A bid to raise Harford County?s transfer tax and eliminate impact fees failed Tuesday to win support from state lawmakers.
Councilman Dion Guthrie argued for increasing the transfer tax a half a percentage point, to 1.5 percent, while wiping out the impact fee on every new home built. He said doing so would bring in $8 million more a year for school construction.
But General Assembly members did not budge at a meeting of county and state lawmakers. Del. J.B. Jennings, R-District 7, called impact fees fair and necessary.
“Why do we need to build new schools? Because we have more children,” he said. “Why do we have more children? Becuse we have more homes. It?s the explosion in construction that?s causing all the schools to be built.”
County councils have voted unanimously year after year to raise the transfer tax, which is imposed on new home purchases to raise money for school construction.
But only the state Legislature has the power to raise the tax.
The impact fee can be used for any expense and costs homeowners about $8,300 for each new home built.
Guthrie said his former neighbor, without children or a spouse, recently moved into a new home and had to pay the impact fee and transfer tax, but has “literally no impact” on the county?s schools and infrastructure. A family with children going to schools moved into the house then, and has to pay only the transfer tax, not the impact fees. That?s unfair, Guthrie said.
Del. B. Dan Riley, D-District 34A, differed.
“An impact fee is just that; you?re adding another building to the area,” he said. “Every additional building has an impact on our infrastructure.”
Only Baltimore City and Baltimore County have transfer taxes as high as what Guthrie wants.
The county has floated about $200 million in bonds to build new schools.
“It?s my hope they will reconsider and understand what the county needs,” Guthrie said. “They are ignoring thechildren and the parents, and they are ignoring what?s coming with [base reallignment].”
