Lawmakers warn of looming tax and fee increases

The 2024 Maryland General Assembly session has been over for less than a month and already there are warnings from some members of Calvert County’s delegation that additional taxes and fees that didn’t get passed this year will return in 2025.

That was the message delivered to county leaders and members of the business community at the legislative breakfast hosted by the Calvert County Chamber of Commerce Wednesday morning at the Hilton Garden Inn in Solomons.

Del. Mark N. Fisher (R-Calvert) told the audience the theme of the just concluded session was “there’s not enough money.”

Fisher said the Democrat majority had tax bills “they filed like crazy” in an effort to increase revenue that the local delegation fought against.

The Republican, who is serving his fourth term in Annapolis, noted that the scramble to pry more money from Maryland’s small and large businesses was sparked by the end of federal funding related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This economy is built on popsicle sticks,” Fisher said.

In the end, though, taxes in the state were not raised, although some fees increased.

Fellow Republican Del. Todd Morgan (R-St. Mary’s, Calvert) expressed concern that that a plan to levy a fee on natural gas coming into the state will create a “hardship” for the liquefied natural gas plant in Lusby.

An audience member, former delegate and Republican county commissioner Jerry Clark, asked if that tax would “stand up to federal law” since the natural gas traveling to the Lusby facility arrives through a multi-state pipeline.

“Wouldn’t a tax like that put a damper on trying to improve the business climate?” Clark asked.

The measure, which stalled in committee during the session, would be back in 2025, said Morgan, who is a member of the House of Delegates Environmental and Transportation committee.

“This is a money grab,” Fisher said of the proposed fee, adding that natural gas is propping up the economy in Calvert County.

Both Fisher and Morgan expressed frustration in trying to get legislative leaders and other state officials to acknowledge nuclear energy as a component for an energy strategy that aims to reduce greenhouse gases.

Morgan called nuclear energy “green and clean.”

Fisher said legislators from Montgomery County have impeded efforts to have nuclear energy, an economic mainstay in Calvert since the 1970s when Calvert Cliffs came on line, recognized for playing a role in shrinking the state’s carbon footprint.

Also attending the breakfast was Del. Jeffrie Long Jr. (Calvert, Prince George’s), who said of the much clamored for local preference bill affecting the county government’s bidding process, “We got it done.”

Fisher added that the local preference measure passed because members of the county chamber of commerce and the region’s minority chamber came to Annapolis and voiced their support at a committee hearing.