SNOW HILL — Resort taxpayers will not have a chance to vote on a referendum question this fall seeking a “roll back” of sorts in the property tax rate to 2009 levels after a Worcester County Circuit Court judge on Wednesday ruled in favor of the town’s motion for declaratory judgment.
There was some measure of closure on Wednesday in the case that began in Worcester County Circuit Court, traveled to U.S. District Court and was ultimately returned to its home jurisdiction. Last June, a group operating under the guise of the Ocean City Taxpayers for Social Justice, submitted to the Mayor and Council a petition containing nearly 1,500 signatures essentially seeking a return of the property tax rate in the resort from the current 48 cents per $100 of assessed value to 38 cents, or the rate at which it was set in 2009.
Following a hearing on the case in Snow Hill on Wednesday, a visiting Circuit Court judge ruled in favor of the Mayor and Council’s motion for summary judgment, essentially dismissing the case. While the judge’s opinion was released late Wednesday and was not readily available, docket entries illustrate the general opinion of the judge.
For example, the judge granted the town’s motion for summary judgment and declared the petition’s “roll back” provision is inconsistent with the Maryland property tax code, which vests municipalities with the power to set property tax rates, and is therefore in violation of Maryland law. The judge further declared, as a result, the Mayor and Council is not required to submit the petition to the qualified voters of Ocean City.
City Solicitor Guy Ayres said on Thursday he had not yet seen the judge’s formal opinion released late Wednesday, but was confident the ruling brings closure.
“Technically, they could file an appeal with the Court of Special Appeals, but there is no way it would be reversed,” he said. “The petition was just wrong.”
Ayres said there was ample case law cited during the proceedings and various filings on the power of jurisdictions to set property tax rates and at least two prior cases had gone in favor of the local governments. Ironically, the OCTSJ relied on the same essential case law and attempted to tailor it to best serve their position, but the Ayres said the judge ultimately ruled the defendant’s interpretation was flawed.
“The judge essentially ruled the proposed charter amendment violates public general law,” said Ayres. “That’s what the case hinged on and that’s how the judge saw it.”
From the beginning, petition organizer Tony Christ and fellow plaintiffs John Medelin, Herb Pawlukewicz and former Ocean City Councilman Joe Hall asserted the petition seeking a roll back in the property tax rate to 2009 levels would not a get a fair shake at the local level and filed its own complaint in U.S. District Court.
Initially, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Bennett consolidated Ocean City’s petition for judicial review and the OCTSJ’s request for emergency removal of the case to federal court into one action. Earlier this year, however, Bennett ruled favorably on Ocean City’s motion to dismiss the federal case and remanded it back to Worcester County Circuit Court. The judge ruled moving the case to U.S. District Court in hopes of a more favorable outcome did not justify the move from Worcester County Circuit Court.
