Reply to Montgomery County Budget $99.8 Million Shortfall

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Start properly taxing the country clubs! And yes. I belong  and think that it is wrong.[/quote]

They are taxed at the agricultural rate, for keeping their area green space and not developing it.[/quote]

No. This is incorrect.[/quote]

If you're a private golf course with at least 50 acres and more than 100 paying members, and you're not Burning Tree, then you have a ten-year agreement with the state to be taxed at $1,000/acre. Market rate assessments are $12,500-$1.1 million per acre.

Burning Tree pays taxes on the market rate assessment, because they don't have an agreement with the state, because they don't admit women.

https://www.marylandmatters.org/2019/02/23/country-clubs-prevail-again-in-montgomery-county-delegation/
https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/government/delegate-wants-more-country-clubs-in-montgomery-to-pay-market-tax-rate/
https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/politics/montgomery-county-delegate-takes-aim-at-country-club-tax-breaks/[/quote]

+1. A number of irresponsible council members couldn’t be bothered to raise a below market tax rate on country clubs with membership fees in the tens of thousands of dollars when the budget shortfall was projected to be 40 million, and now the budget shortfall is more than twice that...
[quote]
Montgomery County bill to impose fees on tax-capped country club properties puttered to a halt Friday after it was narrowly voted down by the county’s delegates.

The measure, from Del. David Moon (D), has been introduced before. But this time the measure picked up extra support from newly elected delegation members. Nevertheless, the 2019 iteration of Moon’s bill failed in an 11-13 vote on Friday morning.

The goal of Moon and freshman Del. Vaughn Stewart (D), who worked extensively on amendments to lobby support for the bill, is to alter 10-year agreements with the State Department of Assessments and Taxation that allow land owned by a golf course or country club to be assessed at $1,000 per acre.

The property tax break was first introduced in state law to dissuade country club and golf course owners from developing their land.

But the tax break results in a considerable loss of revenue for county governments, and Montgomery County is predicting a $40 million-plus budget shortfall this year.

The actual market rate assessments for golf courses in the county with the agreements ranges from $12,500 per acre to close to $1.1 million per acre, according to a fiscal and policy note.

Fifteen golf courses and country clubs – equaling about 3,000 acres of land – in Montgomery County have special use assessment agreements with SDAT.

The members of the county delegation who voted in favor of the measure were Dels. Gabriel Acevero, Alfred C. Carr Jr., Lorig Charkoudian, Bonnie Cullison, Eric Luedtke, Moon, Julie Palakovich Carr, Emily Shetty, Jared Solomon, Stewart and Jheanelle K. Wilkins.

After the vote, Moon said he will continue to pursue similar legislation in the coming years.

“If you look out into the world today at wealth inequality, you try to look at little ways to ameliorate that in your own county,” Moon said. “This country club tax break deal is probably the most glaring and obvious example of unfair tax policy.”

Patrick “P.J.” Hogan, a former Montgomery County state senator and lobbyist who represented a coalition of golf and country clubs, was pleased with the result.

“The majority determined this was not sound tax policy,” Hogan said.[/quote][/quote]

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