Malena Brookshire, Calvert’s chief financial officer, left, and Chesapeake Beach Mayor Bruce Wahl discuss the town’s revised tax differential at a recent commissioners’ meeting.
Malena Brookshire, Calvert’s chief financial officer, left, and Chesapeake Beach Mayor Bruce Wahl discuss the town’s revised tax differential at a recent commissioners’ meeting.
In the past, the annual meeting with local mayors and the Calvert County commissioners was a casual formality, with all parties subsequently pleased with life in the beaches.
The most recent meeting, held during the commissioners’ March 3 meeting, did have a glitch to it in that one mayor didn’t show up. There was also a reworked policy presented by county government’s finance and budget department that has resulted in a recalibration of rates, which are now separate for North Beach and Chesapeake Beach.
In a memo to the commissioners, Malena Brookshire, the county’s chief financial officer, explained state law allows municipalities to request a reduction in the county property tax paid by the incorporated town’s residents “based on the premise that town residents also pay municipal property taxes to fund services the county does not provide within town limits.”
The differential, Brookshire said, is a “vital tool” used to assure “fundamental fairness for our taxpayers. This ensures they are not taxed twice for the same service.”
Brookshire said county government’s financial staff conducted a “rigorous review” using “current year county data and cost data.”
As a result, the towns now have separate differential rates, which are both slightly higher than the current rate of $0.336 per $100 of assessed value.
The county’s real property tax rate for the current fiscal year is $0.967 per $100 of assessed value with no increase proposed for fiscal 2027.
Brookshire said the new differential rate for Chesapeake Beach is $0.362 per $100 of assessed value.
“We’re on the same trajectory,” Chesapeake Beach Mayor Bruce Wahl told the commissioners, who affirmed town officials were OK with the revised rate.
Neither North Beach Mayor Mike Benton nor a representative from the town attended the March 3 meeting.
Linda Turner, county administrator, said North Beach officials have been contacted about the rate, which Brookshire said has increased by “a fraction of a penny.”
The new differential rate for North Beach is $0.34 per $100 of assessed value.
“We’ve never signed off” without both mayors’ acknowledgement, Commissioner Mike Hart (R) said. He suggested the board wait one or two weeks for an acknowledgement from North Beach.
“We’re bound,” said Turner. “We would need to move the budget adoption date.”
“They [North Beach] are not being harmed,” Stephen McGibbon, deputy county administration, said, adding that any revisit of North Beach’s rate would require a relook at Chesapeake Beach’s rate as well.
The board’s vote on the Chesapeake Beach rate was 4-0, with Commissioner Mark C. Cox Sr. (R) absent. Hart opted to vote opposed to the North Beach rate, which passed 3-1.
