Letter to the Editor-Keep Marylanders in Maryland!
I received a call from a Dundalk resident who feared the implications of his property tax bill. He is retired and on a fixed income that forces him to choose which bills to pay and which necessities to cut. He had a budget of approximately $300 a month for groceries.
He needed a way to account for his property tax bill, which he didn’t have the money for. His home is paid off but he is in jeopardy of losing it due to Maryland’s high cost of living, taxes and the incessant deterioration of his fixed income due to inflation. His monthly tax bill would ironically be more than he paid for his mortgage.
No one should be forced to leave the place they call home, but for an increasing number of Maryland seniors, leaving our state is their only alternative to remaining in a place where they cannot afford to live. Maryland has a high cost of living, and for senior citizens who live on fixed incomes, this cost is devastating. Every year, tens of thousands of seniors leave Maryland for more senior-friendly states, and they take their important contributions to our economy with them.
According to the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, which represents hundreds of thousands of retirees and employees in Maryland, an average of over twenty thousand Maryland retirees leave Maryland per year.
Tax policy expresses the values of our elected officials. Our retirees live at the most vulnerable time of their lives. To me, it is heartless that we tax their income, which never meets their needs. We grant tax breaks to illegal immigrants who work in our state but are here in violation of federal immigration laws. If we can offer them a tax break, why can’t we do the same for those who were born here and spent their entire lives in our state?
During its next session, I will once again, along with the Maryland Freedom Caucus, be sponsoring legislation to repeal the taxation of retirement income so that we can keep Marylanders in Maryland. Let us keep our retirees near their families, where they grew up, in the communities they love. Our legislature needs to take action to solve the affordability problem for retirees. We can do so by passing legislation to repeal all taxation on retirement income, joining the almost two dozen other states that have already implemented such a policy. Let us keep Marylanders in Maryland!
Delegate Robin Grammer
Grammer is a Baltimore County Republican representing District 6 in the House of Delegates