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County Council News - text version
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Joyce Dowling
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Mar 21, 2007 11:58 PST
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Below is news about the increase in county taxes, the content of a
meeting that we're missing today about closing a developer loop hole
(if anyone went, please report), upcoming bills and hearings. In the
future, I will be sending this type of legislative news only to
Prince George's Co. Civic Federation members, so please join:
http://www.pgcares.com/PGCCF/ ($15 for Individual & $25 for
Organizational memberships - .doc application on site) Other news
available at http://pgcares.newsvine.com/
Thomas E. Dernoga, representative to the County Council for District
1 & Council Chair, sent me a special text version of his newsletter
to share with everyone in email rather than using an attachment. I am
deleted just one section that was for only his district (I also
changed font to one easier on my eyes). The parts that are supposed
to contain links apparently don't work - they didn't work in the jpeg
version either since that's what I received first - I put a link to
County Council site at bottom of message.
Attachments you can ask me for if you're interested:
CB-4-2007, the bill text (MS Word .doc)
HOUSE BILL 665 "AN ACT concerning Prince George's County -
Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission - Subdivision
Appeals" (pdf - 5 pgs.)
HOUSE BILL 510 "Prince George's County Hospital Authority" (pdf - 11 pgs.)
"Real Property Tax Rates in Maryland Counties Fiscal 2003-2007"
(Showing the rates in Charles, Frederick, Howard, Montgomery, and
Prince George's counties reflecting special rates for services not
funded from the general county property tax rate.) (MS Word .doc - 1
pg. chart)
TEXT VERSION - DISTRICT 1 DIGEST
DERNOGA Files CB-4-2007 to Close Developer Traffic Loophole
from building when traffic is too congested. However, back in 1993,
developers got the County Council to create a loophole for "traffic
mitigation". This loophole involves a complicated set of rules
(Section 24-124), the gist of which is to allow development to
proceed, no matter how bad traffic congestion is, IF the developer
provides some minimal improvement that offsets the increased traffic
from its proposed project. CB-4-2007 will close this loophole and the
special interests are pulling out the stops to continue to ignore the
congestion that they cause.
A key part of the original legislation was that citizens could appeal
Planning Board decisions allowing mitigation to the County Council.
Developers took the law to court to get citizens' appeal rights
thrown out, but to keep their loophole. Since then, the Planning
Board has approved dozens of subdivision cases in spite of horrible
congestion using this loophole. No matter how much citizens complain
about how bad traffic is making their quality of life, the Planning
Board ignores the impact and approves more development using the
"traffic mitigation" loophole.
We on the County Council have tried to get the General Assembly to
restore YOUR right of appeal for the past three years. However, the
Planning Board has worked with the developers to lobby your
Delegates. Thus, we have been unsuccessful in getting back your right
of appeal. Right now, HB 665 has been bottled up in the "Bi-County
Committee" where it will die again this year.
Since the Delegation will not restore the right of appeal, and since
the Planning Board is unable to say no to developers, I believe that
the only proper action by the Council is to eliminate the "traffic
mitigation" loophole. The County Council's intent in 1993 was to
couple mitigation with the right of appeal. Since the special
interests have undermined that design, then mitigation should be done
away with. If you are concerned with unfettered growth without
serious consideration for the traffic implications, contact your
Council member and urge them to support CB-4-2007.
Public Work Session on CB-4-2007
Wed, March 21st @ 11:30 am (Room 2027 of the County Administration
Building). Let us know what you think about getting control of
traffic congestion.
Delegation Votes to Circumvent TRIM Tax Cap
Taxpayers to:
Pay for Private Debts of Dimensions
Become Insurer of Last Resort for the Poor
See the Gazette Story
On March 9, Prince George's County's Delegates unanimously voted to
raise County taxes by circumventing the TRIM Tax Cap. See HB 510 as
amended. The Delegates hope that by creating a new bureaucracy (the
"Hospital Authority") to take over the Dimensions system that it will
get control of the situation. The Hospital Authority is authorized to
sell bonds and the County is mandated to raise property taxes in
excess of the TRIM Tax Cap. See the Washington Post story. The action
of the Delegates is very troubling:
No other County's citizens have to pay to maintain a hospital system.
Apparently, we are "special".
For 25 years, the County has protected its citizens from being liable
for the debts of Dimensions, both its Junk Bonds and its unfunded
Pension Plan Liability. The new Hospital Authority would sell bonds,
paid by YOU, to pay off about $150 million of private debt.
YOU will become the insurance company for all of the many
uninsured patients who utilize the current hospital facilities. Any
funding shortfalls will be made up by raising property taxes, as
decided by political appointees.
YOU already pay the highest County property tax rate in the State.
The State has provided $100's of millions to Baltimore
hospitals. Isn't it time that we got treated similarly?
It just seems odd to create a new bureaucracy (but one with effective
taxing authority) to revisit many of the known problems of the
Dimensions' system. One thing we have proven is that throwing money
at the Dimensions problem is no answer. Unfortunately, rather than
learn from that, our Delegation seems intent on institutionalizing
the practice.
What seems to be lost here is that Prince George's County is mostly
comprised of working class families that already pay more taxes than
residents of wealthier counties. So why would it make sense to tax
working class families even more to pay for the health care costs of
the poor when wealthier counties do not have to do the same? That's a
question that you should be asking.
This Week's Activities
County Council ~
Tues, March 20th @ 10 am
Planning & Zoning Committee ~
Wed, March 21st @ 11:30 am
| | | | | | CB-4-2007 Work Session <<<
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Agricultural Preservation Wk Grp ~
Wed, March 21st @ 3:00 pm
THE Committee ~
Thur, March 22nd @ 9:30 am
| | | | | | Waldorf Bypass Briefing ~
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State Highway Administration <<<
Current County Council Legislation: Click here for County Bills & Resolutions
CB-1-2007 - AN ACT CONCERNING OBSOLETE COUNTY CODE PROVISIONS for the
purpose of repealing various obsolete provisions of the County Code
that are no longer appropriate subject matter for the County Code.
(Dernoga) ENACTED.
CB-2-2007 - AN EMERGENCY ACT CONCERNING SUPPLEMENTARY APPROPRIATION
for the purpose of appropriating to the General Fund revenue in
excess of budget estimates to provide funds for costs that were not
anticipated in the approved Fiscal Year 2006-2007 Budget. ENACTED.
CB-3-2007 (DR-2) - AN ACT CONCERNING SECONDHAND DEALER AND PAWN
DEALER'S AND EMPLOYEE LICENSES for the purpose of amending provisions
of the Code relating to the number of secondhand dealer and pawn
dealer licenses to reduce the number of licenses authorized. (Olson,
Exum, Dernoga, Harrington, Campos and Turner) Favorably reported out
of THE on 2/22/2007 with amendments.
CB-4-2007 - AN ACT CONCERNING SUBDIVISIONS - ADEQUATE PUBLIC ROAD
FACILITIES for the purpose of deleting certain provisions of the
Subdivision Regulations that allow the development of certain
property notwithstanding the inadequacy of public road facilities.
(Dernoga) Referred to PZED.
CB-5-2007 - AN ORDINANCE CONCERNING DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT OVERLAY ZONE
for the purpose of amending the Development District Standards for
the D-D-O Zone under certain circumstances. (Campos) Referred to PZED.
CB-6-2007 AN ORDINANCE CONCERNING M-X-T ZONE for the purpose of
permitting limited industrial uses in the M-X-T Zone under certain
circumstances. (Dean) Referred to PZED.
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County Council web site (contacts on each District page):
http://www.goprincegeorgescounty.com/Government/LegislativeBranch/CountyCouncil/contact.asp?nivel=subfoldmenu(0,0,0)
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Joyce Dowling http://www.drix.net/jdowling/Joyce.html
http://www.dmuuc.org/ Creating a diverse caring community.
Click to feed the hungry.: http://www.thehungersite.com/
"Be the change you wish to see." Gandhi
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Sincerely,
Joyce Dowling
Developer, Prince Georgians Care http://www.PGCares.com
Community discussion & news:
http://community.livejournal.com/prince_georges/
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