If you don’t get The Washington Post during the week or you’re not “tuned” into the goings on in the County you may be missing a notice that Prince George’s County is getting ready to increase property taxes.  No, they’re not going to violate TRIM.  This is more along the lines of a sin of omission – by not doing anything they really raise taxes.

There was a two page spread in the Thursday Prince George’s Weekly section of The Washington Post that spelled out what the County is about to do and why.  Now, the County can do whatever it wants to the “unincorporated” parts of the County.  It is up to the municipalities to raise or not raise their own tax rates.  In this case, at least one municipality — Bowie, MD — is following the County’s lead, word for word.

Here’s The Deal

The County Council of Prince George’s County proposes to increase real property tax rates in the unincorporated and municipal corporations.

  1. For the tax year beginning July 1, 2009, the estimated real property assessable base will increase by 6.8% (a) from $48,931,381,386 (b) to $52,279,190,730 (c) in the unincorporated area.
  2. If Prince George’s County maintains the current real property tax rate of $0.96 (d) per $100 of assessment, real property tax revenues will increase by 6.8% (e) in the unincorporated area, resulting in $32,138,970 (f) of ne real property tax revenues in the unincorporated area.
  3. In order to fully offset the increasing assessments, the real property tax rate should be reduced to $0.899 (g) the constant real tax rate, in the unincorporated area.
  4. The County is considering no reducing its real property tax rate enough to fully offset increasing assessments.  The County proposes to adopt a real property tax rate of $0.96 (h) per $100 of assessment in the unincorporated area. This tax rate is 6.8% (i) higher than the constant tax yield rate and will generate $32,138,970 (j) in additional property tax revenues.  Municipal corporations within the County have lower real property tax rates as a result of the municipal tax differentials (h).

Public hearings on the proposed real property tax rates (h) will be held at 7:00pm on May 4, 2009 and May 12, 2009, in the County Council Hearing Room, County Administration Building, 14741 Governor Oden Bowie Drive, Upper Marlboro, MD 20772


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