In miniature, October 9

• Baltimore City’s awful management has already brought its antiquated water system to the brink of ruin, so it takes a lot of nerve for the city to demand that it control a contemplated regional authority that would bail it out [Christine Condon, Baltimore Sun]
• A genuinely terrible idea I’ve written about before — the use of eminent domain in an attempt to seize sports and entertainment enterprises and trademarks — rears its head again, this time regarding the Baltimore Orioles [Pamela Wood, Baltimore Banner]
• Marylanders should get ready for tax hikes [Christopher Summers, Maryland Reporter]
• Ghastly ideas on the march: following big MoCo win, progressive groups push rent control in Howard County [Adam Pagnucco]
• It would be nice if the Maryland General Assembly stopped passing unconstitutional laws, especially after being warned repeatedly that what they were passing was unconstitutional [Jacob Sullum, Reason]
• Last year, Baltimore’s public schools spent $22,000 per student, a record figure that will rise further with the Kirwan spending extravaganza. And the city’s test scores continue to underperform those of every major system except Detroit’s [Sean Kennedy, City Journal]

In miniature, November 22

• The week in blame-shifting: Baltimore files lawsuit against tobacco companies seeking to recoup the cost of dealing with cigarette butt litter [CBS News]
• A lot of people warned at the time that Maryland’s first-in-the-nation digital ad tax was unconstitutionally drawn, and now Judge Alison Asti has struck it down [Callan Tansill-Suddath, DCist; an earlier instance in which courts struck down a media law after the General Assembly ignored warnings of likely unconstitutionality]
• Montgomery County will make a costly mistake if it goes forward with plans to ban most gas hookups in new buildings [Adam Pagnucco, Montgomery Perspective, more]
• To my list of favorite Maryland place names I can now add Tippity Wichity Island in St. Mary’s County [Baltimore Banner, more, it’s for sale]
• Frederick Magazine profiles Landmarks Foundation of Frederick County, which just had its biggest attendance ever for Oktoberfest at Schifferstadt [Kate Poindexter]
• Baltimore needs to change, part 783: Bridgeport, Newark, Detroit, and Baltimore in that order are the cities that place the highest tax burdens on households, and that’s true both at $75K and $150K/year household income levels. Among the lowest: Las Vegas, Houston, Jacksonville, Fla. and Manchester, N.H. [Chris Edwards, Cato]

In miniature, January 29

• I’m honored to have joined the board of the Frederick County Landmarks Foundation, one of my favorite local organizations, which maintains historic buildings such as Schifferstadt and runs the wonderful annual Barnstormers Tour.

• Howard Gorrell: More hypocrisy on Maryland redistricting [Maryland Reporter] LRAC’s legislative maps, unlike MCRC’s, split the city of Gaithersburg. Might that decision be vulnerable to a legal challenge? [David Lublin, The Seventh State] To help pry open the closed shop that is Maryland politics, try open primaries [Colin Alter, same]

• Reminder: Del. Dan Cox’s many baseless election-theft claims include insinuations of “rampant” poll fraud in four GOP-heavy Maryland counties that did not return the sort of margins for Trump he expected a year ago: Frederick, Carroll, Anne Arundel, and Harford. [Brian Griffiths, The Duckpin] Numbers on county shifts here; note that while these four suburban counties all swung hard against Trump (10-13 points), as did more Democratic suburban jurisdictions like Howard (10) and Baltimore County (11), many counties that are partially suburban in character swung a lot too, such as Calvert and Talbot with 11-point swings, Washington 9, Wicomico and St. Mary’s with 8, and Queen Anne’s with 7.

• The redistricting season has now wrapped up with the legislature choosing gerrymanders over our commission’s fair maps for both Congressional and legislative elections. Some clips: Henry Olsen/Washington Post, WTOP, Star-Democrat (Easton). And I’m quoted in this Frederick News-Post piece by Jack Hogan on the implications of the legislative maps for Frederick County.

• Maryland ranks near the cellar in business tax climate and Andrew Macloughlin of the Free State Foundation explains why. [Maryland Reporter]

• Baltimore Magazine cover story on literary Baltimore. And a happy Baltimore hometown story.

In miniature, January 22

• Hey, I’m in the news again on gerrymander reform [WBOC, video of governor’s press conference, more information and portal to apply for citizen seats]
• Comptroller Peter Franchot urges lawmakers to “back off” Kirwan override: “They don’t know where the $4 billion…is going to come from, other than ‘maybe this’ and ‘maybe that.’ ” [Bruce DePuyt, Maryland Matters]  Kirwan bill “is far more about grabbing political power than improving the quality of education.” [Sen. Bob Cassilly, Maryland Matters]
• Maryland bill would enact only-in-the-nation tax on digital advertising. General Assembly should sustain Hogan’s veto of this bad measure [Rebecca Snyder, Matthew McDermott and Lisa Reynolds, Frederick News-Post]
• In fatal no-knock raid shooting of Duncan Lemp, “clouded by the conflicting accounts and the lack of video evidence,” MoCo state’s attorney’s office issues report excusing police from blame [C.J. Ciaramella, Reason]
• Less latitude for bullies to file speech-deterring lawsuits: “Decision breathes some life into Maryland’s weak anti-SLAPP statute” [Paul Alan Levy]
• As if restaurants in Prince George’s County haven’t suffered enough this past year [Baylen Linnekin, Reason on nannyish children’s meal measure]

In search of Kirwan cash, legislature passes nation’s first digital ad tax

It’s of doubtful constitutionality and a practical mess, argue Randolph May and Andrew Long [Free State Foundation] More: Patrick Gleason/Forbes, Eversheds Sutherland podcast.

“Democrats To Propose Sales Tax Expansion To Fund Kirwan”

KIRWAN:

Keep
Increasing
Revenues
Without
Actual
Necessity

Baltimore’s high tax rates

Baltimore is a city with really high tax rates, much higher than those in most of the cities it competes with. “What are city officials doing with all that money?” asks my Cato colleague Chris Edwards. Accompanying graphic:

In miniature, December 21

• MoCo vs. NoVa: “’Our corporate tax rate in Maryland is 8.25%. In Virginia, it’s 6%,’ said Basu. ‘That’s a major factor in these site-location decisions.'” [quoted in Bruce DePuyt, Maryland Matters] Maryland got off lucky in Amazon decision [Eric Stokan and Roy T. Meyers, Len Lazarick, Maryland Reporter, Michael Horney, Free State Foundation and related] “Attract Businesses like Amazon with Lean Government, Not Pork” [Vanessa Brown Calder and Chris Edwards, Crain’s New York/Cato and Chris Edwards on interstate tax migration]
• Poor Baltimore, over-policed and under-policed at once [Scott Beyer, Governing]
• Cash exactions levied on land development should meet constitutional standards whether grounded in official discretion or legislation [Ilya Shapiro and Reilly Stephens on Cato Institute brief in Dabbs v. Anne Arundel County]
• “Manufacturers denounce Baltimore climate lawsuit” [National Association of Manufacturers, background]
• Anne Arundel County man killed by cops showing up to confiscate his guns under Maryland “red flag” law [Baltimore Sun, WBFF]
• “Maryland’s New #MeToo Law May Do Little to Expose Workplace Harassment” [Christopher Humber, National Law Review]

Seat Pleasant tax sits unpleasantly on local business owners

Congratulations! You may not have realized it was happening, but your municipality has put you in a special revitalization zone which means the property taxes you owe them will quintuple. That’s the message some suburban Maryland business owners got recently, subject of my recent Cato piece. Excerpt:

Specialists in local and state government policy are full of ideas for business-by-business and location-by-location tinkering with tax rates, both downward (as part of incentive packages to lure relocating businesses) and upward (to finance special public services provided in some zones, such as downtown revitalization). But there is a distinct value in terms of both public legitimacy and the rule of law in having uniform and consistent taxation that does not depend on whether a property owner or business is on the ins or on the outs with the tax-setting authorities.

[cross-posted from Overlawyered]

In miniature, January 21

• “Another Winner From Tax Reform: State Governments,” including Maryland’s [Eric Boehm, Reason]
• Epic Twitter thread on Maryland’s outlandish gerrymander, marvel at the maps [@EsotericCD]
• “Maryland Is Undergoing Meaningful Regulatory Reform” [Randolph May and Michael Horney, Free State Foundation]
• Neighborhood police checkpoints employed in West Baltimore for several days in November, yet in 2009 DC Circuit, via conservative Judge Sentelle, found them unconstitutional [Colin Campbell and Talia Richman, Baltimore Sun; Elizabeth Janney, Patch; cross-posted from Overlawyered]
• Because $peeding is un$afe: Baltimore to expand red light and speed camera program [Luke Broadwater, Sun]
• Dept. of perfectly terrible ideas: “Should there be rent control near the Purple Line?” [Seventh State]