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Flush tax begins in October for Garrett septic tank users

By Jennifer Raley, Times-News Staff Writer
Sunday, August 28, 2005 10:45 AM EDT
MCHENRY - In October, Garrett County residents with septic tanks will begin to see $30 flush tax bills appear in their mailboxes.

"Our main goal is to identify the people on septic systems and get the bills out," said Wendy Yoder, director of the Garrett County Department of Financial Services.

The county is using state real estate tax records and records from the county assessment office to determine which residents have septic tanks, said Yoder. Residents on public sewer and water systems began being billed for the flush tax in January; a $7.50 fee appears on each quarterly bill.

The majority of the county's residents are on septic systems, said Yoder. Mary Disimone of the Garrett County Department of Public Utilities only sends public sewer and water bills to approximately 5,000 customers.

The flush tax bills will be sent from the Department of Public Utilities and residents will have at least 30 days to pay their bills, said Disimone.
Hardship exemptions from the bill will be considered by the county; the county's plan for hardship exemptions is in the process of being reviewed by the Maryland Department of the Environment, said Yoder.

Owners of trailer parks and multiuse facilities, such as apartment buildings, will receive one bill for all the households on their properties. If 10 trailers are in a trailer park, the owner of the property would receive a bill for $300.

Each Maryland county is responsible for collecting the state flush tax. Allegany County plans to implement a similar system to identify and bill septic system users.

The flush tax is a result of the Bay Restoration Fund signed by Gov. Robert Ehrlich in May 2004. All revenue generated by the tax will be used to upgrade wastewater treatment plants to meet new standards, which will prevent nutrients from being discharged into the Chesapeake Bay.

Throughout the state, 66 treatment plants will receive funding from the flush tax; however, Garrett County is not home to any of those treatment plants.
In Garrett County, about one-third of the land drains into the Chesapeake Bay, said Jim Torrington of the Garrett County Department of Planning and Land Development. Areas in the northern and eastern ends of the county comprise the majority of the land that drains into the bay; Potomac and Savage Rivers flow into the bay, said Torrington.

"We would hope that all Marylanders understand the importance of the Chesapeake Bay," said Rich McIntire, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment.

When the improvements to the established 66 treatment plants have been made, any additional money can be spent on wastewater improvements in coastal and nonbasin drainage areas, said McIntire. In addition, each year, $5 million of the fund will be designated to sewer system improvements, which are available to all jurisdictions, said McIntire.

For more information about the Bay Restoration Fund, log onto http://www.mde.state.md.us.

Jennifer Raley can be reached at [email protected].

wow, stupid people are everywhere!

this is the government in my area that came up with this. you know it's bad when they charge you $30 to use the bathroom in your own house

there've been bizarre taxes before. in the 18th Century there was a windows tax, where households were charged for the number ofgalzed windows they had (because if you could afford glass, you were well off) Unsurprisingly people just bricked their windows up. you can still see many Georgian houses of the priod around Britain with blind windows, as a direct result of this.

there've been taxes on sugar, salt, shoes, sealing wax (oh yes, taxed until this century if you will) taxes on book bindings and paper, ink, dogs, all sorts of starnge things. One of the reasons for our Civil War in the 17th century was the heavy taxation imposed by King Charles I for his foreign military adventures.

Yes, Taw, taxes are a pain. Seems as though we fought a bloody war to get away from taxes on tea and paper only to impose taxes on flushing our toilets.

And I thought sceptic tanks were so that people didn't need/weren't connected up to the sewerage system - therefore removing any service rendered.
My Grandparents have a sceptic tank - and when it gets full, it gets pumped all over their fields as fertiliser afaik. Then again, they also don't have water like most places - they have a series of natural springs which supply them with gorgeous water (untreated, straight from the springs) - which is fantastic, and free of chlorine and chemicals.

Still annoys me that we have our water rates over here though, which not only consists of water supplied, and sewage removed (fair enough) - but the rather strange "Water run off"........or something like that.

Essentially we get charged for rainwater that lands on your property to be taken away by the drains of the water company.

I wonder if we ever start using solar cells/wind power more - that we will get charged for the wind blowing over your property, or the sunlight falling upon it instead. If the water company didn't collect the run off - it would simply soak back into the same water table that they desperately need to provide water in the first place!




Edited by - Chips on 8/29/2005 11:39:34 PM

the vicarage up the road from me has a couple of bricked in windows

oooh dont get me started on water companies....

you have to pay water rates (a tax) even if you collect rainwater yourself, supply it only to yourself and it never touches the main water distribution system. even water that falls from the sky is in the fief of the water companies.

but if I make my own electricity, i can't be charged by the electric companies for that. something wrong with this picture? inconsistency..

and every year, without fail, whenever there's more than a week of sunshine, what do we get? a hosepipe ban, cos of a supposed drought. no it's because the water companies rob us blind and won't repair the antiquated Victorian mains, it costs too much apparently, and the water just leaks everywhere so when there's even a small increase in demand, they can't supply it. and if you miss a single payment they will take you to court.

its outrageous. privatisation of public utilities was an unmitigated disaster for the UK.

I dont object to paying tax (well natuarlly if i didn't pay any i wouldnt complain!) its just that the taxation level seems so high these days and we seem to be getting so little back for it. in the UK, fuel, cigarettes and alcohol are heavily taxed (its called duty. and its collected not be the Inland Revenue but by HM Customs & Excise who have more power than the Police) Now we pay what i consider to be an inordinate amount of duty on these items - I dont drink or smoke anymore but i still think its way too much. a pint of beer costs approx £2 but 2/3 of that is duty that goes straight to the Govt. a packet of cigarettes costs £5 and above but 4/5 of that goes straight to the Govt. a gallon of petrol costs £5 but 3/5 of that goes straight to the Govt.

now, ignoring the deterrence aspect on tobacco for a second, which is a newer argument, lets have alook at how the Govt manipulates demand for these items. Public transpport in the UK is a sick joke - we are forced into cars because public transport is unreliable, expensive, and unsafe (trains especially) and consequently car ownership and usage is very high in the UK. but the roads are terrible though. the Govt milks this by fleecing the motorist blind. duty on petrol, VAT (sales tax) on fuel, cars, vehicle excise duty, accessories and essential maintenance and isnusrance, MOT test certification ever year, special insurance taxes ion top of VAT, and now toll roads. the money we pay for the upkeep of the raods, well where does that go? seeing as road building is now becoming privateised.

alcohol - a very high level of duty and the Govt is deregulating licencing hours so that people can drink 24/7. already our town centres are drunken hellholes where residents darent venture at nightime. I never go to our town centre, and its a quiet little market town. *fun* pubs, clubs, plying young people with overpriced vodka shots, constant fights and other violence, fast food litter, vandalism, police unable to patrol anywhere else because theyre trying to keep a lid on the drunken town centre violence, and of course there's the cost to the NHS of patching up all the victims of violence and the cost to residents and busnesses of the vandalism. And now the Govt is letting the boozeholes open longer, and allowing under-age kids in. why? to sell more booze because it rakes in the chong to the Govt tax coffers - and thats that. forget all the chaos it causes. there is an excuse that longer opening hours create jobs, but these are always low-paid high-turnover bar jobs. the deregulated drinking regime actually costs more than it makes, but central Govt rake in the money while local Govt foots the bill - ie people like me do through our local taxation, council tax (formerly rates)

and as for tobacco, well, without the high duty on tobacco the NHS would be in serious trouble, and if the Govt was serious about stopping smoking, theyd ban tobacco advertsing in sport - but they dont. why? because people like Bernie Eccleston of Formula 1 are big contributors to the current Govt. it s a disgrace.

average real tax burden for British working people is now about 38%, if you include all the hidden taxes and sales taxes - thats almost half my wage going in tax of one form or another. and I cant get and ambulance or a police car when i need one and my doctor will only see me for 10 minutes then kicks me out. So tell me I'm getting value for money!



Edited by - Tawakalna (Reloaded) on 8/30/2005 9:19:16 AM

I was amazed when I heard that HM C & E makes up 40% of the nations revenue...... and petrol per gallon is coming close to £4.00 at the moment. Its 4.5 litres to the gallon if I am not mistaken, and the current price is nearly at 90p per litre!

I moved back home recently, between tax, rent, council tax, NI, water, elect, gas, phone, internet - I had enough money to live on...........just.

I would probabily never have been able to put a downpayment on a house, get a mortgage for a decent property that isn't a drugs den and travel to work without living on its doorstep unless I did return home. The country is going downhill faster than ever, and we are being charged ever more for the privilege of it.

Edited by - Chips on 8/30/2005 8:28:48 AM

i was going to say, i know you must be struggling. i'm relatively fortunate in that I have a long-standing mortage with plenty of equity, certainly enough for me to sell up, pay off, and move away to France or somewhere and still have plenty of cash left. anyone whos just starting out on an ordinary wage will find it nigh on impossible to buy a house and rent is sky-rocket high even for somewhere thats rough and ready, let alone basic. more and more people in their 20s and 30s are having to stay at home with their parents, soemthing id have found a living hell, i bobbed off when i was 18. which naturally retricts what you can do, makes girlfreind life difficult and also is (to my mind) limiting to personal growth and independence.

yeh sorry keep forgetting that litre bsuiness, £5 a gallon, 4.54 ltres to the gallon at 90p pre litre.

when you told me you were paying about double to 3 times my mortgage just to rent i thought you'd be finding it hard. almost pointless then, isnt it? we've been looking at buying a rural property in the Auvergen or the Massif Central for about 40-50K which after our existing mortage was paid off and budget for 20K renovation would still leave us with 50-70K in the bank. looks like Tawakalnistan may soon be relocated to Central France! not gonna buy anywhere in Britain, you only feel the advantage if you trade down and you know I don't like it here anymore in rip-off Britain. I feel sorry for people like you Chips who feel like I do but are stuck with it - at least i have a choice, for which I'm quite thankful.

Edited by - Tawakalna (Reloaded) on 8/30/2005 9:20:44 AM

it wasn't so much a struggle, it was the 20k of student loan that I have amassed that is the killer. Its a huge debt to start out with, and unfort my degree wasn't strong enough (to much fun, not enough work) to enable me to get into a wage bracket that would allow myself to pay it off, enjoy some luxuries and still start out in life okay.

This was will save me £550 a month in bills basically - and yeah, dating has just gone south for a good while.

Moving to France could be a wise decision. I read something about a future industry burgeoning in France, or something moving to France that should help to pick up their economy - and therefore their unemployment should drop. I cannot exactly remember what it was now though, as I only read it in passing a few months ago.

I just got back from a 2 week sailing holiday in the Ionian, off of the Greek isles (moving back home does have its bonuses after all). Needless to say, I loved the place, the culture and more. The emphasis on the family is incredible - something that I really enjoyed watching. At night, (due to siesta), the shops stay open until about midnight - with people partaking in a "promenade" around the town centres. The place that best highlighted this was Parga, a charming coastal town - with bustling cobbled streets. They shut the streets off to motorcars/vespas - and everyone eats out and then wanders around as a family - window shopping after 8pm.
Kids playing footy, swimming, fishing and running around - parents, teenagers etc all enjoying themselves - without ANY of the malice a group of teenagers brings here. Heck, we left the boat not only unlocked, but with the hatches open as well - you could walk straight in!

No young mothers, no kids smoking, drinking and fighting, no drunks actually! Best yet, no brits either. Everyone was incredibly friendly, laid back and charming.

I also came to the conclusion that the Greeks are the prettiest nation on the planet - I didn't see one fat girl, or even an ugly one! Heck, most of them were drop dead gorgeous.

With just paying ONE mooring fee in the whole 14 days (totaling £1.70), living on a boat could be a lure in future years. Renting out boats to holiday makers (yatchs, not power boats......proper sailing!) can make a very handsome income (large outlay unfortunately) if you are successful, and the life is easy, laid back - and fairly cheap as well.

Essentially, the whole holiday wasn't just fantastic - it made me realise just how disgusting the UK has become. Sadly I will be enduring many years of it for now, so I have just got to make the best of it that I can!

Parga; on the western mainland coast just south of Corfu? very nice if my memory serves me correctly. not as fireclay hot as the Aegean and thus rather less murderous when you're at sea. I didn't know you were a sailor? you never tell me anything!

this house i live in now (as well as the old place where i lived) are both on drilled wells private untreated water. plus i don't see where they get off charging us to use our own bathrooms. really what are they going to do if we don't pay it dig up the septic and lock the toilets