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Increase to Non Resident Withholding Rate on Property Sales

By: Mike Kennedy
June 1st, 2012
Category: Deep Creek Lake Real Estate, Garrett County Real Estate

Effective June 1st the withholding rate for non-Maryland residents who sell property in the state of Maryland is increasing 0.25% to 7.00%. This withholding does not apply to Maryland residents.

Garrett County has numerous property owners who aren’t full time residents of Maryland that own vacation homes and real estate on or around Deep Creek Lake. Some owners are full time residents from northern Virginia, Washington D.C, and Pennsylvania that will be affected by this law change.

It’s important to note this is not a new tax. It’s simply a withholding. The withholding is calculated as follows at settlement;

The net amount of the purchase price of the house being sold less closing costs less any mortgage balance x 7%.

More here.

Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!

877-563-5350 – toll free — 

 Search Homes & Lots for Sale at Deep Creek Lake & Garrett County, Maryland
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Md. Mortgage Program Unveils Special Home Buying Incentives For Garrett Co.

May. 31, 2012

Maryland Mortgage Program officials announced this morning that they are offering a reduced interest rate of 2.875% (APR 3.675%) in a few “targeted” areas around the state, including all of Garrett and Allegany counties.

The promotion, which commemorates June’s National Homeownership Month, was announced by Maryland Housing Secretary Raymond A. Skinner at a home for sale in the Barclay-Old Goucher community of Baltimore City, which is also considered a targeted area.

Other eligible areas include Dorchester, Kent, and Somerset counties.

“Homeownership is an important goal for many families and young professionals and we want to help them achieve this dream,” said Skinner. “We recognize that Maryland has a top notch workforce and we are offering this attractive low interest rate as a strong incentive to these talented individuals and families to buy homes and invest within Baltimore City and other targeted areas around the state.”


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The reduced rate will be offered to all qualified buyers in the target areas for approximately three months, or until the entire $30 million earmarked for this incentive is committed.

In addition to this reduced rate, buyers may qualify for other Maryland Mortgage Program benefits, including help with down payments and closing costs.

Program officials stressed that Garrett County residents do not have to be first-time homebuyers in order to take advantage of the low rate, as purchasers in targeted areas are eligible for a one-time exemption to the program’s first-time homebuyer requirement.

This special promotion also includes incentives for eligible buyers of any foreclosed or short sale property (collectively referred to as the Save-a-Home Loan Progam) in a non-targeted area. The interest rate for this program will be ¾% below the regular Maryland Mortgage Program, with a floor of 3.25% (APR 4.082%) and will only be available for the month of June.

For more information about the Maryland Mortgage Program – especially details on income eligibility, purchase price limits, and the low rate – persons may call the DHCD hot line at 800-638-7781 or visit mmprogram.org, which lists private lending institutions and financial counseling agencies in their areas that can help them become homebuyers.

For a map and more information on targeted areas, one may visit www.mmprogram.org/TargetedAreas.aspx.

More here.

Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!

877-563-5350 – toll free

More Maryland families than ever require government aid

More than 700,000 get food help, the most in state history

Capital News Service

— COLLEGE PARK — The number of Maryland families who need government help to make ends meet has reached record levels.

More than 700,000 people receive food assistance, the most in state history. A record 70,000 people depend on emergency cash assistance. And the demand for the state’s child care subsidy program has caused officials to impose an indefinite freeze on new applicants.

Yet state and federal officials are budgeting less money for the safety net in the coming fiscal year. The move reflects the government’s confidence in the economic recovery.

Others question whether it is overly optimistic to cut back at a time when the state’s assistance programs are still swollen with unprecedented numbers.

“It took from January 2008 to February 2012 to double the number of people enrolled in the Food Supplement Program,” said Neil Bergsman, director of the Maryland Budget & Tax Policy Institute, a nonpartisan budget analysis organization. “It’s not going to go down all that way in one year.”

Bergsman questioned whether the department is projecting positive estimates to balance the state budget — a constitutional requirement. The state faces a $1.1 billion deficit that legislators hope to eliminate over the next two years.

“We think that our budget is accurate,” said Pat Hines, the director of communication for the Maryland Department of Human Resources. “And we’re optimistic about the direction of the economy and of our numbers.”

However, a report by the Department of Legislative Services Office of Policy Analysis suggested that services to families could be affected, since funding meant for struggling families would have to be spent on paying down the shortfall. If not, “the negative balance will just move from year to year,” the report said.

Demand has been so high that the Department of Human Resources was forced to request an additional $30 million in state funding in fiscal 2012.

The shortfall occurred even though federal funding has doubled to nearly $2 billion each year since before the recession.

The figures do not include the thousands of households who depend on food banks and charities because their income is too high for public assistance. To qualify, a family usually has to make no more than twice the Federal Poverty Level, or $40,000 for a family of three.

Nor do the figures include the families who simply aren’t aware they qualify for assistance. Cash assistance is one of the largest programs threatened by increases in demand.

While programs such as food assistance receive necessary funding no matter what, the state has to cover the remaining costs in the cash assistance program when demand exceeds the funding.

Families that qualify are limited to a total of five years — 60 payments — and also are required to participate in work programs. Today, about 70,000 Marylanders are enrolled in the program — a 40 percent increase from 2008 and an all-time high for the state.

”We really did see a pretty significant pop in enrollment,” said Vince Kilduff, deputy executive director in the Department of Human Resources Office of Programs.

Yet those enrolled in the program represent just a third of those who applied for help. Most of those denied either didn’t qualify or didn’t follow through after applying, Hines said.

One statistic working in the department’s favor is that nearly twice as many people are leaving the program as are signing up for it.

At the current rate, officials are predicting the federal grant alone will cover next year’s demand and this year’s deficit.

Bergsman, who worked in the Department of Budget and Management between 1988 and 2004, said the numbers may still be too optimistic.

“When I was in the budget office, there was a great temptation to use favorable assumptions for spending estimates so that we would not have to cut other stuff as much, and I don’t imagine that it’s any different today,” Bergsman said. “So you can have an estimate that is in the reasonable range, but you can pick the lower end of that range.”

More here.

Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!

877-563-5350 – toll free
Search real estate for sale at Deep Creek Lake & Garrett County

House approves $35.8 billion budget and pension shift

March 23, 2012

By Justin Snow
Justin@MarylandReporter.com

The House of Delegates approved their version of the state’s $35.8 billion budget Friday, moving the process into its final stage to resolve differences with the Senate.

The budget bill was approved 95-43, but not before Republican lawmakers attempted one last time to derail its passage. They described the budget, which would increase state spending by $1 billion for the 5th year in a row, as fiscally irresponsible and destructive. The Democratic chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Norman Conway, had repeatedly called it “fiscally prudent and socially responsible.”

Republicans argued that casting a red vote would be an opportunity to send the budget bill back to committee in order to address their concerns. During the previous day’s 11-hour session, every Republican amendment had been rejected.

Read more: http://marylandreporter.com/2012/03/23/house-approves-35-8-billion-budget-and-pension-shift/#ixzz1qKNiYrUR
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!

877-563-5350 – toll free

Study: Natural gas could mean big bucks for state

Friday, March 02, 2012

Study: Natural gas could mean big bucks for state
Evaluation of potential health impact still on table
by Margie Hyslop, Staff Writer

Maryland would reap about $441 million over 30 years in severance taxes if natural gas is extracted from the Marcellus shale formation under the state’s two westernmost counties, according to a study released Thursday by the Maryland Petroleum Council.

“It should be noted that our estimates are pretty conservative,” said Anirban Basu, an economist whose Sage Policy Group conducted the study.

That estimate — which includes about $214 million in revenue for the state, $162 million for Garrett County and $65 million for Allegany County — assumes that Maryland approves drilling and that the industry decides it is worth tapping about 710.1 billion cubic feet of reserves estimated to be available thousands of feet below the two counties.

Depending on whether low or high production is allowed, the state and two counties stand to gain $242.1 million to $642 million from severance taxes. The taxes are based on a 2 percent state levy and a 5.5 percent local levy.

More here.

Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!

877-563-5350 – toll free

Shale gas in Maryland impacts two counties enormously: study

Washington (Platts)–1Mar2012/506 pm EST/2206 GMT

An industry-funded study of the economic impact of drilling for shale gas in Maryland’s westernmost two counties found that production would create 1,814 permanent jobs by 2025 and contribute $441 million in tax revenues to the state and Garrett and Allegany counties.

“The fiscal impact will be enormous, particularly at the county level,” Sage Policy Group CEO Anirban Basu said in a conference call Thursday.

Garrett and Allegany counties collect 5.5% severance taxes on gas production. Basu estimated that the state of Maryland would enact a 2% severance tax.

More here.

Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!

877-563-5350 – toll free

Industry study says Maryland could be home to 365 natural gas wells, employ more than 1,800

ALEX DOMINGUEZ Associated Press
First Posted: March 01, 2012 – 4:45 pm
Last Updated: March 01, 2012 – 4:46 pm

BALTIMORE — Western Maryland could be home to 365 natural gas wells that employ more than 1,800 people, according to a study an industry group released Thursday.

The study released by the Maryland Petroleum Council estimates the wells would produce gas for 30 years, and more than $200 million in revenue for the state, about $160 million for Garrett County and $65 million for Allegany County over that period.

“The fiscal impact from this will be simply enormous, particularly at the local government level,” said Anirban Basu, chairman and CEO of the Sage Policy Group, a Baltimore economic and policy consulting firm that prepared the study.

However, Basu noted the figures were estimates based on gas prices that can vary. Drilling is also expected to create a wide variety of jobs, noting about 420 people in 150 occupations are needed to bring a single well online.

More here.

Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!

877-563-5350 – toll free

Across Maryland, bare-bones household budgets soar above salaries

Written by
CAITLIN JOHNSTON and CARL STRAUMSHEIM
CNS Special Report

COLLEGE PARK — A Montgomery County family of three — an adult, a preschooler and a school-age child — needs about $78,000 just to make ends meet, a new report shows. And, without government assistance, minimum wage barely gets them a quarter of the way there.

The 2012 Self-Sufficiency Standard calculates the cost of living for Maryland families by looking at the price of such necessities as housing, food, transportation and child care. The report, prepared for the Maryland Community Action Partnership, found that median wages in Maryland have failed to keep up with the increasing costs of basic needs.

While those costs increased statewide by 54 percent since 2001, median earnings failed to rise accordingly, increasing only 25 percent.

The result: a real cost squeeze, said Dr. Diana Pearce, director of the Center for Women’s Welfare at the University of Washington School of Social Work, who conducted the study.

“People are working just as hard and more efficiently and more productively, but it’s not showing up in wages,” Pearce said. “And their costs are going up.”

More here.

Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!

877-563-5350 – toll free

Median wages in Md. fail to keep up with cost of basic needs, report says

By Caitlin Johnston and Carl Straumsheim, Special to The Baltimore Sun

February 23, 2012

A family of three in Baltimore County needs about $62,000 just to make ends meet, a new report shows. And, without government assistance, minimum wage barely gets them a quarter of the way there.

In Baltimore City, that same family of an adult with a preschooler and a school-age child needs nearly $50,000, the report said, for a bare-bones budget.

The 2012 Self-Sufficiency Standard, scheduled to be released in Annapolis on Thursday morning, calculates the cost of living for Maryland families based on prices of such necessities as housing, food, transportation and child care. The report, prepared for the Maryland Community Action Partnership, found that median wages in Maryland — which have risen about 25 percent since 2001 — have failed to keep up with the increasing costs of basic needs, which are up statewide about 54 percent.

More here.

Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!

877-563-5350 – toll free

Maryland state offices going off the bottle

Cost savings, environment prompt government move to tap water

By Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun

7:37 p.m. EDT, September 30, 2011
The O’Malley administration has decided to stop buying bottled water for state facilities where tap water is available, saying it’s striking a blow for frugality and the environment at the same time.

The state’s “Green Purchasing Committee,” formed last year to steer the government toward buying more healthful and environmentally friendly goods and services, voted Thursday to phase out the use of bottled water in state offices and other facilities, officials said.

The move was hailed by environmentalists, who said Maryland’s was the sixth state government to “kick the bottle,” as they put it, joining Connecticut, Vermont, New York, Colorado and Illinois.

“During these tough economic times our government should be spending scarce public dollars on projects that provide vital public services and grow the economy at large, not just the coffers for a handful of private corporations,” Kristin Urquiza of Corporate Accountability International, said in a statement announcing Maryland’s action.

More here.
Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!

877-563-5350 – toll free