All seven candidates hoping to be elected one of Carroll's three county commissioners would like to cut the property tax rate, but none thinks it can be done -- at least not now.

They agree that preserving agricultural farmland is the county's top priority, but they differ slightly on how to achieve that goal.

They differ too about whether the county can absorb 1,000 new residential units a year and about whether it should raise impact fees on new home construction.

All have reservations about the planning commission's proposed Master Plan to guide the county's growth, and most think it was appropriate to table it until the new commissioners are elected.

Most think the commissioners have a right not to reappoint someone to boards and commissions if the person votes contrary to their wishes.

Of the seven candidates, only Robin Bartlett Frazier, a Manchester Republican, has made it her goal to cut property taxes. But she does not foresee a decrease for at least a year.

"I'm interested in cutting property taxes, but I can't say that we can do that until I see the budget," Frazier said. "It would probably not happen for a year to 18 months. But it is my goal to cut property taxes.

"I think we could prioritize the infrastructure needs, cut elsewhere and rearrange time frames. We would still get things done, but it might take a little longer," Frazier said.

Incumbent Donald I. Dell, a Westminster Republican who voted in 1996 to raise the property tax rate 27 cents, to $2.62 per $100 of assessed value, said the county cannot cut taxes if the state continues to withhold money previously shared with the county.

"The only way to cut property taxes is if the state restored the funds it took away from us that made us increase property taxes in the first place," Dell said.

Democrat Perry L. Jones Jr., mayor of Union Bridge, said, "Everybody would like to cut property taxes," but it is unlikely to happen unless the county is able to build its industrial tax base to about 15 percent of revenues. That base is now less than 12 percent, the lowest in the region.

Julia Walsh Gouge, a Hampstead Republican and former two-term commissioner, agrees, saying she does not foresee a tax decrease without a corresponding increase in the county's industrial and commercial base.

"It is irresponsible to say you will lower the tax rate unless you are going to give up other programs," Gouge said. "We have to continue to fund economic development, looking at the worldwide market. We have to say, 'County government wants your business.' No one will know we are here unless we advertise."

Westminster Democrat Roger Larry Mann said he hopes the county can find a way to reduce what he says are "the highest taxes in the Baltimore area" but doubts that could be done without "citizen-based budgeting" -- a program he says would "match our needs with the citizens' willingness to pay for them."

Independent candidate Carolyn Fairbank of Eldersburg is another who thinks a tax break is unlikely. "I'd love to lower taxes; who wouldn't?" she said. "But the best thing to do now is hold the line."

Maxine C. Wooleyhand, a Sykesville Democrat, said she would meet with all county department heads to try to streamline services with the aim of reducing taxes.

One of the places the candidates want to spend the county's money is in farmland preservation.

"I believe that the vast majority of county residents want some kind of agricultural preservation," Frazier said. "It should be a priority. I think we should get matching funds from the state and from individual trusts -- people who want to preserve farmland and are willing to put their money where their mouth is."

Mann holds a similar opinion. "We are basically preserving 2,000 [acres] a year at a cost of about $4 million," he said. "It's a great program, but I have a problem with the implementation of a transfer tax to fund it."

The county should get more preservation money from two statewide programs -- Rural Legacy and the Maryland Environmental Trust, Mann said. He also favors beginning a program like one in Lancaster County, Pa., "in which various organizations are helping raise funds for agricultural preservation. We must give some serious thought to that."

Dell and Gouge, both longtime county residents, favor bond sales to buy easements that would keep farms out of development.

"I would rather see the county sell bonds for agricultural preservation than for road repairs," Dell said. "That [practice] should be reversed."

Dell estimates it would cost the county between $7 million and $7.5 million to buy easements on 3,626 acres from farmers who are "ready to sell," and another $30 million to $35 million to buy easements on 17,000 acres in preservation districts.

Properties must be in a preservation district before the county can purchase easements to keep the properties out of development.

4 Gouge favors funding preservation over 20 years.

"We need to act aggressively," she said. "We need to preserve land all over the county, but you have to pay to have those beautiful rolling hills. What you pay for farmland is cheap in comparison to what you have to pay for infrastructure. Houses take schools, roads and services. A farm stands on its own."

Wooleyhand and Fairbank, who live in the most rapidly growing part of the county, want to raise the county's residential impact ,, fees. But the other candidates do not.

"I want to see the people coming into the county pay," said Wooleyhand. "I am still paying for water problems that started in the '70s. I don't want to spend the rest of my life paying."

Fairbank agrees. "It's about time we increased impact fees," she said. "For years, the fee was minimal. Today, it's vital, but it only pays for 75 percent of the infrastructure. It's time development paid for itself."

But Jones called the fees "high enough. It is getting difficult to afford new houses."

Dell agrees. "Our fees are extremely high in housing developments, increasing the cost of a house," he said. "We have to be reasonable with these fees."

Gouge said she would like housing to be more affordable, especially for young families and first-time buyers.

"I didn't vote for an increase my last time in office," she said. "The fee was $150 for years and then it jumped. It needs to stay there. We need schools, but all this should not come onto the price of a home."

Mann would change the fee structure and assess on the basis of square footage rather than housing type. "A dwelling of 4,000 square feet is going to have a greater impact than one of 1,200 to 1,300 square feet," he said. "Some townhouses have more square footage than detached homes."

Dell and Frazier believe the county's new adequate-facilities law will ensure that the county can absorb 1,000 new residential units a year, but Wooleyhand and Fairbank disagree.

The adequate-facilities law "is not worth the paper it's written on," said Fairbank. "No subdivision has been denied since it went into effect in March. Developers have been given carte blanche to go forward with subdivisions unimpeded."

"The infrastructure must be in place" before development can go forward, Wooleyhand said. "I would try to reduce the number of lots" approved each year until that has occurred, she said.

Gouge is willing to give the adequate-facilities plan a year before she decides whether it works. But, she said, "If infrastructure does not keep up, growth must be slowed."

Mann also would take time to evaluate the adequate-facilities law. "We have to give it some time to see if it can work," he said. "We first have to work within that."

The issue for Jones is not how much growth, but where it will occur. "We have a lot of acres with no new highways where schools and fire departments need improvements," he said. "There are certain areas where development is appropriate, but a lot of areas where it isn't."

Only Jones and Frazier would have acted on the proposed master plan when the planning commission sent it to the commissioners early last month. Frazier said she would have voted against it; Jones would have voted for it.

"There are problems with the master plan, but it should have been passed with amendments as needed," Jones said. "Residents put in many hours helping develop the plan in order to accommodate everybody, but the results have so far been ignored. Residents aren't going to be so willing to give of their time next time."

Dell, who led the move last month to leave the master plan to the next board, said the commissioners would not have enough time to spend on it.

At the time, all three commissioners were running for election. Dell made a list of "three pages of concerns" in the 125-page document, he said.

"For example, it says that the industrial base 'shall' be 12 percent," Dell said. "There is no way we can enforce that. I cannot accept it."

Mann has reservations about the plan and had recommended that it be held over for the new board of commissioners. "In the late '80s, the industrial base was 17 percent," said Mann. "I'm not sure going with 12 percent is going to be enough to prevent additional tax increases. We need citizen input."

Gouge wants time for more comment from residents. The commissioners "should have at least brought the master plan out so people could have heard more," she said. "Discussion would have given the public a better understanding. As it is now, the plan is no longer in the process."

Only Fairbank felt commissioners Dell and Richard T. Yates erred when they failed to reappoint former Board of Zoning Appeals Chairman James L. Schumacher to the board, demoting him to alternate status. At the time, Yates said he was dissatisfied with Schumacher's vote against Landowners Association President Ed Primhoff.

"I don't believe appointees are there to further a commissioner's agenda," Fairbank said. But Frazier, who had been a Dell appointee to the planning commission, had a different view.

"Elected officials are entrusted to make decisions about appointments and to appoint people with the same ideology -- people you know," she said. "If you find at the time of reappointments that they are not doing the job, it's a very good time to make a change."

Dell said Yates wanted to promote alternate Ronald Hoff to Schumacher's seat and that he went along with it. "This was not an issue of credibility," Dell said. "We made him an alternate, and he will still sit on the board and make decisions from time to time. He is a good man."

Mann wants the county to advertise each vacancy on an appointed board or commission and allow residents to apply to fill it, including those who might be seeking reappointment.

"I would hope appointments would be made openly," said Gouge. "I don't think anyone should stay on a board indefinitely. With 150,000 people, we have a lot of qualified people.

"I would like to revamp the process and make citizens feel they all have a chance to serve. It would get more people involved in the process."

Pub Date: 10/25/98