OCEAN CITY — Worcester County has yet to formally answer a tax differential lawsuit filed against it by the Town of Ocean City, but informally it appears the commissioners were taken aback by the litigation.
On Monday, Worcester County Commissioner Joe Mitrecic, who represents Ocean City, briefed the Mayor and Council on several county issues related to the resort. In January, the town filed suit against the Worcester County Commissioners over the tax differential issue that has been debated for years.
In the lawsuit, the Ocean City Mayor and Council filed a petition for declaratory judgment against Worcester County seeking judicial relief on the long-standing issue. Worcester County has yet to file a formal response to the lawsuit, although an extended deadline to do so expires next week.
“We received the town’s lawsuit on tax differential in January, much to the surprise of my fellow commissioners,” he said. “Frankly, I’m not sure why is was they were so surprised.”
Mitrecic said the commissioners collectively were taken aback by the town’s lawsuit and questioned if the litigation made it difficult for both sides to get back to the table on the omnipresent tax differential issue.
“To say they were upset would be an understatement,” he said. “Now, whether or not there is a will to have a dialogue with Ocean City remains to be seen.”
For years, Ocean City has requested tax differential from the county in the form of a tax set-off, or a county tax rate for property owners in the resort different from the tax rate paid by residents in the county at-large. The reasoning is the property owners in Ocean City already pay taxes to support certain services and programs such as police and emergency services, recreation and parks and public works, for example, services which the county does not necessarily need to provide in the resort.
For years, the request has consistently been denied. Instead, the county makes unrestricted grants to the resort for a variety of uses in an attempt to offset the cost of tax differential. In recent years, there has appeared to be a détente of sorts on the long-standing and often contentious rift with the county at least acknowledging the issue.
However, when budget time rolled around last year, Worcester County reverted to the grant program. Unsatisfied with that solution, Ocean City officials in recent years have threatened legal action to resolve the tax differential and followed through in January.
The lawsuit names as plaintiffs the Town of Ocean City along with Mayor Rick Meehan and six of the seven councilmembers along with their spouses. Mitrecic said the absence of one councilmember’s name on the lawsuit, in this case Councilman Wayne Hartman, who is running for a House of Delegates seat, at least created some levity for the county commissioners.
“One thing that made all of the commissioners chuckle a little bit was there was one councilmember’s name that was conspicuously absent from the lawsuit,” he said. “They all got a big kick out of that.”
For the record, Hartman pointed out he strongly supported the lawsuit, but did not agree with including his name or his spouse’s name on it.
“I don’t want to leave everyone guessing which councilmember’s name was not on the lawsuit,” he said. “As a councilman for the town of Ocean City, I agree with the litigation. However, as far as the individual councilmember’s names being included along with their spouses, I don’t agree with that. I think this is something the town of Ocean City is doing against the county and, therefore, I chose not to be named personally with it.”
