Larry Hogan to roll back $50 million in Maryland state fees

Hundreds of Maryland state fees will be rolled back or eliminated in an effort to save taxpayers more than $50 million over the next five years, Gov. Larry Hogan announced Thursday.

The more than 100 fees cut across multiple agencies include reducing the cost of obtaining a homeless identification card, reducing the cost of vehicle emission test fees and eliminating license fees to post advertisements on state roads. There will also be an additional 115 fee cuts in the Maryland Department of Agriculture alone, which accounts for the planned 20 percent across-the-board reduction in lab fees for animal health diagnostics.

These fee rollbacks come on the heels of the governor’s announcement in July that he would be eliminating the E-Z Pass maintenance fees.

“With the $5.9 million we already announced when we eliminated the E-Z Pass fees in July combined with today’s announcement, we will be reducing fees by $51 million over the next five years,” Mr. Hogan said.

The fees that were cut will not affect any agency’s ability to do their jobs properly, Mr. Hogan said. Rather, he said departments had been collecting more money than necessary to provide services, “or in other words, overcharging taxpayers.” He hopes to continue the feel rollbacks, but says that he will need support from the Democratic-controlled state legislature.

But considering the state has a $40 billion annual budget and an even larger economy, cutting fees amounting to $10 million a year for five years will not create any tangible effect in stimulating the economy, Benjamin Orr, the executive director of the Maryland Center on Economic Policy, said.

“This amount is not the sort of thing that will have a significant positive or negative effect on the state’s economy because it might save a little bit of money for individuals here and there, but it’s going to be a very, very small amount that ends up back in the pockets of any individual Marylanders,” Mr. Orr said. “It may mean an extra night out at the movies or something like that, but it’s not going to have a huge impact on Maryland families.”

This move to cut all these fees makes good on the governor’s promise to reduce state spending and put more money in the hands of Marylanders, but may have consequences when it comes to allocating money in the state budget come January, Mr. Orr said.

But Mr. Hogan thinks the money is going where it should be going: into the hands of the people who earned it. He cited farmers, small business owners, single parents, struggling families and homeless children as Marylanders who would benefit from these fee rollbacks.

“By allowing Marylanders to keep more of their hard-earned money, rather than sending it to bureaucrats in Annapolis, they will have the chance to put those dollars back into our state’s economy,” Mr. Hogan said. “No longer will Maryland’s government ask, ’how much can we get?’ but will instead ask, ’how much can we give back?’”