Property taxes will increase for almost all Montgomery County residents in the fiscal year starting July 1, 2021, under the $6 billion FY-2022 budget approved by the County Council yesterday. The tax hike comes at a time when many residents and businesses have been struggling during the pandemic's economic downturn.
Also hitting residents' wallets in the budget: parking fee increases in Bethesda and Wheaton, and the expansion of parking enforcement hours in Silver Spring and Wheaton, which will begin in January 2022. All nine councilmembers voted unanimously to approve the budget and tax increase.
4 comments:
Can you provide more details?
Other news outlets report no property tax increase:
http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2021/may/26/montgomery-county-council-reaches-preliminary-agre/
https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2021/05/montgomery-county-council-gives-final-approval-to-budget-with-eye-towards-pandemic-recovery/
6:50: Yes:
1. The other news outlets take County Council PR at face value without actually fact-checking it.
2. The Council dishonestly claims to have "held the line" on property taxes, when in fact, they would have had to *cut* the current rate to prevent property taxes from automatically rising in FY-2022.
3. They did not do so, and as a result, virtually every resident will pay higher property taxes in FY-2022.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this just a result the real estate market in Montgomery County remaining very strong and property values and many other costs continuing to increase? If the tax rate remained constant, which I believe it did and what others are reporting, the only way taxes would increase are for those whose assessed values increased this year. This doesn't happen to most people in a given year, only those have put on an addition, done a renovation or were do for a periodic reassessment (done once every few years). This past year I was hit with both, but I think this was reasonable since my property value had increased significantly. This seems fair to me, especially since I, like you and most Montgomery County residents want continued good and even improved county services. I don't see the problem.
8:42: The tax hike levied by the Montgomery County Council is not related to the real estate market, although assessments certainly are. The Council - and their friends in the local media - are being completely dishonest in stating that keeping the tax rate "constant" means taxes are the same as last year. That's simply not true.
In order to avoid an automatic tax hike, the Council would have had to significantly reduce the tax rate from what it was last year. The Council declined to do so. Therefore, taxes automatically increase in FY-2022 as properties are reassessed.
An increase in the value of a home is not of much help to residents who plan to live there for many years or decades. Their annual costs increase, and they are still on the hook for mortgage, utilities, insurance, rain taxes and other county and state fees.
We all want good services. Those could be provided at a lower tax rate if the Council could control its spending. As the budget has increased by several billion dollars in a relative few election cycles, the Council has proven it cannot control spending.
A County Council tax increase just as we're (hopefully) coming out of the pandemic downturn is indeed a problem.
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