Why did the State Delegation Withdraw the Senior Tax Credit Bill?

If the State Delegation wants to help Howard County’s senior citizens, why did it withdraw the bill to provide senior tax credit?

During the last work session on impact fees, the State Delegation spent an inordinate amount of time discussing affordable housing. In addition to exempting 10,000 to 12,000 homes from the impact fees thru an obscure term called “technically complete”, it wants to exempt affordable housing as well as senior housing.

There are several problems and one major contradiction.

Contradiction: the State Delegation cancelled a bill that was initially proposed to provide senior citizens tax credits to stay in their existing homes. An overwhelming number of older adults in Howard County want to stay in their homes rather than move to “senior housing”. If it really cared about helping older adults why does it not pass the Senior Tax Credit bill?

Problem 1: What exactly is affordable housing? Not a single Delegate defined it simply repeating the term affordable housing and the need to provide them.

Problem 2: Many 55+ community homes are McMansions. They are expensive and are not exactly affordable. Yet, the delegation wants to exempt them?

Problem 3: The role of providing affordable housing and any zoning laws are in the preview of local government. Why does the State Delegation want to function as the defacto County Council?

The hand-wrangling by the many on the State Delegation is troubling. No focus is given to the topic of impact fees. The work sessions demonstrate clearly many on the delegation are not interested in holding developers accountable.