Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced Thursday a plan to give 230,000 retirees in the state $1 billion in tax relief over five years.
Hogan’s plan would eliminate state income tax for those earning $50,000 or less, and it would slash state income tax for those earning $100,000 or less by 50-100%.
If adopted, the plan would be the biggest tax reduction in Maryland in more than 20 years.
Hogan, a Republican, said he’s proposing the legislation because he frequently hears from retirees who say they don’t want to leave their grandchildren in the state that they’ve made their home, but that it’s too costly to stay in Maryland.
“They keep telling me that retirement taxes are too high, and they’re moving to Delaware, or South Carolina, or Florida, where they won’t take so much out of their retirement checks,” Hogan said.
He added that he’d like to do more in the future.
“When I first ran for governor, I said that once we solved our budget crisis and turned our economy around, I wanted to eventually reach the point where we could eliminate all our retirement taxes just as other states have done,” Hogan said. “And this is still our goal.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
