It’s about time for St. Mary’s citizens to demand some tax relief

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

From 2004 to 2007 the county fund balances (excess money left after paying expenses) has totaled $41.2 million. In addition, the board of education has seen excess fund balances of $4.1 million in 2007 and $5.33 million in 2006. Added together the total is more than $50 million extra in just the past three years and the income to the county coffers has been the result of increasing property taxes, income taxes and other taxes.

With gasoline, diesel and propane reaching all-time highs, with utility rates increasing by double digits and food costs going through the roof, it’s time to give some of the money back. The recent increases in state taxes, along with double-digit declines in home values, the evaporation of home owner’s equity and the 43 percent increase in home foreclosures in the past year are straining personal budgets beyond the breaking point. Families have been juggling funds to figure out which bills to pay, put food on the table, a roof over their heads and gas in the car. It’s not fair that county and state government increase taxes when the average citizen is on his or her knees pleading for relief.

At the recent county budget hearing, the St. Mary’s County commission president and the chief financial officer spoke of volatile times ahead and the need to keep taxpayer money in reserves for unexpected drops in state or local revenues. Hearing them speak, you’d think they were talking of profits or dividends a major corporation would have after a good business year. There was never any mention of these funds belonging to the citizens.

Watching the figures being batted around was very confusing, but some stuck out like a sore thumb. First the $11.5 million fund balance from 2007, $500,000 for an emergency reserve, $725,000 for a bond reserve, $500,000 for a capital improvement pay-go fund, $2.5 million for a budget stabilization reserve and $110,403 for a public hearing reserve. This totals more than $15.8 million in reserves.

What’s more amazing is that the county expects to raise an additional $14 million in taxes, the lion’s share coming from property taxes. They justify this increase by pointing toward the higher property assessments from the state and the fact that St. Mary’s County only raises taxes by 5 percent per year on the principal residence.

First, the state assessments are unreasonable given the downward correction in property values over the past couple of years and secondly, when was the last time taxpayers received a 5 percent per year pay increase? This reasoning is flawed and further adds to the pain and suffering of citizens.

In addition to the $14 million, the county expects almost $8 million in state and federal grants for total new revenue of $22 million.

To add to the confusion, one only needs to read the audited budgets the county posts on its Web site. It’s under Government, then Finance, then to lower right where you’ll find the last three years of audited budgets. These reports are often overlooked if the auditor finds no ‘‘instances of noncompliance” required to be reported under government auditing standards.

The approved budget tells us where the money is intended to be spent and where it’s expected to come from, but the audited budget tells how much revenue was actually expended and how much was actually received. An interesting entry on Page 7 is Miscellaneous Revenue since it’s not footnoted how these funds are determined. In 2007 this figure is $27,692,817, in 2006 it was -$4,103,257, a turn-around of $31,796,074. It’s unreasonable to think county officials can’t give taxpayers a better accounting of these funds. It’s also unreasonable for them to ask for a 20 percent increase in property tax revenues when they can’t tell us where 20 percent of existing revenue originated.

All these numbers are confusing to say the least, but the truth is local government has collected more than over $50 million in excess revenue in the past three years. The current commissioners are controlled by Democrats and the motto of ‘‘tax and spend” seems to be holding true. With the current burden the citizens face, these tax increases are piling on and making a bad situation worse. It’s time to stand up and demand relief. If we don’t we only have ourselves to blame.

Michael Hewitt, Hollywood

The writer was a candidate forSt. Mary’s County commissionpresident in the Democratic primary in 2006.