{"id":9073,"date":"2017-12-05T13:33:35","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T18:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=9073"},"modified":"2017-12-05T13:33:35","modified_gmt":"2017-12-05T18:33:35","slug":"moon-country-club-bill-could-generate-10-million-for-moco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=9073","title":{"rendered":"Moon Country Club Bill Could Generate $10 Million for MoCo"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco.<\/em><\/p>\n

A local bill introduced by Delegate David Moon (D-20) that would end property tax breaks for country clubs would eventually generate $10 million a year for Montgomery County Government according to General Assembly analysts.\u00a0 That\u2019s welcome news for the county, especially considering its current budgetary difficulties<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Under current state law<\/a>, the State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT) is allowed to strike agreements with country clubs having golf courses to cap the assessed value of their land.\u00a0 To be eligible for such agreements, the clubs must have at least 100 members who pay dues averaging $50 or more annually for each member; restrict use of their facilities primarily to members, families, and guests; have at least 50 acres of land; and have a golf course with at least 9 holes and a clubhouse.\u00a0 In practice, the agreements limit assessed land values to $1,000 an acre.\u00a0 In return for the assessed rate, a club with an SDAT agreement must agree not to sell its land for subdivision and to not discriminate on race, color, creed, sex or national origin.\u00a0 If a club with an agreement does sell its land for subdivision, it must pay back taxes equivalent to what it would have been paying without an agreement.<\/p>\n

Not long ago, your author asked SDAT for all of its agreements with country clubs in Montgomery County.\u00a0 SDAT sent us ten of them but we later learned that there are actually fifteen of them in the county.\u00a0 One of them was signed in 1980 and three more were signed in 1981; all four of these are fifty year agreements.\u00a0 Two more were transferred from prior owners.\u00a0 One agreement, for the Lakewood Country Club in Rockville, was signed in 2017.\u00a0 In tax year 2016, when the agreement was not effective, the club\u2019s 175 acres had an assessed land value of $1.94 million.\u00a0 Once the agreement takes effect, the club\u2019s assessed land value will be $175,000 \u2013 a 91% reduction.<\/p>\n

Moon\u2019s local bill<\/a> would abolish such agreements with country clubs in Montgomery County as of their expiration or June 30, 2029, whichever date is earlier.\u00a0 Because Maryland\u2019s state constitution requires uniform rules for the assessment of land, Moon\u2019s bill takes the form of a constitutional amendment carving out MoCo country clubs and golf courses from that requirement.\u00a0 The amendment would have to be approved by voters.\u00a0 We understand that Moon may also introduce a statewide bill to deal with SDAT agreements everywhere.<\/p>\n

The fiscal note<\/a> on Moon\u2019s bill indicates that MoCo country clubs with SDAT agreements have a combined 3,000 acres currently assessed at $3 million.\u00a0 In the absence of the agreements, the fiscal note estimates that the club\u2019s assessed land value would be $983.3 million.\u00a0 So once the agreements are all gone by Fiscal Year 2030, the fiscal note estimates that the state would collect an additional $1 million a year in property taxes from the clubs and the county would get an additional $10 million annually.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right, folks \u2013 if the country clubs simply pay property taxes at the same rate the rest of us do, the Montgomery County Government would get an extra $10 million a year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Delegate Moon\u2019s country club bill is the biggest no-brainer of all time.\u00a0 There is no justification for the richest of the very rich to get a property tax break that no one else does.\u00a0 And if they are required to pay the same as everybody else, the county government would get a nice revenue bump to help it deal with our significant and increasing needs.<\/p>\n

We hope every single MoCo Senator and Delegate will join David Moon and support his bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco. A local bill introduced by Delegate David Moon (D-20) that would end property tax breaks for country clubs would eventually generate $10 million a year for Montgomery County Government according to General Assembly analysts.\u00a0 That\u2019s welcome news for the county, especially considering its current budgetary difficulties. Under current state law, the State … Continue reading Moon Country Club Bill Could Generate $10 Million for MoCo<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,582,132,134],"tags":[1545,2090,1641,1539],"class_list":["post-9073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","category-david-moon","category-property-taxes","category-taxes","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-country-clubs","tag-david-moon","tag-taxes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-2ml","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9073"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9075,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9073\/revisions\/9075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}