Residents Committee on Tax and Services Duplication Issues TASDI

1
Residents Committee on Tax and Services
Duplication Issues (TASDI)

• Final Report
• April 25, 2005

2
City Councils Mandate to TASDI

• Assess City/County duplicate services/costs
• Report findings and recommendations
• Assist planning for City survey of residents
• Promote greater public understanding of tax and
  service issues
• City Council Res. 2004-50 (Oct. 11, 2004)

3
TASDI Overview of Activity

• 21 members, representative of all wards
• Held 13 public meetings (Nov. 04 April 05)
• Organized into Work Groups
• Education Information
• Service Analysis
• Tax/Income Stream Analysis
• Public Education
• Public information efforts (media, website)
• Research/dialogue City and County staff

4
Double Taxation

• Exists when
• County provides service
• City provides same service
• Triggers need for County reimbursement
• Rebate, or
• Tax differential

5
Montgomery County Rebates to Takoma Park

• FY05 County rebates 3.1 Million
• Police ( 2.56 M)
• Road maintenance ( 0.34 M)
• Crossing guards ( 0.12 M)
• Park maintenance ( 0.07 M)
• But no rebate for
• Housing and economic development
• Recreation
• Library

6
TASDI Findings on County Rebates

• Significantly less than Citys costs
• Rebate underpayment 4.7 M
• Far less than Countys real costs
• Rebate underpayment 1.0 M
• More accurate rebates
• No less than 4.1 M (county cost method)
• As much as 7.8 M (city expense method)

7
TASDI Recommendations Rebates

• City should negotiate more accurate rebates
• Improve County rebate formulas to account for
• Administrative costs
• Capital costs
• Provide judicial review or arbitration to
  challenge County rebate determinations

8
TASDI Recommendations

• Police
• Public Works
• Recreation
• Housing Community Development
• Library
• Other Revenues

9
TASDI Recommendations Police

• Seek higher rebate for all police costs
• Investigate shared patrol with County
• Investigate transfer of communications and
  dispatch to County
• Investigate transfer of criminal investigation
  responsibility to County

10
TASDI Recommendations Public Works

• Seek higher rebate for all road and park
  maintenance costs
• Seek County estimate for Citys contracting out
  of road maintenance to County
• Seek audit of County expenditures supported by
  property taxes, especially roads and parks
• Renegotiate 1988 rebate formula for park
  maintenance

11
TASDI RecommendationsRecreation and Parks

• Seek Takoma Parks opt out of the Countys
  recreation tax
• Negotiate a County payment to offset the Citys
  delivery of recreation programs to underserved
  down-county residents

12
TASDI RecommendationsHousing and Community
Development

• Request a rebate equal to amount the County saves
  by not providing
• Code enforcement
• Landlord-tenant services
• Other housing services
• Identify additional housing services that can be
  contracted for third-party administration

13
TASDI Recommendations Library

• Explore transformation of the library from a
  generalized to a more specialized collection
• Launch a fundraising initiative (including
  grants) in cooperation with Friends of the
  Library and other supporters

14
TASDI Recommendations Other Revenues

• Revise 17 passback of income taxes
• Extend revenue sharing to other County taxes
• Payments in lieu of taxes from large nonprofits
  in City (WAH, CUC)
• Payments for services to county institutions
  inside City (MCPS, MC)
• Assure fair share of intergovernmental grants

15
Potential Follow-up

• Present the report to county and state officials
• Use findings to help shape resident survey
• Explain the report and its implications to
  neighborhood associations and civic groups
• Write a series of articles for the City
  Newsletter on taxes and services