When asked last year what regulation or tax burdens them the most, our members overwhelmingly answered the rain tax. The Baltimore County Council got the message and voted unanimously without comment to reduce the rain tax fee for 2016 and eliminate it all together in 2017.
According to a Baltimore Sun article “council members have said the fee is a burden on homeowners and businesses.”
Earlier this year, three NFIB members participated in a press conference with Governor Larry Hogan announcing the elimination of the rain tax mandate. The bill signed by the Governor revised the law to allow jurisdictions to drop the fee
after getting the state’s approval to dedicate another source of money
to the projects. Baltimore County is the first of the 10
jurisdictions to phase out the fee.
At the press conference, NFIB member Kurt Zanelotti said, “First and foremost I am a
lifelong Marylander, conservationist and a sportsman. It is my belief that the
intent of the rain tax is noble, but the implementation is flawed, as there are
better and less expensive ways to clean our water ways and bay than in the
methods and doctrine that has been passed by the legislature. Most Marylanders don’t
know that Maryland is the only state that has agreed to tax and fund this
unfunded federal mandate, to the peril of small businesses and church budgets. I commend
efforts to repeal the requirement that counties and municipalities establish
and annually collect a rain tax.
“
