Mayor: Hotel Tax Not Worth Tax Break for Developer

Aberdeen Mayor Michael E. Bennett said Monday that he would prefer to see Harford County go another year without a hotel tax if the only way to get it is to grant a nonprofit retirement community a 15-year tax exemption.

State Del. Mary-Dulany James has introduced a bill that would create a 5 percent hotel room tax in Harford County that Bennett has long sought. But the state measure also stipulates a nonprofit retirement community receive a $600,000 annual tax break.

The mayor and City Council members oppose the bill because they believe the planned retirement community's independent living section should not be exempt from taxes.

The measure probably will not be passed in the House of Delegates before the end of the Maryland General Assembly session in April if the city is opposed, Bennett said.

“Our position is our position,” he said. “I’m personally appalled that we came this close to have the bill hijacked.”

Bennett said he refused to support a bill that would give some seniors who live independently a tax exemption while others struggle.

“This City Council is trying to do the right thing for the right reason,” Bennett said.

James, a Democrat whose district, 34A, includes parts of Harford and Cecil counties, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Under House Bill 584, a portion of the proceeds from the hotel tax would help Aberdeen fund maintenance and repairs at Ripken Stadium. Another part of the hotel tax proceeds would go toward building a county convention center.

The bill would give a 15-year tax exemption from municipal and county property taxes to Presbyterian Home of Maryland, the nonprofit developer of the Village of Carsins Run, a continuing-care retirement community to be built on 138 acres near Ripken Stadium.

James has said she hoped the proposal would draw Aberdeen, Presbyterian Home and Harford County representatives to the bargaining table to hash out final details. But so far that hasn’t happened.

And during Monday’s City Council meeting, Bennett encouraged residents to contact their delegates to voice concerns.

“They do read e-mails,” Bennett said. “They do listen to phone calls.”

Plans for the Village of Carsins Run include a mix of 21 single-family cottages, along with more than 150 apartment units.  Apartment residents would have access to a wellness center, dining and activity space that includes billiards, card tables and a library.

The project itself has drawn little opposition, but many take issue with the tax break.

Craig Gentile, of Edmund Street, commended Bennett and the council for not compromising.

“One does not have anything to do with the other,” Gentile said of the tax exemption being linked to the hotel tax. “We do not work for Annapolis. Annapolis works for us. It’s dirty politics.”

Gentile and others take issue with the development’s price tag that excludes many longtime county residents.

Presbyterian Home CEO Susan Shea has said those who live in the retirement community won’t own the homes and thus should not pay property taxes. The nonprofit would own the real estate.

Instead of buying the houses, Carsins Run residents would pay a minimum $224,000 entrance fee, with a $2,800 minimum monthly payment. Unlike a nursing home, those deposits are returned to heirs when residents die, Shea said.

But Ben Cordle, pastor of Bible Baptist Church on Mitchell Avenue, said typically a church and parsonage could be considered tax-exempt. Additional nonprofit-owned real estate is taxed though, Cordle said.

Harford County would have to distribute half of the total hotel tax revenue collected through a tentative funding agreement that would allocate 70 percent to tourism and promoting Harford County and 30 percent to municipal grants in Harford County.

The other half of the projected annual tax revenues would be allocated as follows:

• $600,000 to Aberdeen to offset the cost of the tax credit for Carsins Run, though the bill doesn’t name the community
• $250,000 to the Ripken Stadium Authority, to offset annual expenses
• $150,000 to a fund for construction of a Harford County Convention Center

In other business, the council:

• Awarded a $10.5 million contract to Howard Robson Inc. of Landisville, PA, to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant located Aberdeen Proving Ground that services the city.
• Granted a final subdivision approval for land owned by Harford Habitat for Humanity Inc. on Baltimore Street.