VIDEO: Maryland Dem Gov Candidate Rushern Baker Tries To Downplay His Attempts To Raise Property Taxes

Maryland Democrat gubernatorial candidate Rushern Baker knows that his history of supporting major tax hikes could seriously damage his campaign governor. That’s why Baker is now disingenuously rushing to downplay his record, even though the facts show that he fought to raise his county’s property taxes by over $100 million to the “highest” rate in the state.

At a recent candidate’s forum in Annapolis, Baker admitted that he expects to be attacked over his record of trying to push tax hikes. In an attempt to downplay his 2015 property tax hike proposal, Baker remarked, “I tried one time to raise the property taxes, which I’m sure I’ll see in a commercial, by fifteen cents. In a county that’s fairly wealthy.” Watch here.

Baker would have you believe that his property tax hike attempt was small, at just “fifteen cents.” That’s far from the truth.

The Baltimore Sun reported at the time that Baker was actually proposing a tax hike what would increase the property tax by “15 percent…from 96 cents to $1.11 per $100 of assessable property.” Baker also proposed “higher personal property and telecommunications tax rates.” When Baker talks about a fifteen-cent hike, he’s means fifteen cents on the dollar.

This is a clear case of Baker engaging in revisionist history, and it’s only just the beginning of Baker’s troubling record on property tax hikes. The Washington Post reports that Baker faced a “firestorm of opposition” from homeowners after he proposed his tax hike because it would have ended a 35-year cap on property tax rates and given Prince George’s county “the highest tax rate in the state.”

Fighting to give Prince George’s county “the highest tax rate in the state.” That’s Rushern Baker’s real record on property taxes.