Kathleen Miller, The Examiner
2008-05-14 07:00:00.0
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WASHINGTON -

The fate of a proposed Montgomery County property tax cut will be decided at a County Council meeting today, as members are feeling the heat from County Executive Ike Leggett for a proposal he says will only benefit businesses and owners of high-end homes.

Leggett blasted a plan unanimously endorsed by the council’s Management and Fiscal Policy Committee on Friday, saying the measure shifts the tax burden from commercial property owners to homeowners. Leggett is pushing for an 8.3 percent increase in the property tax rate, the biggest in 20 years, but he’s paired it with a $1,014 tax credit that he says will ease costs for owners of less-expensive properties.

Council Vice President Phil Andrews, plus Council members Valerie Ervin and Duchy Trachtenberg, all voted in favor of a plan to cut the property tax rate by 2.2 percent while reducing the homeowner credit from this year’s $613 to $361.

Andrews acknowledged the plan would result in owners of cheaper properties paying more than under Leggett’s plan next year, but said the committee’s plan would still be affordable.

“With a $1,000 tax credit, while certainly appealing, you would tend to see bigger increases for people after this year,” Andrews said. “I think it is better to have a more even, steadier approach, rather one that jumps so much from year to year.”

With three likely votes in favor of the tax cut plus a council president who has praised the concept of cutting rates, the other four members of the council are being lobbied by Leggett to block the proposal.

“What that plan does is protect businesses, and it will hurt homeowners,” Leggett told The Examiner on Tuesday. “We looked at what they’ve done when we were drafting our budget, and we rejected it because it basically helps the wealthiest residents and hurts a lot of people who are just trying to stay in their homes today.”

Councilmen Marc Elrich and George Leventhal said they wouldn’t vote for the plan to cut the property tax.

“This is a dead giveaway to commercial property owners,” Elrich said. “I really think people focus on the taxes they pay, not a particular rate. I don’t really know what the rate is, just what I write my check for.”

kmiller@dcexaminer.com