For years, thousands of residents in the Montgomery County municipalities of Rockville and Gaithersburg have been double-taxed on recreation fees because the law allowing the fee operates under outdated boundary distinctions.
It’s a problem that caught the attention of a lawyer in the county’s attorney office and is addressed in a new bill heavily backed by Del. Ben Kramer, District 19.
Kramer told The Examiner that legislation from 1965 exempts citizens in both municipalities from paying county fees for parks and recreation services, since they’re already paying for that service through the city.
But the exemption is applied using the boundaries of those municipalities from four decades ago. Those boundaries, however, have expanded considerably as the municipalities annexed undeveloped land.
Kramer said estimates are that 19,000 Gaithersburg residents and between 300 and 400 Rockville residents have been swept up in this technicality. The legislation aims to correct the situation.
“What it will do is prevent Montgomery County from collecting fees from these people, because they’re really paying for fees that they’re not directly benefiting from,” he said. “There are two issues: legislative intent and equity. I don’t think it was the intent to leave them out; growth was just not taken into account the way it maybe should have.”
Late last week the bill passed through the Montgomery County Delegation and now the Prince George’s County Delegation must consider it because the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission’s authority falls over both counties.
Officials from the commission could not be reached over the weekend to say how much the taxes in question cost residents.
But the agency has firmly opposed the bill, with planners arguing that residents in the municipalities also use the county’s 400-plus recreation facilities.
However, Kramer said there’s cross-usage in both directions.
“There’s really no definitive way to determine usage and interaction between jurisdictions,” he said.
For more information
To read the bill in its entirety, go to www.montgomerycountydelegation.com
