Opinion: Montgomery County’s rain-tax collectors would rather litigate than clean up the Chesapeake Bay

While the issue in this opinion piece does not directly impact schools, it's a good example of the extent to which the county will use taxpayer money to endlessly fight good residents and business owners who have received favorable court outcomes.  The author is Devin Battley, president of the business owners' association for the properties adjacent to Airpark in Gaithersburg.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/02/montgomery-countys-rain-tax-collectors-would-rather-litigate-than-clean-up-chesapeake-bay/

Excerpt:  

Tax-happy Montgomery County, through directives from the state and the federal government, is attempting to prevent the pollution of the Chesapeake Bay. One way of doing this, made optional for the counties per Gov. Larry Hogan (R), is through Montgomery County’s Water Quality Protection Charge (WQPC), collected on owners’ property tax bills.

Critics refer to the WQPC as the “rain tax.” The county taxes residential, institutional (churches and nonprofits) and commercial property owners based on the amount of impervious surface these owners have on their properties. These surfaces are used as a proxy for the properties’ potential to contribute to storm-water runoff that may end up in the bay. Montgomery County has offered an incentive to property owners to assist the county in its cleanup efforts with the promise of WQPC credits if they take certain measures to treat their own storm water.

The 32 property owners in Gaithersburg’s Lindbergh Park commercial development did just that.

The Lindbergh Park development was designed so that all of its storm water would drain into one of three storm-water ponds in the development. The Lindbergh Park property owners paid for the construction of the ponds and the infrastructure that channels the water to the ponds. They collectively pay for the ponds’ maintenance.

Property owners must apply online for WQPC credits to the county’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Credits are given to commercial, institutional and residential property owners for measures that reduce, collect and treat storm-water runoff, such as rain gardens, ponds, swales and rain barrels.

Though the Lindbergh Park owners collect and treat their own storm water, the county denied credits to 28 of the 32 Lindbergh Park property owners. The owners appealed the denials, beginning in 2016, when the Montgomery County Board of Appeals approved the DEP’s denial of WQPC credits.