WASHINGTON — He’s not a salesman, but Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker has been working on his pitches lately. They range from trying to sell Gov. Larry Hogan on the Purple Line to getting his own county council to back a 15 percent increase on the county’s property tax.
Thursday, Baker spent the morning in Annapolis at the State House, where he and his Montgomery County counterpart, County Executive Ike Leggett, made the case for the Purple Line in a meeting with Hogan. He left that meeting feeling that the 16-mile, $2.4 billion project might have a chance — despite the fact that as late as last week, Hogan called the price tag for the project “unacceptable.” The Purple Line would link Bethesda to New Carrollton.
That’s not the only bit of convincing Baker’s had to do: He’s working to get the council to support his proposed property tax increase of 15 percent. The double-digit increase hasn’t gone over well in some of the public meetings he’s had, but Baker insists the move is needed to get the county’s school performance out of the basement. Baker says a smaller tax increase won’t help the schools get to where they need to go.
“It doesn’t make any sense to raise people’s taxes and stay 23 out of 24,” he says, referring to the county’s ranking among the state’s school jurisdictions.
Baker says since Hogan decided not to release $20 million in aid to the county, the need for the tax increase has become urgent.
Baker says he often gets complaints from constituents that their property values are lower than those in Montgomery, Howard and Anne Arundel counties.
To that he responds, “They’re correct. The reason they’re lower is because in those areas they have top-flight school systems.”
The Prince George’s County Council is scheduled to vote on the budget — and Baker’s proposal — next Thursday.
WTOP’s Kate Ryan contributed to this report.
