Below is the audio of Senator Pipkin presenting Maryland Senate Bill 730. Click here to listen for yourself. Pipken points out the reasons for presenting this bill. The audio also includes testimony by Chris Zeauskas, candidate for County Commissioner advocating in favor of the bill.

Prohibiting the County Commissioners of Cecil County from setting a county property tax rate that exceeds the constant yield tax rate, excluding revenue from real property appearing for the 1st time on the assessment roll; and applying the Act to tax years beginning after June 30, 2010.

If you listen to around 11 minutes, and 30 seconds, you’ll hear County Commissioner Robert Hodge express strong opposition to this bill in his own words. You’ll also hear him say he “doesn’t want his hands tied” when it comes to being able to raise property taxes. He said it–listen to his words for yourself.  He did get one thing right: he IS “going to be held accountable by the voters and citizens of Cecil County.” I’m looking forward to that day.

Hodge makes the argument that “the citizens of Cecil County should be deciding what their tax rate is by selecting the representatives for their own county.” This would work if HE, Robert Hodge, had kept his own campaign promise of NOT raising taxes. So, to Mr. Hodge, I have this to say: we have a right to recourse when the elected officials we vote for fail to keep their promises. That is why this bill was introduced. It’s up to the voters to decide if this is how they want to correct for Mr. Hodge’s failed campaign promises. Robert Hodge said, “If we don’t do a good job, we’re out of there.” Hold him to it!

Pamela Howard also gives testimony against the bill. 61% from property taxes. 30% from income taxes.  Howard claims that, “It’s very easy to talk about cutting expenditures, but it is so hard to do.” Yet, here at CecilCountySpending.com, we’ve seen how it IS possible. But of course, for someone who publicly admits that she can’t do arithmetic in her head to figure out what percent 2.5 million is of 164.9 million budget (even though she is an accountant), I would suppose figuring out where to cut spending WOULD be difficult.

I won’t document out the rest of the audio — listen to it for yourself in the link above.  Feel free to leave your comments or reactions.