Folks may have seen in our Council agenda last week an item for the Mayor and City Council to express support for Maryland House Bill 1142 – As described in the bill, the legislation’s purpose is to form a State Task Force to:

“make recommendations regarding the authority of county and municipal governments to increase sources of revenue”

In the Work Session immediately preceding the Regular Meeting, I expressed ambivalence towards to the Bill and my struggle to find enthusiasm favoring a City Resolution in its support. Some of my thinking in arriving at this position:

  • Based on my analysis of the City’s finances, and I’m also thankful to say, Laurel itself is in a stable and even strong position. So I’m not seeing, nor have received information, where our financial outlook appears inadequate and necessitates the search for additional tax sources.

  • I’m also very sensitive to conversations I’ve had with residents, and studies I’ve seen, indicating the cost of living has really been putting the pinch on household budgets for over a couple years now – whether it’s grocery costs, utility bills, home/ car insurance, or even the new fee levels for vehicle registration renewals (all of which I know my family has felt too). In this environment, and absent a demonstrated pressure to take hard measures, I see reason to hesitate in the present.

  • I have heard that other municipalities or Counties may be in a different boat, and for whom the prospect of increased sources of revenue may mean something different. But from the perspective of representing Laurel residents for the decisions impacting them, I have not been able to identify something that rises to the level to override their direct interests for other jurisdictions.

  • In the back of my mind, there’s also the echo of the Comptroller of Maryland’s 2024 “State of the Economy” report describing the multiple years of domestic outmigration from our state with the primary driver being cost of living. This helps illustrate what we might suspect: that the competitiveness of geographies, and their long-term success, is very much linked to the relative levels of costs to remain there, and Maryland’s tax system competitiveness is listed among the bottom 10 in the nation by the non-partisan, educational non-profit, Tax Foundation.

In the end, while I am open to see what a Task Force proposed by HB 1142 may identify, and I have joined in the past with colleagues to express support for various state legislation, I struggled to find that same enthusiasm for this Resolution and registered my vote as an abstention for the above reasons.