Proposed witchcraft legislation can’t be serious

Is this for real, this proposed resolution in Annapolis to exonerate those accused, tried or convicted of witchcraft in Maryland prior to the American Revolution (“FOX45: Maryland General Assembly witchcraft resolution raises questions about lawmakers’ priorities,” Jan. 12)? I thought for a moment that I accidentally had turned to the comic section by mistake! Is this some kind of stall tactic for other legislation?

I can’t believe that with so many pressing issues — like the $3 billion state deficit facing our legislators — that something like this would even make it to the floor of the Maryland General Assembly. This is focusing on an apology to individuals who lived around 350 years ago.

I thought our elected officials were tasked with focusing on the future, not going back hundreds of years attempting to address problems that are already history. So sad.

— Ray Johnston, Millersville

Maryland should quit sending money to Israel

Thank you for the recent articles describing the financial hole that Maryland is in (“Moore’s budget: Tax overhaul includes cuts and increases for Marylanders,” Jan. 15). The Maryland General Assembly will have a difficult time this year figuring out how to deal with this deficit. I have one suggestion: Maryland should stop sending $300,000 to Israel through the Maryland Israel Development Center (MIDC) which serves as the broker to bring Israeli companies into Maryland.

The state of Maryland provides the MIDC with grants and special privileges but it isn’t at all clear how the citizens of Maryland benefit.

In 2024, the U.S. gave $17.9 billion in foreign assistance to Israel, so why does Maryland have to send Israel additional money? I urge Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Adrienne Jones to take the lead in cancelling this annual grant and I urge Gov. Wes Moore to support their actions.

— Jeannie Athey, Baltimore

The writer is vice chair of Maryland Peace Action.

Baltimore must lower its property tax rate

As leaders of Renew Baltimore, which collected more than 23,000 signatures in an effort to empower city voters to cap and lower Baltimore’s property tax rate by voter referendum in 2024, we found two recent articles in The Baltimore Sun notable. The first was the Baltimore Sun’s Editorial Board support for lowering the city’s property tax rate (“Baltimore’s golden growth opportunity,” Jan. 2). The other concerned how the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation recently increased assessments in Baltimore by more than 21% for residential properties (“Home tax bills to rise in Maryland, as residential and commercial property values climb 20%,” Dec. 30).

We note that this recent property tax assessment increase follows property tax assessment increases of about 20% for each of the prior two years for other properties in Baltimore. These assessment increases will put an additional financial burden on city residents (homeowners and renters) and businesses. Based on these assessment increases, it is a mathematical fact that Baltimore could lower its property tax rate and collect the same amount of tax revenue as the prior year.

In fact, this lower rate is printed on each property tax bill and is called the “constant yield” rate. The “difference” indicated next to the constant yield rate on the property tax bill is how much Baltimore could have lowered the property tax rate while still collecting the same amount of property tax revenue as the prior year. In the current fiscal year, Baltimore could have lowered the property tax rate by 9.1 cents and collected the same property tax revenue it did the prior fiscal year.

Furthermore, Baltimore could lower its property tax rate by about 24 cents and collect the same amount of property tax revenue as a few years ago! Additionally, if the city’s leadership decides to seriously consider reductions of in the property tax rate as a way to improve the future of our city, unbiased dynamic modeling can be used to forecast overall tax revenues in future years.

As longtime city residents, we believe that Baltimore needs to lower its property tax rate in order to encourage more people and businesses to stay here and move here. Sadly, the population-loss trend that Baltimore is experiencing does not indicate a bright future for our city.

— Matt Wyskiel, Ben Frederick and David Tufaro, Baltimore