It wasn’t a huge surprise when the Prince George’s County Council approved a measure to offer property tax credits for certain senior residents on top of the Homestead Credit they already get.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t concerns about the legislation, either.
Under the bill passed by the council by an 8-0 margin with two abstaining on Tuesday, county homeowners over the age of 65 who have lived in their homes for 25 years are now eligible for the new credit, as long as the assessed value of their home is no more than $500,000.
It aims to improve a tax credit the council passed just two years ago, which made more elderly residents eligible, though not everyone who applied was accepted because of limited funds.
“I had a 99-year-old woman who lived in my district, who served in our public school system for over 30 years, who cannot afford her property taxes,” said the bill’s main sponsor, District 8 Council member Ed Burroughs. “She’s at the end of her life, and her family is stressed out about whether or not she can keep her home in this county.”
There was concern coming from the county executive’s office that the way the bill was written could cause confusion and uncertainty. In some cases, members of that office believed the legislation contradicted itself.
Earlier this year, the council also passed a resolution creating a task force that aimed to iron out some of those concerns about who would be eligible for the tax credit and how that would be determined.
“We’ve been trying to work on this bill because, two years ago, it perhaps didn’t hit the mark that we all were looking to hit,” said John Erzen, the deputy chief of staff for County Executive and newly-elected Sen. Angela Alsobrooks. “We may be coming right back after this bill with another bill when you have more seniors come and say, ‘I thought this was going to help me, and this one didn’t end up helping me.’”
The task force he was urging the council to wait for is supposed to have its final report ready by the end of February. It’s why the county executive’s team was surprised by the recent push to get this bill through again before the end of the legislative year.
The Alsobrooks administration also warned that the cost of implementing this new tax credit would run somewhere between $59 million and $98 million over the next five years, since it’s on top of the Homestead Credit already afforded to residents. And because the current 10-year residency requirement would expand to 25 years, the administration warned nearly 15,000 residents eligible to apply for the extra credit now would not be eligible going forward.
“Is the council ready to tell those seniors — the seniors under the 10-year program — ‘you were eligible, you may not have received a credit but because this is now going up and being expended to 25 years, you’re out of the program?’” said Sakinda Skinner, the county executive’s liaison with the council.
It was the financial impact to the county that caused Council Vice Chair Sydney Harrison to speak out against the credit. With the county already staring at a $158 million hole in next year’s budget, he said this could jeopardize the county’s current triple-A bond rating.
“I am not trying to send the fiscal health of this county into cardiac arrest,” Harrison said. “We’re playing Russian roulette with our AAA bond rating.”
And he wondered if taxes would have to be raised on others in order to pay for this new credit.
“We’re going to have to find money somewhere else to provide this and cut other agencies,” he said. “How that shows up in public safety, how that shows up in our 27 agencies to make up that money — that’s a real deal.”
“We have not had a discussion about our bond rating when we’ve given tax breaks on development,” said District 6 Council member Wala Blegay. “If we do not address and try to give something to our seniors, we will lose them, and that will be a part of your impact on budget.”
Burroughs said he’s seen the county council “waive school surcharge fees … public safety surcharge fees for developers.”
“Isn’t it time for us to put that same level of importance on the people who have helped build this county? Our seniors are the reason that we’re here,” he said.
In offering up her vote for the bill, Council member Wanika Fisher said others who come before the council hoping for financial assistance and more funding for certain programs should pay close attention to how this debate played out.
“Passing this bill is also passing a statement on what we will be able to do for the county,” Fisher said. “This is the priority. Rental assistance will not be the priority. Social services or the housing will not be the priority. All of that is not the priority.”
The bill goes to the county executive’s desk next, and with all the misgivings about the legislation, it’s not a sure thing that it will be signed. However, members of Alsobrooks’ staff also said it was too early to say whether or not she was considering a veto.
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