Solutions

Tax sale is a process where the government will take away your home if you don't pay the property taxes. This is how it works: the government sells the debt (the unpaid property taxes) to a debt buyer. The government is happy because they got their money. The debt buyer then charges ludricous fees to the homeowner. The homeowner must pay or they'll lose their home and they may get a fraction of the equity. The homeowner even has to pay the attorney's fees of the debt buyer who is suing them! The problem is that the rules don't make any sense. Essentially, low-income people end up paying extraordiary amounts in fees and interest, the debt buyers and their lawyers get lots of money and the government was happy to get the money without getting their hands dirty by foreclosing on anyone. This process siphons millions of dollars from low-income, mostly Black Baltimoreans every year. Legal Aid has just paused their lawsuit against the City, but they are focused on stopping people from losing their homes. That's good, but the devil is in the fees. Instead, tax sale could be structured like a mortgage foreclosure. While not perfect, a mortgage foreclosure process is far more equitable.

The Maryland inheritance tax is not a tax on the wealthy. The inheritance tax is only paid by non-wealthy people. There are exemptions if the inheritance is left to siblings, spouse or descendants. So, this is effectively discrimination against those that don't marry and especially those that don't have children. This tax brings in 0.12% of the operating budget. It's also unenforceable in many cases, easy to avoid if you have a trust or a second home. The only rational solution is repeal. That's why almost all states have already repealed theirs.

You can read my op-ed here and my academic paper here.

In Baltimore, we have ground rent on many homes, especially Black and low-income homes. If you don't pay the bill which is usually $50-$200 per year, then you'll lose your house and get none of the equity. Like tax sale, if you're deliquent, you can still save your home by paying ludricous fees, including the attorney's fees for the person suing you! I have a plan to end ground rent. It won't cost the government that much, it's very equitable and very administrable. 

First, the government buys all the ground rent. There are about 100,000 ground rent with an average value around $1,000. So, $100M total. That's about 0.15% of the annual budget and it's a one-time expense.

Second, everyone with ground rent just keeps paying the same amount, except now they pay it to the government as a line item on their property taxes. They pay for about 10-15 years until the government has recouped all the money it spent. And then all ground rent is abolished. 

This is not very expensive, it feels fair because the people that benefit still end up paying for it, the people paying ground rent don't pay anything extra for 10-15 years and then they don't pay ground rent ever again. Importantly, because ground rent is bought all at once, paid through the property tax system and abolished all at once, there is no need to record any deeds, which is a cumbersome process. Any process that requires 100,000 deeds to be recorded is simply not practical.

To believe in democracy, is to believe that everyone's right to vote must be protected, even when we don't like who they vote for, especially when we don't like who they vote for. If we only protect rights when it's good for us, then we don't really believe in democracy, only power. Can we fight for democracy by disenfranchising a third of our population? Can we fight fire with fire to stop our country from burning? 

If you have ever gone to the register of wills after a loved one died, then you know how complicated and convoluted probate law is. In my job, I encounter so many laws that keep my clients from getting what is rightfully theirs. Often, these problems exist because they just hurt low-income people and nobody has bothered to fix them. 

Eliminate the probate fee. Rich people have trusts so they don't pay a probate fee so this is a regressive tax that we don't need.

Eliminate the publication requirement. No matter how low-income you are, you have to pay to have a notice placed in a physical newspaper! The General Assembly voted unanimously to repeal this requirement, but it was vetoed by the governor. If the governor wants to subsidize newspapers, he needs to make that case. Instead, we're forcing residents to subsidize newspapers or they can't get their inheritance.

Eliminate the nominal bond. No matter how low-income you are, you are required to buy a bond as insurance against yourself not paying taxes. Maryland is the only state to have this requirement. If someone doesn't pay a fee, there are already effective enforcement mechanisms. So, this is really just free money for bond companies at the expense of our residents.