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<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Apartments pay a lot less in property taxes (per family) than do single family homes.</FONT></div>
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<FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT><div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Property taxes on houses in our town run about $1,500 per home,</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> and only about $280 per apartment! (This is the Riverdale Park </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> portion of the property taxes).</FONT></div>
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<FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT><div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> True, apartments do not get trash pickup, but they do get all the </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> other town services. Trash pickup is less than 15% of our budget, </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> so apartments get about 85% of the town's services while paying </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> less than 20% of the taxes.</FONT></div>
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<FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT><div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Strangely, large apartment buildings are currently exempt from the </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> town's rental license fee. We should establish a </FONT><b><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> per apartment </FONT></b></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> rental license fee that applies to all apartments.</FONT></div>
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<FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT><div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> If such a fee were just $10/month per apt ($120/year) that would </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> generate about $100,000 in revenue. I think it should be even higher.</FONT></div>
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<FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT><div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> (To be fair, the fee should be less for smaller buildings, say those </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> with 30 or fewer units, as smaller buildings pay proportionally more </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> property taxes per unit than do the larger buildings.)</FONT></div>
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<FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT><div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> There are other taxes that might be more equitable too.</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Such as a utility tax (Hyattsville has one, we do not).</FONT></div>
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<FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT><div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Rob Oppenheim</FONT></div>
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