Maryland Proposes Increasing the Cost of $#!*

Chesapeake Bay cleanup fee increase proposed

A state task force called Tuesday for tripling the "flush fee" Maryland homeowners pay as a way to help finance an accelerated cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay. The 28-member task force, appointed by Gov. Martin O'Malley to tackle sewage and growth issues, voted overwhelmingly to recommend that the $2.50 monthly bay restoration fee be doubled next year and increased to $7.50 a month by 2015. The fee is levied on water and sewer bills for utility customers, and on property tax bills for homeowners on septic systems.

The added revenues would cover the costs of upgrading the state's largest sewage treatment plants, help homeowners install less-polluting septic systems and assist localities in controlling polluted storm runoff from their streets and parking lots.

The task force also recommended increasing the fee 1 to 3 percent a year in later years to cover inflation, but then rolling it back to $30 a year by 2030 if the state has completed its cleanup responsibilities under the Environmental Protection Agency's bay "pollution diet."

When the flush tax was first imposed in 2004, then Gov. Ehrlich hoped to limit it to one year, and switch to a bill that would not have imposed the fee on septic users:

Gov. Robert Ehrlich had proposed the monthly fee on sewer users to pay the cost of upgrading wastewater treatment plants as the centerpiece of his Bay legislative agenda this year.

But the outcome of the measure looked uncertain for months, as the General Assembly decided that the burden should be spread to the owners of septic systems as well.

While Ehrlich opposes the fee on septic tanks, he said he would sign the bill because “it’s too important to veto.” But the septic fee will not be imposed for more than a year, and the governor said he may try to repeal it at the 2005 legislative session.