Lawmakers Face Deadline to Hash Out
Property Tax Cut, School Money

By MIKE TORRALBA
Capital News Service

ANNAPOLIS - Defying the House of Delegates, the Senate on
Tuesday passed an amended budget that dashes a proposed cut in
property tax.
The approval sets the stage for negotiations -- called a
conference committee -- between the upper chamber and the House
later this week.
The Legislature is required to agree on the $26 billion budget
by Monday.
While the Senate was voting on the operating budget, the House
was introducing its capital budget proposal, which includes more
than $250 million for public-school construction.
Senators had deemed unaffordable the House plan to roll back the
property tax rate by a nickel to 8 cents for every $100 of
assessed value. That means the owner of a house worth $100,000
would save $48 in taxes.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich, who in 2003 raised the rate to its current
level to balance the budget, opposes the House proposal.
House Speaker Michael Busch, D-Anne Arundel, hinted that he
might relent on pushing for the property-tax cut.
"You come down here, and you have give and take," Busch said. "I
hope the conferees will have a common ground."
Delegates who supported the cut said rising property assessments
and an improving economy would cushion the blow to state coffers.
Three Republican senators voted against the part of the budget
related to revenue, which left out the property tax cut but
raised criminal- and traffic-court fees and imposed a $45 monthly
fee on participants in a program to assist convicted drunken
drivers.
"Taking the combination of taxes and fees, it just was not
something I could support," said Sen. E.J. Pipkin, R-Queen
Anne's.
Sen. Alex Mooney, R-Frederick, agreed. The other senator voting
"nay," Minority Whip Andrew P. Harris, R-Baltimore County, could
not immediately be reached for comment.
The vote on the spending portion of the budget was unanimous.
Meanwhile, the House got the ball rolling on a $670 million
capital budget, the spending plan for construction and other
long-term projects.
It redirects or cuts $79 million from a myriad of capital items
to increase spending on public school construction beyond the
$157 million Ehrlich had set aside. Another $15 million will come
from come from dedicated school funds in the capital budget, for
a total $250 million for school construction, the amount
recommended by a state task force last year.
"In almost every instance where a reduction was made in other
program areas, the funds were redirected to meet the dire need of
our K-through-12 public school system," said capital budget
subcommittee chairwoman Adrienne Jones, D-Baltimore County, in a
news release.
Aside from school construction, the House capital budget shunts
$25 million toward various local projects and $5 million spread
among seven hospitals around the state.