Despite concerns, the Prince George's Co. Council approved a new property tax credit for seniors

It wasn’t a big surprise when the Prince George’s County Council approved a measure to offer property tax credits to certain seniors on top of the Homestead Credit they already receive.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t concerns about the legislation.

Under the bill, which passed the City Council on Tuesday by an 8-0 margin with two abstentions, homeowners over the age of 65 who have lived in their home for 25 years are now eligible for the new credit, as long as the appraised value of the home their house costs no more than $500,000.

It aims to improve a municipal tax credit passed just two years agomaking more older residents eligible, although not everyone who applied was accepted due to limited resources.

“I had a 99-year-old woman who lived in my district, who served in our public school system for over 30 years, and who can’t pay her property taxes,” said the bill’s lead sponsor, District 8 Assemblymember Ed Burroughs -council. “She is at the end of her life and her family is stressed about whether or not she can keep her home in this province.”

There was concern 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 aimed at addressing some concerns about who would qualify for the tax credit and how that would be determined.

“We tried to work on this bill because maybe two years ago it didn’t achieve the goal that we all wanted to achieve,” said John Erzen, deputy chief of staff to the County Executive and newly elected. Senator Angela Alsobrooks. “Maybe after this bill we’ll come right back with another bill, if more seniors come and say, ‘I thought this would help me, but this didn’t end up helping me.’”

The task force he urged the council to wait on should have its final report ready by the end of February. That is why the district executive team was surprised by the recent attempt to reintroduce this bill before the end of the parliamentary year.

Alsobrooks’ administration also warned that the cost of implementing this new tax credit would be somewhere between $59 million and $98 million over the next five years, as this is in addition to the Homestead Credit already extended to residents. And because the current ten-year residency requirement would be expanded to 25 years, the government warned that nearly 15,000 residents who now qualify for the extra credit would no longer qualify in the future.

“Is the council prepared to say to those seniors – the seniors under the 10-year program – ‘you were eligible, you may not have received credit, but because this is now going up and extended to 25 years, you don’t have credit more’ the program?” said Sakinda Skinner, the provincial government’s liaison to the municipality.

It was the financial impact on the province that caused Council Vice President Sydney Harrison to speak out against the credit. With the province already facing a $158 million hole in next year’s budget, he said it could jeopardize the province’s economy. current triple-A bond rating.

“I’m not trying to put the financial health of this country into cardiac arrest,” Harrison said. “We are playing Russian roulette with our AAA bond rating.”

And he wondered whether taxes would have to be raised on others to pay for this new credit.

“We will have to find money elsewhere to deliver this and cut other agencies,” he said. “How that plays out in public safety, how that shows up across our 27 agencies to make that money — that’s a real deal.”

“We had no discussion about our bond rating when we gave tax breaks to development cooperation,” said District 6 Council member Wala Blegay. “If we don’t address our seniors and try to give something, we’re going to lose them, and that’s going to be some of your impact on the budget.”

Burroughs said he has seen the county council “waive school fees… public safety fees for developers.”

‘Isn’t it time we give equal importance to the people who helped build this province? Our seniors are the reason we are here,” he said.

In offering her vote for the bill, Councilwoman Wanika Fisher said others appearing before council in hopes of financial support and increased funding for certain programs should pay close attention to how this debate plays out.

“Passing this bill also means a statement about what we can do for the province,” Fisher said. “This is the priority. Rental assistance will not be the priority. Social services or housing will not be the priority. None of that is a priority.”

The bill then goes to the county executive’s desk, and despite all the doubts about the legislation, it is not certain that it will be signed. However, Alsobrooks’ aides also said it is too early to say whether she is considering a veto.

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