My Proposals on Tax Relief
The
2016 Legislative Session starts on Wednesday January 13th. I am busy drafting legislation to introduce
in the session. In this and following newsletters
I will be discussing some of my proposals.
Taxes will be a big issue in the
upcoming legislative session. I expect
Governor Hogan to come up with proposals that help businesses, including
lowering the corporate income tax rate.
While I think it is important to address the problems of small
businesses, government is continuing to favor large corporations with big tax
breaks at the expense of working families. I have drafted a package of tax proposals that would bring
some relief to our working families and people on fixed income.
1)
Improving
the Homeowner Tax Credit Program. (This
is not the same as the Homestead Property
Tax Credit, which limits the
increase in property taxes each year.)
This program gives modest tax relief to those families with a gross
family income of under $60,000. The tax
program is very modest, and very few people apply. My proposal would increase the family limit
to $80,000 and increase the credit amount per household by $400-500 per
year. The bill would also increase the eligibility
limit on family savings from $200,000 to $400,000.
2)
Improving
the Renters Tax Credit Program. This
program is hardly used because so few people know about it, and not many people
are eligible. My bill would increase the
eligibility from $40,000 to $60,000 per household and increase the credit by
$300 per household.
3)
Marketing
existing tax credit programs. I
found out that only 15% of the people eligible use the existing homeowner and
renter tax relief programs. This bill
would require the Comptroller’s office to establish a marketing campaign to
promote the use of the property tax relief program.
4)
Freezing
the Estate Tax Break. Two years ago the legislature decided to
increase the portion of an estate that is free of tax from $1 million to $5
million over four years. My bill would freeze
the untaxed level at $2 million - amounts
over that level would be subject to the estate tax. By not allowing this amount to increase we
would save over $100 million during the next four years, and we could easily
afford my tax relief bills without having to cut needed programs.
I hope my proposals are considered
by the legislature this year. We have a
lot of people facing economic distress, and the legislature would better serve
the state by giving tax relief to working families, rather than to large corporations,
whose only need is to increase their profit line.
Some New Laws That Go into Effect
This Month
1)
A new voter-registration law allows individuals
to register to vote at early-voting centers during early-voting periods. In
2016, those periods run April 14-21 for the April 26 primary election, and Oct.
27-Nov. 3 for the Nov. 8 general election.
2)
Workers’ compensation insurers now have to give clients
45 days’ notice that they are canceling or refusing to renew a policy.
3)
Prince George’s County laws:
a)
It is now illegal to smoke electronic cigarettes
in public buildings.
b)
Higher fines for littering: Anyone caught throwing garbage on county land
can be slapped with a $1,000 fine — double the previous penalty.
c)
An anti-littering law targets property owners
who fail to remove accumulating refuse from their yards, which could saddle
them with a hefty tax lien.
d)
Another law increases the penalty for anyone
caught renting property without a license to $1,000 per month.
