Tonight, May 14, the Charles County commissioners will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. to increase real property taxes. The commissioners are proposing to maintain the current property tax rate of $1.026 per $100 of assessed property value.
With the increases in the assessed value of real property, the county estimates that property tax revenues will increase by 9 percent if the current property tax rate remains the same. What this means in plain English is that the county commissioners want to increase the amount of property taxes you will pay in fiscal 2009 another 9 percent.
It was a warm spring evening and I had been invited to a baseball game in Southern Maryland by a bank that I do business with.
Working all the time, my wife and I took this as an opportunity to actually enjoy ourselves. As we were on our way to the game we noticed numerous signs going through Hughesville reading ‘‘Preserve Hughesville: Revitalize Not Rezone.” As we traversed down the highway we noticed all the capital improvements being done to Piney Church Road and Billingsley Road to accommodate the new stadium facility.
With the regional economy hitting a slump and tax revenues heading south, all eyes in La Plata have begun focusing on a single number on the Charles County commissioners’ balance sheet — $54.7 million.
That’s how much money the county will have in its piggy bank once it covers the yawning $18.6 million hole in the current fiscal year 2008 budget.
Tonight, Charles County’s teachers, school board supporters, real estate agents and citizens will get a chance to tell the commissioners how they want to spend that fat, but rapidly dwindling, fund balance.
After being dismissed from his position as president and CEO of the Charles County Chamber of Commerce last month, Daniel J. Barufaldi Jr. fired back at his former employers last week.
[...]
According to the letter and a Thursday interview with the former president, Barufaldi denied that he resigned his position at the chamber. He indicated that he was pushed out by the executive board in an effort led by Heier and former director Gore Bolton, who he also named in the letter.
Lanham home builder Derek A. McDaniels could lose his license after defaulting on numerous contracts and racking up a wealth of complaints from consumers and vendors in Prince George’s and Charles counties.
Governor Martin O’Malley today joined Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., House Speaker Michael E. Busch, and Lieutenant Governor Anthony G. Brown, to sign legislation to improve public safety in every region of our State.
Note Number 7: BRIEFING
A. WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
....Meetings Video (streaming): Tuesday, May 6, 2007
Is Alexandria government talking out of both sides of its official mouth when it comes to seeking public involvement in the granting of permits? That was one of the questions put to the Alexandria Planning Commission Tuesday night during a public hearing on reducing the Special Use Permit (SUP) process.
[...]
“It seems to me to be contradictory for the City to insist on citizen input in the Mirant case and then take this stand on our on SUP process. The remedy proposed by staff for the SUP process prevents citizen input as compared to the reaction of the Air Board situation,” he said.
The promise of environmentally friendly housing is what Beazer Homes hopes will allow for 2,300 houses on Glade Valley Farms.
Beazer Homes’ contract to buy Glade Valley Farms hinges on the City of Frederick’s annexation of the farm’s 890 acres and a 125-acre farm on Glade Valley’s western boundary.
State Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, who has been a dominant fixture in Maryland politics for four decades, strongly indicated yesterday that he plans to run for re-election in two years.
[...]
Sen. Thomas M. Middleton, a Charles County Democrat who has indicated he would run for Senate president if Miller retires, said yesterday that Miller’s leadership skills have helped him steer a chamber that, while dominated by Democrats, is fractured at times by conflicts between moderates and liberals and which has significant African-American and Republican caucuses.
At the Air Force Student Detachment barracks at Fort Meade, almost every room contains mold. Water drips from leaky pipes into buckets on the floor. Shower water seeps down a hallway wall.
Forty-seven airmen live in these half-century-old barracks, among the worst on the Army installation in western Anne Arundel County.
[...]
“We bought this property 11 years ago and took our time and turned it into a beautiful home,” Licurgo said. She indicated that they have been in the Bed and Breakfast business for only a couple of years, but that, with the exception of this past winter, they have been booked since opening.
Licurgo lamented that since February they have had no bookings. “We talked with other Bed and Breakfast people in the area and they are having the same problem.” She stated that the only thing they can imagine is that with the price of gas people are just not traveling as far from home.
Congressional Democratic leaders have reached agreement on a $3 trillion budget blueprint that would authorize a small increase for domestic priorities and spare millions of households from an unpopular tax. But it postpones most major budget decisions until after this fall’s presidential election.
Nearly seven in 10 Americans are worried about maintaining their standard of living, as concern has spiked higher in just the past five months, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Soaring consumer prices are a major challenge, with many people struggling under the weight of the rising costs of fuel, food and health care.
Under a canopy of blue, laser-generated light, thousands of people wearing black-wrapped badges raised lighted candles in Judiciary Square at sunset to honor fallen colleagues.
As darkness fell, the candlelight and laser beams illuminated the area around the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, which recently added 358 names to its smooth gray marble panels.

