn't get much press or resistance from property owners.

 

[Tonio]

Originally posted by jazz lady
By choosing NOT to lower the tax rate in order to maintain the Constant Yield Tax Rate - i.e. collect the same amount of taxes as the previous year - governments effectively circumvent the onus of "raising taxes." True - the tax rate didn't increase, but the assessable property base DID, so it really is a tax increase.

Well, that assumes no inflation. If we had, say, 5 percent inflation, then the commissioners should set the tax rate so they collect only 5 percent more money to stay even. Or they could set the rate lower than that and cut spending.

 

[jazz lady]

Originally posted by Tonio
Well, that assumes no inflation. If we had, say, 5 percent inflation, then the commissioners should set the tax rate so they collect only 5 percent more money to stay even. Or they could set the rate lower than that and cut spending.

Correct - the Constant Yield Tax Rate (CYTR) does not factor in anything other than the rate need to collect the same amount of revenue in the upcoming year as collected in the previous fiscal year. So if a county collected $10 million in revenue, the CYTR would be set to collect the same amount based on the assessable base. You will rarely find counties reducing the tax rate in order to meet the CYTR. As the tax rate is not increasing, most people don't take any notice. What they DON'T realize is their assessment has increased and their tax bill is based on this assessment.

In St. Mary's County, this is what was used:

5,244,762,388 x 0.908 = 47,622,442 ÷ 5,370,923,882 = 0.887

(2003 assessable base x current tax rate = current revenue divided by 2004 assessable base = CYTR)

So St. Mary's would have to drop its rate from 0.908 to 0.887 to maintain the same revenue. If you haven't noticed the ads in the local papers, they aren't planning on doing this.

 

[Clare Whitbeck]

Hi Alex,
Quote:
"I think I'm missing something here. Based on your explanation, tax refunds have been a problem for 48 years thus, releasing the current BOCC from responsibility. These guys haven't even been in office for a full year! I believe from your statements, that the trail of disintegration.... runs backwards. One, cannot deny the mess they were handed. Let's give em' a fair chance."
Ok, let me say it better. In the years that I have kept books for businesses, there have been several tax cuts. Each time it happened, businesses saved thousands to millions and I got a tiny amount. Or to put it another way, the rich got richer. Middle America pays the bills, but these days it takes two workers to do what one worker could do when I was growing up. No one has even noticed. It's not that taxes are taking more, although they are, it's mostly that wages have not kept pace with productivity increases. So business owners get rich, and workers get poorer.
This County has so many needs right now, from schools, to roads, to a security guard at the Lexington Park LIbrary, to equipment for hauling trash,
but we can't build the schools, pave the roads, hire the security guard, or buy the equipment because we have to have a tax cut. What good will my tiny share accomplish as compared to what everyone's share would accomplish if the schools were built, the roads paved, the security guard hired or the trash hauling equipment bought? I would rather have good schools, good roads,etc. than the few dollars I might save.
Cutting taxes just to cut taxes is like saving money on your food bill. You can stop eating and use the entire amount for something else, until you die of starvation. When you haven't eaten well for a long time, you better eat when the food is on the table.
Regards,
Clare
PS: Exactly what were you referring to when you talked about "the mess they were handed?"

 

[SmallTown]

Originally posted by Clare Whitbeck
What good will my tiny share accomplish as compared to what everyone's share would accomplish if the schools were built, the roads paved, the security guard hired or the trash hauling equipment bought? I would rather have good schools, good roads,etc. than the few dollars I might save.
Cutting taxes just to cut taxes is like saving money on your food bill. You can stop eating and use the entire amount for something else, until you die of starvation. When you haven't eaten well for a long time, you better eat when the food is on the table.

This is why I feel accounting and economics should be required courses in high school. To me, this post by clare seems perfectly simple and perfectly to the point, too bad others can't see it.

 

[Ken King]

Originally posted by bluto
Where can we see this budget?

Proposed County Budget (all 126 pages of it)
http://www.co.saint-marys.md.us/docs/FY2004BudgetBookfinalver2.pdf

While it has been stated that certain agencies have not been fully funded it appears that they have received increased funding in the proposed budget. Is it the commissioners job to just give what these agencies ask for or should they temper the desires with a little fiscal responsibility?

 

[Oz]

Originally posted by Clare Whitbeck
PS: Exactly what were you referring to when you talked about "the mess they were handed?"

Probably the $100,000,000 in debt service that our last board spent us into with Mr. Hoyer running the county. I'd say that would qualify as a mess.