When Ken Robinson ran in 2010 to be a commissioner in Charles County, Maryland, he told the local Realtors’ lobby in writing that he wouldn’t raise real estate taxes that can increase the purchase price of a home.
“We need to make it easier for qualified individuals to be able to buy into the American dream of homeownership,” he wrote in answers to a questionnaire from the Southern Maryland Association of Realtors (SMAR). “Increases in transfer taxes, recordation stamp taxes, excise taxes, or impact fees are market entry barriers.”
Mr. Robinson wasn’t alone. Just last year, Amanda Stewart was recorded as making a similar promise in a handwritten form submitted to the same Realtors group before she won her first term to the Charles County Commission.
But last month, Mr. Robinson and Ms. Stewart cast the deciding votes when the commission voted 3-2 to create a 0.5 percent real estate transfer tax, touching off a firestorm among angry home owners and buyers in the suburban Washington, D.C., community.
The June 25 vote has renewed the debate over what recourse voters have when politicians go back on their word.
It’s an issue that dates back decades, to when President George H.W. Bush welched on his infamous “read my lips” promise not to raise taxes in 1988, and one that surfaced more recently when President Obama’s chief campaign strategist revealed in a book that the president deceived the country in 2008 when he declared he opposed gay marriage.
Some in Charles County — which already has one of the highest real estate tax burdens in Maryland — are studying their options, including early discussion of launching a recall effort.
“It’s kind of like the president flip-flopping on gay marriage. The question then becomes when can you believe these guys? Obviously, you can’t,” said Chris Cherest, a spokesman for the Charles County Republican Central Committee.
Mr. Robinson said he did not consider his signed questionnaire a formal pledge to oppose a property tax increase and stood by his vote on the budget.
“One thing you learn when you enter office is you have to entertain all options to balance a budget, and for this upcoming fiscal year, the transfer tax impacted the least amount of citizens to accomplish that,” he said.
This is not the first time Mr. Robinson had gone back on his word on property taxes, said Paula Martino, SMAR’s government affairs director.
Ms. Martino said that after Mr. Robinson signed the questionnaire and was first elected in 2010, “he voted to raise the property tax rate on real estate three times and also voted to raise the income tax rate once during 2010-2014. Given that Commissioner Robinson’s actions did not match his words, we did not endorse him for re-election in 2014.”
Ms. Stewart declined comment when contacted at her home about the transfer tax. A spokeswoman said her office had no record of the commissioner submitting the questionnaire. When The Times sent the spokeswoman a copy of the handwritten form, the spokeswoman suggested it was inaccurate but offered no further explanation.
Officials at the Maryland Realtors group insist they collected the form directly from Ms. Stewart’s campaign last year, and confirmed her commitment to not raise the transfer tax.
Anti-tax pledges, history shows, are some of the most commonly broken political promises.
During his 2008 presidential campaign, for instance, Mr. Obama declared that “I can make a firm pledge” that no family making less than $250,000 would see any form of tax increase.
Just 16 days into his first term, Mr. Obama raised cigarette taxes and then imposed a broad spectrum of tax increases under the Affordable Care Act.
One of America’s most famous anti-tax crusaders say it is essential to hold politicians to account each and every time they break a promise.
“I think it’s one of the things to remind people about that he lied his way into office, that he didn’t keep his word,” said Grover Norquist, president of American’s for Tax Reform and creator of the “Taxpayer Protection Pledge,” which binds signing politicians to an agreement to oppose any form of tax increase and has become a rite of passage for Republican candidates.
Very few candidates who have signed the tax pledge have broken it, and those who have, including former President George H.W. Bush, have not fared well in ensuing elections.
When accepting his nomination at the 1988 Republican National Convention, Mr. Bush famously promised, “Read my lips: no new taxes.”
Two years later, in a compromise with congressional Democrats, Mr. Bush agreed to raise taxes in exchange for spending cuts to balance the budget deficit. Mr. Norquist believes that decision cost Bush 41 a second term in the White House, opening the door for Republican Pat Buchanan to launch a damaging primary campaign that focused on the issue.
More recently, then-Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a veteran Georgia Republican, broke from Mr. Norquist in 2012 and the tax pledge he signed during debt talks. Mr. Chambliss explained at the time he was more worried about solving the growing crisis of America’s mounting debt than keeping his word on the pledge.
The vast majority of politicians who sign the tax pledge, however, have kept their word. Mr. Norquist explained that the reason his pledge is so effective is that it is a simple, written and signed promise that is made public for voters to see and hold their candidates accountable.
He explained that, too often, politicians will use vague language to dismiss a shift on tax policy, and that led to the creation of the pledge.
“Politicians have been saying for thousands of years, ’I won’t raise your taxes’ and then they do. Then when someone challenges them on it, they say ’find it.’
“Even if you find it, they will say, ’Well, read the whole speech. You will see that I said I cherish education in this paragraph, and over here I said now is not the time to raise taxes, but that was three years ago,’” Mr. Norquist said. “What they actually said was ’I’d rather not raise your taxes. Now is not the right time.’ None of those are promises not to raise your taxes.”
So far in the 2016 race for the White House, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina have signed Mr. Norquist’s tax pledge.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the son of a president who broke the pledge, has pointedly not signed it so far.
Ms. Martino said the SMAR’s questionnaire may not carry the same weight as a signed pledge like Mr. Norquist’s, but that candidates’ responses should be truthful and honest since they help guide voters’ decisions.
“SMAR’s questionnaires should be considered a well-thought-out document, consistent with our published public policies and developed by a constituent group of professionals who live and own businesses in the counties where candidates are seeking to be elected to local office,” Ms. Martino said.
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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