Maryland State Legislative Committee (SLC)

Bob M Doyle
Federation Legislative Vice-Chair (State)
MARYLAND FEDERATION

Bob Doyle’s testimony before the Judiciary  committee on HB 318


Paul K Schwartz
Federation Legislative Chair (State)
MARYLAND FEDERATION

Paul Schwartz’s testimony before the Ways & means committee on Hb 845


Paul K Schwartz
Federation Legislative Chair (State)
MARYLAND FEDERATION

Paul Schwartz’s testimony before the Budget and Taxation Committee on SB 58.

Paul Schwartz’s testimony before the Budget and Taxation Committee on SB 202.


Below is the 2024 State Legislative Program. You can download the file to print by clicking on the download button at the top or bottom operation bar.
2024 Leg Prog Doc 2023-9-18 - rev

Maryland Needs Tax Reform to Retain Seniors White Paper 2024

2024 Maryland Needs Tax Reform to Retain Seniors

Bob Doyle’s Sharpener Article on Bills SLC Testified this Session

Sharpener Article - March 2023

Paul K Schwartz
Federation Legislative Chair (State)
MARYLAND STATE FEDERATION

Paul Schwartz testimony on HB647, decoupling state and federal tax returns, before House Ways & Means 022323

Paul Schwartz Testimony before: Ways & Means 030223 Income Tax Credit Long-Term Care HB 1185:

Paul Schwartz Testimony before: Budget & Taxation 030923 Retirement Tax Elimination Act of 2023 SB 461:

Paul’s 2023 testimony before the House Health & Government Operations Committee on HB 279 – the Prescription Drug Affordability:

Paul’s 2023 testimony before the House Ways & Means Committee on HB 125 – Income Tax-Subtraction Modification – Retirement Income AND HB 160 – Income Tax – Credit for Long-term Care Premiums these run together back to back:


2022 Maryland General Election Candidate Survey

The MD NARFE Federation State Legislative Committee (SLC) sent a Candidate Questionnaire to all candidates (incumbents, challengers and candidates for open seats) who had an E-Mail address listed on the Maryland State Board of Election website (found at this E-mail address:  https://elections.maryland.gov/elections/2022/general_candidates/index.html

We E-mailed a total of 278 Questionnaires, with 141 sent to incumbents and 137 to challengers and open seat candidates.  We received 44 answers, a return rate of 16%.  There were answers from 19 incumbents and 25 challengers and open seat candidates.

A copy of the Questionnaire can be found attached.  Basically we asked the recipients to answer “Yes” or “No” to three questions, reflective of our top issues:

  • Will you sponsor (or co-sponsor) legislation to permit Maryland taxpayers to itemize deductions whether or not they use the standard deduction on their federal tax returns?
  • Will you sponsor (or co-sponsor) legislation to increase the 2022 retirement income tax credit to more robust amounts and commit to future elimination of all state income tax on retirement income?
  • Will you sponsor (or co-sponsor) legislation to provide a tax credit to persons who purchased underpriced LTC insurance before 2005 to help them retain the insurance, and for younger persons, replace the current $500 one-time tax credit for the original purchase of LTC insurance with a prospective annual $500 tax credit for those who retain their insurance?

Without exception, all candidates who responded answered “Yes” to all three questions.

Also attached is a spreadsheet showing who responded to the Survey.  The spreadsheet is in numerical order by District.  You can go to your District to see who responded or if there was no response by some or all candidates in your District. We received responses from three current members of the House Ways and Means Committee which has jurisdiction over tax issues, but we received no responses from any members of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee.

While you want to vote for a candidate based on the totality of her or his record and views on all important issues, we hope that you will use our Survey results to help identify candidates who support increased tax relief for Maryland seniors as an important incentive to allow seniors to remain in Maryland in their retirement years.

MD NARFE Federation -State Legislative Committee
Paul Schwartz, Chair
Bob Doyle, Vice-Chair
October 19, 2022

2022 Survey Results Final – 101922 Update 2

2022 MD NARFE SLC Candidate Survey Model

2022 MD NARFE SLC Candidate Survey Model

 

Testimony by Paul Schwartz on February 23rd during the Maryland State Senate Budget & Taxation Committee Hearing on the Retirement Tax Elimination Act of 2022 – SB 405 and the Retirement Tax Reduction Act of 2022 – SB 344:


SLC White Paper on Senior Migration/Tax Relief in Maryland

Senior migration + tax reform - 2021-9-30

 

Your Money and Your Maryland taxes

  • Maryland is a high tax state.
  • Nine states have no income tax.
  • Nine other states exempt the total amount of civil service annuities.
  • Five additional states exempt certain Federal civil service annuities from taxation.
  • Seniors receive a relatively minor tax break in Maryland.
  • Recent changes in Federal tax law have made the situation worse.

Learn More

What can you do about this?

PLEASE spread and forward this message to other Maryland seniors and to those who may believe that seniors deserve a better tax deal from Maryland.


Below is the 2020 State Legislative Program pamphlet.  You can download the file to print by clicking on the download button at the top or bottom of the pamphlet page.2020 Legislative Pamphlet


Watch and listen to testimony before Senate Budget&Taxation Committee on SB 906 to allow itemization on state return even if claiming standard on federal return.

Watch and listen to testimony by Ed Bice & Paul Schwartz Before Senate Budget&Taxation Committee on SB 650 to altering a limitation on claiming the income tax credit for eligible long-term care insurance premiums for more than 1 year with respect to the same insured individual; altering the amount of the credit from a one-time $500 credit to a maximum of $250 for a taxable year beginning after December 31, 2019, but before January 1, 2022, and a maximum of $500 for a taxable year beginning after December 31, 2021; and applying the Act to all taxable years beginning after December 31, 2019.


Paul Schwartz’s testimony before House Ways&Means Committee on HB 327 to allow itemization on state return even if claiming standard on federal return.


Your Money and Your Maryland taxes

  • Maryland is a high tax state.
  • Nine states have no income tax.
  • Nine other states exempt the total amount of civil service annuities.
  • Five additional states exempt certain Federal civil service annuities from taxation.
  • Seniors receive a relatively minor tax break in Maryland.
  • Recent changes in Federal tax law have made the situation worse.

Learn More

What can you do about this?

PLEASE spread and forward this message to other Maryland seniors and to those who may believe that seniors deserve a better tax deal from Maryland.


2018 SLC Survey of Candidates — Update

On April 25, 2018, the SLC mailed a survey to all the candidates in the upcoming Maryland primary election for Governor, State Senate and State House of Delegates, who were on the ballot registry of the Maryland Board of Elections. This included all incumbents who had filed for reelection as well as all new candidates for these offices, a total of about 565 candidates. We asked all survey recipients to respond by May 25, 2018 and answer “Yes “ or “No” to three questions regarding whether they would support legislation to:

  1. Permit Maryland taxpayers to itemize deductions on their Maryland tax returns whether or not they use the standard deduction on their Federal tax returns;
  2. Extend the tax exemptions of $15,000 on pensions of military retirees over age 55 and of $5,000 for those below age 55 to the pensions of Federal, State and local public service retirees;
  3. Increase the supplemental tax exemption of $1,000 for elderly taxpayers and their elderly spouses to match the $3,200 exemption that can be claimed for elderly dependents.

We posted on this website several weeks before the June 26 Primary a table with the results of the survey, showing for all candidates their responses to the survey or the fact that they did not bother to respond. Because we had only a 20% response rate for this first survey mailing, in July we sent the survey out again to all winning candidates from the primary who had NOT answered the survey the first time around. Between the two rounds of the survey, we ended up receiving completed surveys from 120 candidates of the total of 336 candidates in this election, a response rate of 35%. With a handful of exceptions, all who responded answered “Yes” to all three questions.

For your review we have attached below the updated table showing survey responses and non-responses. The table shows incumbents in Red, and their party, whether they are on the Committees with jurisdiction over tax legislation (Budget and Taxation in the Senate, and Ways and Means in the House), how they answered the three questions above, and whether the responder included comments with their survey. If a returned survey form included comments, a scanned copy is attached. 


The Maryland Federation of Chapters of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association represents almost 300,000 federal employees and annuitants in Maryland.  While our main efforts focus on our constituents, we support legislation impacting all seniors.  Although currently the Administration has not introduced any legislation to specifically address pension and retirement income tax relief for seniors, the Administration and some Senators and Delegates have introduced bills to address the impact of the Federal tax law changes on all Maryland taxpayers.  This is a summary of the current 2018 General Assembly income tax legislative activity by Richard Strombotne, Treasurer of the NARFE MD Federation. Below are two messages to Chapters about the work of the NARFE MD Federation State Legislation Committee.

Below is the 2019 State Legislative Program pamphlet.  You can download the file to print by clicking on the download button at the bottom of the pamphlet page.2019 Leg Program Pamphlet pks bd 071318

Updated on 1/19/2024