the ignorance of the constituents and the political conscience of elected officials to thwart the 2012 bill to his advantage. A barragge of ads featuring the “rain tax” ran everywhere in the state. These ads ridiculed the bill and its supporters, including the Democratic candidate, who was the state’s Lieutenant Governor. He also promised not to implement any new taxes and to repeal the “rain tax”.
Hogan won the election. He carried all rural counties that would probably had voted Republican anyway. But he also won some of the traditional Democratic counties like Howard. He immediately went about repealing the storm water fees, which he accomplished in his first year of office. Advice from this author and many others was not heeded.
Since then, Ellicott City has suffered two catastrophic floods, one in 2016 and a worse one this past Sunday. It is obvious that a bill passed in 2012, even if not repealed, would not have made any difference. But the real issue is this. Howard County lost six years it could have used to establish more technically sound policies addressing storm water runoff.
So, who is going to pay for Ellicott City’s flood?
The governor and the legislature will probably not increase taxes in an election year. Any assistance by the state would have to come from emergency funds. So, as indicated by Hogan during his 2014 campaign, any tax increase would have to come at the county level. One wonders how much of the benefits the county received by being development-friendly will be upset by the costs of the floods. Penny wise and pound foolish would have said one of our founding fathers.'
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